Controlling GameLauncher with Gamepad

[BriceM]

Hello everyone!  This looks like such a fun community. 

I've recently started working on my first mod/hardware project: I am trying to put a computer inside of an old NES so that I can run games off of it.  Things are coming together, but I've run into my first snag...

I'm using GameLauncher for the front end, which is great because it's very simple and does what I need, minus one thing: In the config files, there is a way to set different keys for all of the functions, and it claims to have gamepad support.  I can use the gamepad to move up and down the list, and select a game to play.

However, I can't for the life of me figure out how to use the gamepad to select a different emulator.  There is no variable in the config file for this, only a variable for selecting which keyboard key to use to select a different emulator.  I was confounded when I even tried getting a program that maps gamepad presses to keyboard presses, but that didn't work either (apparently GameLauncher just eats the input??).  I really don't want to have to switch to the keyboard when I'm playing games to do this...

I'm afraid to switch to another frontend because GL is really everything I could want, and others like Mamewah were WAY over my head.

Any ideas on how I can configure GameLauncher to be controlled entirely with a gamepad?

Thanks in advance!

[DaOld Man]

The default in glaunch.cfg for emulators is 98 and 100, which I think is player 1 action buttons 1 and 2 on a mame layout.
The default for left and right is page up and page down.
Does your game pad page up and down when you move left and right?
if so, just switch the numbers around in glaunch.cfg to using the left and right to be next emulator and prev emulator.

Example:
Default:

# Default: Left Arrow = 82
page_up_key = 82

# Default: Right Arrow = 83
page_down_key = 83

# Default: 1 = 28
play_game_key = 28

# Default: Left Control = 98
next_emulator_key = 98

# Default: ALT = 100
previous_emulator_key = 100

could be made:

# Default: Left Arrow = 82
page_up_key = 100

# Default: Right Arrow = 83
page_down_key = 98

# Default: 1 = 28
play_game_key = 28

# Default: Left Control = 98
next_emulator_key = 83

# Default: ALT = 100
previous_emulator_key = 82

Edit: I forgot to welcome you to the board. Welcome!!!!!

[BriceM]

Nope, no luck.  That just made the left and right keys do next emulator+pageup/down, while the left and right gamepad presses still just did page up and page down.

It seems like the gamepad input is hard coded or something...

Edit: Yes, left and right on the gamepad does do page up and page down.  With the keyboard-mapping program I said, I actually got it so that gamepad presses would type "a" in notepad, and pressing "a" on the keyboard would switch emulators, but pressing the gamepad still would not. 

[DaOld Man]

For some reason, I didnt have the scancode.txt in my glaunch folder, but I did find it on the net:

Click here

Looks like the code for A is 1. You might try playing around with the numbers.

[BriceM]

Still no luck...none of the scancodes refer to a gamepad, and even when I map gamepad presses to a key and set the key to change emulators, it doesn't work.

Can you recommend any other incredibly basic front end programs?  MameWah terrified me, but maybe there are others that still look decent and are easy to configure?

[DaOld Man]

Sorry about the late answer to this.
My first front end was GLaunch, and I was really happy with it. So much so that I even wrote a program for it to allow you to make favorites lists.
But GLaunch is no longer being updated or supported, so it has kinda got left behind.
My favorite front end now is Mala. Its pretty easy to set up and you can make it look just like game launcher.

There is a support forum on here for Mala. Check it out.
I think you would be happy with it.