Using Two X-Arcade Duo's for 4 player possible?

[eastbayarb]

Is it possible to use two X-Arcade Duo's for 4 player games?

Thanx

[Necro]

It would require either using an X-arcade as a keyboard on the first X-arcade or using the USB adapter.

I think it (theoretically) would be possible.  Contact them and find out...let us know .

[digitalpackrat]

yes it is possible to use them together for 4 player games.  if ur playing it on a console system nothing extra is needed except the right adapters for that console.  for the pc you will have to have at least one of them connect through usb and you will also have to reprogram the buttons on the 2nd duo because all the keys are set to the same letters of the keyboard on each duo but you have 3 extra slots for preprogramed key settings.  thats what i used with my arcade, but i took my duos apart and put them inside a box i built myself for a complete looking 4 player controler

[eastbayarb]

yes it is possible to use them together for 4 player games.  if ur playing it on a console system nothing extra is needed except the right adapters for that console.  for the pc you will have to have at least one of them connect through usb and you will also have to reprogram the buttons on the 2nd duo because all the keys are set to the same letters of the keyboard on each duo but you have 3 extra slots for preprogramed key settings.  thats what i used with my arcade, but i took my duos apart and put them inside a box i built myself for a complete looking 4 player controler

Do you have any pics of your setup? I thought about getting a blank slikstik quad and putting the insides of the 2 x-arcade duos in there (my cab is currently fitted with a BYOAC x-arcade duo).

[digitalpackrat]

the hole on the side is where i mounted the switch to go between to the saved button configurations (it needs to be in the original configuration for console games and then switched for games on the PC)


here's a link to my little documention for the build of my cab.  a word of advice don't "test" out the cab until you have completed it.  mine is still wip   finally started working on it again, putting the doors on the front and adding the coin doors
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=42121.0

[eastbayarb]

digitalpackrat,

that's amazing!

Yea, I have currently a 2 player setup. I bought a modified Aero City Cab with monitor, sound, and it has a BYOAC X-Arcade Duo housed in the control panel. I eventually wanna do what you are in the process of doing, but I wanna add a spinner, 2 trackballs, 2 topfire sticks, 1 or 2 flight sticks to the 4 player control panel. I'd like to also add maybe a few more buttons for pause, tab, enter.

great pix!

I hope maybe you can do a tutorial so I can have something that you have!

[digitalpackrat]

the only 2 commercially available products i'm familar with that will work on both current console systems and the pc are the x-arcade and the quasimoto but the quasimoto is 2 player only and if i remember correctly the quasimoto is not sold only as a controller only as a complete cab (here's a pic of the quasimoto controller, would have been cool if they sold it separately because it actually comes with both digital and analog controls)


are you sure you really need all those controls?  what do you need 2 trackballs for?  it is gonna be seriously cluttered or a massively huge frankenpannel.

I tried to cheap out on the trackball and get a desktop trackball and make my own mounting bracket but it didn't work out too well.  went with the happ trackball and mounting bracket which is the way I should have gone all along (the x-arcade trackball wasn't out so I don't know if it is any good but I read its pretty good)

if ya have any specific questions i'll do the best I can to answer them but as for a tutorial there isn't much to the build.  I used the x-arcade so the wiring was already done.  I just took it apart and cut and added wire where ever I needed extra length to reach a mounted pieces.  One of the hardest things to do was probably take the damn x-arcade apart because the nuts that hold the controllers in place are "glued" in with lock-tight which can be scraped off but it takes awhile but was well worth it because it allowed me to add a trackball and give me more room for multiple people around the arcade.

A word of advice, when making the control pannel make sure to do a test piece or two first to make sure you get the spacing of the holes right and feeling.

I'm not sure exactly how you would go about adding extra buttons for pause tab and enter, i've been thinking about that myself.  the only thing I can think of (besides adding an extra keyboard encoder which I'm not even sure you can have "3" keyboards attached to one PC, could be wrong though) is to map the unused keys on player 4 controller to those buttons since most 4 player arade games only use 2-4 buttons anyways and you'll have 8 plus you could add those buttons to the top of the control pannel by just splitting the line and running the cable to dedicated buttons at the top of the control pannel and also put the buttons at the same place as the rest of the player 4 buttons so you have them there for console games that may need them.

i havn't tried it so i'm just brainstorming on the last idea and this one but I wonder if there is a software program out there that will allow someone to map 2 button presses to act as a single different button press (such as pushing up and the start button, i.e. 8 + 1 and the software tells the computer that you are actually pressing the esc key) then the extra buttons would not be nessessary

I havn't gotten too far into playing with the controller much with the PC.  I've got it primarily setup to do so but have just used the keyboard i've got built in under the controller for those keys.  I've been primarily playing console games esp tekken 5  that is the greatest arcade game

