dreamcast keyboard question

[jakejake28]

i saw something about this in a previous thread, but could not find the exact thread. i have a cabinet, with an i-pac 4, and i saw somthing about a keyboard to dreamcast adaptor. would this work with my current panel ( i use ps/2) and become interchangable with my pc and dreamcast. thanx in advance.

of, i forgot. i need to play soul calibur, doa2, and virtua fighter 3 tb with joystick

[tom61]

It'll work, but for only one player. You need either a Total Control 2 or a Smart Joy 2 adapter, no other adapters will work.

This is where I ordered my Smart Joy 2:
http://www.baysoftgames.com/baysoftgames/dreamtoplaya.html

[armad1ll0]

I have one that I'm not using. NEW
$10 plush shipping/h

That or you can buy a Sega DC keyboard off me as well.

I can sell you a new custom joystick also.

[jakejake28]

thanks tom61, but does that mean that even with the smart joy 2 i could still use just one player. wouldn't i be able to use as many buttons as there are keys, even if 4 keys are assigned to the joysticks.

and armad1ll0, i really appreciate the offer, but no thanks, i already have a control panel, and i will buy that new if it works to my purpose.

[armad1ll0]

no that shouldn't work. The Dreamcast is looking for true controller imputs and not DC keyboard strokes for fighting games.

[tom61]

thanks tom61, but does that mean that even with the smart joy 2 i could still use just one player.

You need one Smart Joy 2 per player, since all of them have the same keymapping, you also need a keyboard encoder for each player. If you use two keyboard encoders for your four player panel, you could disconnect them from each other, and program a shift function into one to give it the right keymapping. Then you could have 2 players at least.

no that shouldn't work. The Dreamcast is looking for true controller imputs and not DC keyboard strokes for fighting games.

Other keyboard adapters such as the Total Control 5, Dreamconnect 3-in-1, can't. However, the Total Control 2 and Smart Joy 2 have a very special feature that makes the DC see the keyboard as a joypad, making it compatable with all games. I was able to play Skies of Arcadia, which has no keyboard support with it fine.

[AX]

the xarcade supports 2 players with one adapter.  If someone could reverse engineer it we could make our own adapter for the ipac.