Dreamcast analog stick hack?

[pmc]

Ok, time to bring the conversation back to Dreamcast. We're straying too far off-topic here.  

Seriously though, I'm ready to start a controller hack and the one thing I've noticed from studying several tutorials is that everyone seems to use the digital-directional control to map to the CP joystick. I think I've seen one example where someone jumpered the analog and digital controls together, but that seems like it'd be a problem.

Where I see this being a problem is with some games, the movement is by the analog stick but the menus are controlled ONLY by the digital pad. I've seen the reverse too.

So I'm basically worried about not being able to play games or control games if I ignore the analog stick (or vice versa). What's the conventional wisedom on this? Ignore the analog controls?

My 2-player cabinet has 6 player buttons and a single 4/8-way joystick for each player. Buttons are a standard six-button layout.

FWIW, I have tried Project64 on my cabinet and mapped digital directional to JS1 and analog directional to JS2. That works fine as long I only play 1-player games. As discussed previously in this forum, analog thumbstick control via an Ultimarc J-stick doesn't work too great anyway so I expect to stick mostly with digital controlled games on the DC (shooters, fighters, platformers, etc.).

I also expect to keep to native DC controllers for any game that demands real controllers so I won't be 100% dead no matter what.

As for buttons, I expect to map A, B, X, Y, triggerL, triggerR to player buttons 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 6 respectively and then play mostly games that don't use the triggers since they'll be awkward.  Buttons 3 and 6 are where I put L1 and L2 for ePSXe and it pretty much works OK depending on the game.

TIA.

- pmc

[abrannan]

I can't think of any DC games off the top of my head that require the use of both the analog stick and d-pad.  Obviously, you may choose one over the other for comfort reasons (i.e. driving games control better with analog controls, etc).  The two game types that come to mind as potentially problematic for d-pad only use are sports games (where the more precise control offered by the analog stick is a blessing) and the aforementioned driving games (which you'll probably be using a wheel for if you're playing.  All the fighters & shmups I've played on the DC work great with the d-pad.

[pmc]

I can't think of any DC games off the top of my head that require the use of both the analog stick and d-pad.

OK. I better double-check my facts before I worry more about it. I could swear that I've played a couple of games where the menus were only accessible via one or the other. I guess if it's always the d-pad, I'm good.

I agree that most games let you use either for the same thing. Games like Shenmue use the d-pad for movement and the analog stick for looking around. But I wouldn't be playing Shenmue on a cabinet.

I'll run through all the games I own one at a time and verify that I can get away without the analog stick. Thanks for the response.

[orntar]

sonic adventure 1 and 2 cannot use digital. what then? (you cant change it in options can you?)

[abrannan]

sonic adventure 1 and 2 cannot use digital. what then? (you cant change it in options can you?)

Hm.  Wasn't aware of that (never played the games).  I guess the question is, do you want to play those two games on your cabinet enough to wrestle with an analog stick hack?  

[orntar]

not exactly cabinet material, but if you only have one dc and want it in your cab. then you hafta.

i am getting a production arcade stick for dc that claims to have analog and digital support with only one stick, so i will see wht is has to offer.

[orntar]

check this too. claims it to not be hard, just some scraping...

http://devcast.dcemulation.com/guides/nes/nes.html

[pmc]

not exactly cabinet material, but if you only have one dc and want it in your cab. then you hafta.

Not entirely true for me. My plan is to mount the DC in the cabinet but keep a set of true controllers in there too. Any time cabinet controls are unsuitable, I just plug in the real controllers. I also have an S-video extension-cord that connects from the cabinet to a nearby 27" television and I'm intending on splicing audio from the cabinet into the nearby stereo system.

The idea is that you can play DC games in a traditional setting and with traditional controllers. My 5-year-old daughter was quite vocal about this requirement: "you mean we won't be able to sit cross-legged in front of the TV to play Looney Tunes Racing?!"

Now for something like Psyvariar 2, I want cabinet controls and VGA support so I expect to use the cabinet for controls, video, and audio.

That's the plan anyway. Shouldn't be too big a deal. I just need to get to work on the contoller hacks.

i am getting a production arcade stick for dc that claims to have analog and digital support with only one stick, so i will see wht is has to offer.

I'd be interested to hear about that although it's unlikely to fit into my plans.

[pmc]

I can't think of any DC games off the top of my head that require the use of both the analog stick and d-pad.  

FYI, I did play one game the other night, I ferget which, that used only the analog stick to pick through the menus. D-pad did not work.

Anyway, I'm now thinking about leaving the analog control on the hacked pad and leaving it accessible via the coin door in the event that I'd want to play games like that one on the cabinet. Of course if the game required the analog stick for gameplay, I'd have to revert to a true contoller and my nearby TV.

Anyway, the point of my post is that I did verify that some games use only the analog stick for menu controls and would therefore be relatively un-usable on a CP that only supported the D-Pad.