I first want to say that I really appreciate what you all are doing to help this guy and all the other disabled people that happen to find this thread, myself included. I am in a similar situation to Seanwheels and have been trying to think of a way to build a controller that would allow me to play any console game.
I have been using an x-arcade controller for about a year now and I've been able to play most of the games that do not require the use of both analog sticks at the same time. The three games that I am playing now are KOTOR2 (Xbox), MGS3 and GTA:SA (PS2). The major limitations I have found while playing these games are:
- Lack of analog joystick
- Not enough controls (buttons, joysticks) for games that require the use of both analog joysticks
- switching between left/right analog and d-pad requires pushing a button that affects game play
- Lack of L3 and R3 buttons
- Lack of ability to remap the button layout
I believe that the lack of ability to remap the button layout is a major flaw in the design that you have proposed for seanwheels. I guarantee that there are games out there that use button combinations that would be impossible to execute with this controller. One of the problems I have while playing MGS3 is being able to aim and shoot my weapon. To do this I have to press two buttons (R1 and square) with the side of my hand and I always accidentally hit other buttons in the process. The button layout you have proposed would probably eliminate accidentally hitting other buttons, but if you don't allow the user to remap the buttons for different games it will not work in certain situations.
What hardware/software would you need to be able to remap the buttons like this? I know that the x-arcade controller has the ability to re-map the joystick to emulate left/right analog or d-pad controls. What would be needed to remap all the buttons on the controller?
I was also wondering why they have decided to rip out the analog sticks from the pelican arcade controllers instead of using something like the 49-way joystick from Happ Controls
http://www.happcontrols.com/joysticks/a219391.htm I understand the price differences, but are there any technical reasons for this decision?
I was thinking that in order to solve all of these limitations I would have to create some custom hardware/software. Something like a custom version of the I-PAC
http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html or a custom version of the hardware in the x-arcade. That way I could add as many buttons as I'd like and be able to remap the buttons. Is this the case? Programming a custom microcontroller seems like a daunting task, and isn't something I really want to do.
Justin