[digitalpackrat]

the software remap sounded interesting and I decided to look it up and after only a few minutes of looking I actually found one (its not free, $20, and doesn't let you remap any key presses but it does let you remap quite a few key presses)
it'll let you remap any combination of: the windows key, alt key, ctrl key, and any other key press to nearly any key you want so you can setup ctrl + 2 to the esc key i.e. the 2nd button on the top row and the 2nd player start button on the x-arcade to the esc key.  one cool thing with the program you can remap 2 key presses to raise and lower the volume similar to the volume control on a keyboard, same with mute.
but if i found this that quickly i wouldn't doubt if there's a free version out there or one that lets you remap any combination of key presses to whatever you want.  here's what I found so far
http://www.aquariussoft.com/pc-keyboard-hotkey/

[eastbayarb]

digitalpackrat,

thanx for the advice. I have questions:

1. Since there really are no 4 player games that use any more than 4 buttons, that leaves me with 4 extra buttons to work with as far as player 3 and 4 so each can be assigned to what I want (Ctrl, Enter, Tab, Pause), so all I would have to do is maybe relocate those extra buttons to somewhere else on the control panel?

2. I have seen a 2 trackball setup, which lead me to believe there are 2 player trackball games. One that comes to mind is Cabal (which is one of my all time favorite 2 player games). Do you know of any 2 player trackball games?

3. Do you have measurements of your control panel?

4. Are there any 2 player flight stick games?

5. With this config, how would I add two topfire sticks (I have seen a slikstik with 4 in addition to 4 8-way sticks which is beyond me since I can only think of 2 games that are 2 player that would use dual sticks)?

6. Would two X-Arcade duo's both connected via USB work?

thank you!

[digitalpackrat]

1.  while there are no arcade games that i'm aware of that use more than 4 buttons there are console 4 player games that use all the buttons of the controller such as sport games.  The only other 4 player game I have is dead or alive ultimate box set for the xbox that claims is 4 player but i havn't played it as such (only played it 2 player so far), but it does use all the buttons.  if your not into sport games there are not many that I can think of that need more than 4 buttons.

2. definently plan out your control pannel as best you can way before making the first cut.  you have to make sure you can fit all the controls you want in it and you have to alot room for the base of each of the controlers.  a good thing to do is start by making a mockup with cardboard (its free which is a great price and easy to modify, you can get some big pieces for free at warehouse stores like costco, just ask someone that works there they will be happy to hook you up) I have never seen/played cabal nor have i seen any arcade games with dual trackballs but it is definenly possible to add it to the control pannel if you want it.  it'll hook up usb anyways.   wait...  i think i read somewhere that windows doesn't support multiple mice, you might want to do some research on this.

3.  (L x W x H)  48" x 17 3/4" x 5 1/4"  i couldn't really make the length any shorter having a trackball in-between the 4 controllers  if you notice from the pics my controls are very close together
 
4.  I do not like flight games that much so i'm not much help there

5.  i know when i was doing my research on the x-arcade joysticks i read that you can for sure use nearly any joystick in place of the ones it comes with i'm not sure how you would do the top fire button (unless of course you decide on only having 4 buttons for the 3/4 player or you put that button on another keyboard encoder that you will have to get anyways in order to add dedicated 4 way joysticks

6.  not neccessarily.  you can set one up using the ps2 adapter it came with but if you do a keyboard will have to attached to it at all times which for me was not a big deal since my keyboard was directly below the controller but the 2nd one for sure has to be connected usb.

for me my arcade favorites were fighting games like mortal kombat 2, teenage mutant ninja turtles and final fight and they only needed 8 way controls and then my fav bar game golden tee so the trackball was a must.  I love ms. pac man but didn't grow up with it so don't really care if i'm playing it on an 8 way controller, it does mess up occasionally but with a little getting used to it I rarely ever have any problem using an 8 way controler on ms. pac man.  suposedly you can change the adapter on the x-arcade joystick to act as a 4 way adapter by switching the black piece that is under the base of the controller attached to the shaft.  I havn't done it and it is not a restrictor so it can still be pushed on an angle but because the way that piece pushes against the directional buttons it won't touch 2 directions at the same time allowing for movements only in a single direction.  i do remember seeing restrictor plates for sale on oscarcontrols.com before they closed which when installed forced an 8 way controller only to move in 4 directions so they do exist but not sure where to get them at.

[digitalpackrat]

here's a way to reduce at least the dedicated 4 way off the control pannel so it won't be too cluttered.  you can replace at least one of the x-arcade joysticks with one of these that have the restrictor plate built in that restricts movements to up down left right when the restrictor is in place (and its still hidden) and then works normally in 8 way mode when its removed.
http://www.ultimarc.com/controls.html