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Has anyone thought of this?
Lilwolf:
I would want it to work on my 4player cabinet. I might also add a led under the joysticks themselfs.
but I would want it to handle (if it could). 2 joysticks with 4 buttons each (3 and 4) and 2 joysticks with 7 buttons each (1 and 2)
So a simple parrallel wouldn't work well....
u_rebelscum:
Coming from the software side, just to complicate things: ;) How would you handle games that you reassign the buttons you use?
Example: A four button game on a six-in-a-rectangle buttons control panel usually mapps to a sideways 'L'. But you remapped the buttons to a square for some games.
To work with this, you would read the .cfg files, or remap the buttons only using the ctrlr\*.ini files and read those files, no? Or is there a better way?
Carsten Carlos:
--- Quote ---carsten could probably help with that ;D
--- End quote ---
Maybe I should change my pseudo to "LED-man" - or, if cdbrown starts his work on the buttons, he should ;D
--- Quote ---How would you handle games that you reassign the buttons you use?
--- End quote ---
I would export a list with sort-info including how much buttons are used, and take that as default in a .ini for your frontend-extension.
Then you just manipulate the .ini for the games where you've reassigned the buttons - so you've still full control for every game.
Can't be to hard to find a good interface that is already made, but I don't know how much functionalities (at least motor rotation, also need inputs to control the position and to find out which of the swappable control panels is in) I'll need so I haven't looked around for that.
Frostillicus:
would this interface do the trick? looks to have 24 discrete connections using a pci board. came across it yesterday during some searches. ordering looks a little weird, though - no secure server. :P
www.boondog.com
Carsten: Saw your site, pretty excellent. Is that rotating monitor mount a manufactured one from somewhere, a kit, from plans, etc? You say you got in on Ebay and I'm intrigued by the picture. Just wondering if it's available somewhere else. Thanks ;D
1UP:
Whoa, what have I done? :o I think I was one of the people to get this whole "LED in every button" thing started, but I've pretty much abandoned the idea as being un-arcadelike. I still plan to have LEDs in the start buttons though. (Sure wish I could find some Atari start buttons to hack!)
Anyway, one of the things I was considering is exactly what you're talking about. I quickly discarded the notion of lighting the buttons to be used for basically one reason--you first need to create a database of button maps for every friggin game!!! Also, for my panel, it meant wiring up a LOT of individial wires for the LEDs, and having to interface that.
My new plan is to just use Raging Dragon with something like the BFD skin, and actually make a graphic representing the control setup, that will become a part of each screenshot. That way, when you select a game in RD, you see not only the marquee and screen for the game, but the joystick and button layout needed for the game. Of course, this all goes away once you start the game, but it will work better for me since I am using a rotating control panel, and so may be using an entirely different set of controls (yokes, guns, trackballs, trigger sticks) from one game to the next.
But if the LED thing works, it would be great. Keep us posted as to how it goes!