good controllers to hack

[jon]

Its my first time making an arcade stick. Can anyone suggest any good pads to hack for beginners? Also how do you locate the ground on a non labelled pad? thanks!

[hyiu]

try sidewinder gamepad...
they're cheap (about $5 each online...)
easy to hack... (everything labelled...)
and you can search for detailed doc on this site showing how to do it....  

and you can daisy chain it up to 4... (but I think this is only Windows Me, and Windows 95/98...)

daisy chain might have pblm with Windows 2000.....

[Grasshopper]

Can you suggest anything else? Sidewinders are quite expensive in the UK where I live.

I've bought an IPAC for a two player panel I'm building. However I would also like to make some one player panels that can be daisychained. I think buying more IPACs would be overkill for this.

Ideally I'd like something that can be used through the Keyboard port and also USB (like the IPAC). I am using MAME through DOS and therefore can't use USB at present. However I'd like to have the USB option in case I switch operating systems in future.

Thanks in advance

[hyiu]

if gameport sidewinder is expensive in UK... then what kind of pad is cheap there ??... I guess you can basically use any kind of gameport pad or usb pad.... (of course... I'm not sure if those are as easy to hack as gameport sidewinder....)

also... keep in mind some USB pad also is partly analog... if you're doing a normal stick (pure digital...) you might want to avoid those....

or even... hack a PSX pad.... and buy a PSX/USB converter.... then you even have a PSX stick to play with....

as long as the pad has enough buttons for you to connect to your stick, then it should be good.... (since I'm in NYC/US, I have no clue what brand...) or maybe you can tell us what brand is available there at cheap price and someone here and jump in and tell you if that brand is any good for hacking....

[Lilwolf]

Remember... Never EVER go with a hack that will cost over $40 with everything you will need.

why?

IPacs are $40 and MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH (and a few more) better then any hack!  It will save you time, it will work better, it will be configurable, faster....

I hacked a keyboard... it sucked so I hacked a joystick... better, but still kinda sucked (for changing anything... plus I couldn't get 2 joysticks with 6 buttons each)... then I went with a real encoder (MK64) I have never ever thought it was a waste of money......  Buying a used cabinet... waiste... Buying used joysticks on ebay... mostly a waste... buying almost all the parts I have... been a big waste (fun.... but a waste)..

I truely feel the best use of cash for my arcade so far is my encoder and my $34 plunger router.

I would probably go with... if it's not free or more then 10 bucks... it's not worth hacking... money spent on an ipac is better

[Grasshopper]

if gameport sidewinder is expensive in UK... then what kind of pad is cheap there ??... I guess you can basically use any kind of gameport pad or usb pad.... (of course... I'm not sure if those are as easy to hack as gameport sidewinder....)

It's certainly possible to buy no-name gameport pads in the UK for a few pounds.

Are there different models of Sidewinders? The one I saw cost

[hyiu]

that site I gave is the gameport only sidewinder... I'm currently using it for daisy chain for 4 players... works fine with Windows Me... (just plug and it works... ) since its microsoft stuffs, no need for additonal drivers... (I think that is exactly what you need...)

if you're buying 4 or more... maybe you can ask how much to ship it back to UK.... I also bought some J-stik from Ultimarc... (they're shipped from UK to US...) shipping is not crazy....

so... it might be worthed while to ask.... (or several ppl. buy together....)

well... although I've been trying to read up... my knowledges are still limited...

or if you're located in UK, maybe you can get the I-PAC....
everyone used it said they love it.... (although I personally did not use it myself...) that should save you some postage...

hope it helps...

[Grasshopper]

that site I gave is the gameport only sidewinder... I'm currently using it for daisy chain for 4 players... works fine with Windows Me... (just plug and it works... ) since its microsoft stuffs, no need for additonal drivers... (I think that is exactly what you need...)

I'm a bit confused by this, I thought you could only connect up to two joysticks to a gameport, and even then you could only use two buttons per player.

[hyiu]

?!?!....

ok.... let me try to explain this a little....

I'm currently using gameport only sidewinder....
and I use 1 sidewinder for 1 player control panel....

each sidewinder has direction pad, plus 6 button on the face, plus 2 trigger and start and mode... (total direction pad + 10 buttons - 14 connections)

also, the gameport sidewinder has a plug on its end so that you can daisy chain up to 4 sidewinders to 1 computer !!!
(that's how I got 4 players to play at once...)

so, I created MULTIPLE 1 player sticks.... each one is has 10 buttons and a joystick (to use up all the sidewinder buttons...)
and I still can daisy chain them together....

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I think if you're using just 1 sidewinder and map that 1 sidewinder on to a 2 player sticks, then you can only have 2 buttons each....

cos 2 sticks - 8 connection, plus 4 buttons... that comes 12...
(ignoring the start and mode button...)

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does that make sense now ??

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in my case... I think its still cheaper than using I-PAC...
cos 4 player IPAC will cost about $40+.... while this is like $20+.... of course.. there's more work... and chance of messing up is bigger... but so far, I've hacked like 6-7 sidewinders, and they're all ok... hee hee....    
and its lots of pride and fun....

   

hope it helps...

[Grasshopper]

Interesting. I thought the 2 joystick limitation was built into the game port.

I guess with a clever driver you could simulate more buttons. Rather than treating each button as a simple on/off switch you would have to arrange things so that pressing a particular button sends a stream of data to the computer. The driver would then have to decode this stream to work out what button had been pressed or released.

The trouble is I get the impression that the Sidewinder drivers only work with Windows, or Windows simulating MSDOS. I would prefer to use pure DOS. Can you tell me if I'm correct?

Thanks

[hyiu]

sorry.... I have not worked with dos at all.....
so, don't have enough info to answer your question...

(but I think if they support it in Windows.. they might have a driver for dos....)well.. it does come with a driver CD.... (if its any good... but since I'm using Window ME, never needed it....)

maybe someone can jump in and answer that question for you ?!!

sorry... you just hit my limit on the knowledge on this.....
     

[Grasshopper]

OK, Thanks anyway

[JustMichael]

Interesting. I thought the 2 joystick limitation was built into the game port.

The gameport is a dual purpose device.  It can be an analog gameport or a midi communications port.  When used as an analog gameport you can have up to 4 axis and 4 buttons.  When in midi mode, the port can send and receive data from the devices that are connected.

[rampy]

Interesting. I thought the 2 joystick limitation was built into the game port.

The gameport is a dual purpose device.  It can be an analog gameport or a midi communications port.  When used as an analog gameport you can have up to 4 axis and 4 buttons.  When in midi mode, the port can send and receive data from the devices that are connected.

hmmm... I used to futz around with MIDI and DAW stuff...  didn't realize that's how they got more inputs for daisy chaning sidewinders together....

I've got an old "music" midi keyboard controller - i wonder if anyone has used a midi keyboard hack to wire up their controls (as opposed to the regular keyboard hacks or ipac)  I guess the hard part would be the driver... anybody know how the sidewinders communicate with the driver, is it using midi events?  This could actually work, giving that my midi controller is NOT velocity sensiitve...

*Shrug*  maybe that's too creative....

rampy