Arkanoid working with analogue control with an analogue thumb-stick. Can it be done?

OneSwitch

I'm using RetroPIe 4.4 on a Raspberry Pi 3B+. I've never found a way to control the bat in Arkanoid in an analogue fashion. I'm testing with a standard Xbox 360 joypad. lr-mame2000 seems my best bet so far, but all I can do is adjust the speed of bat, but it still only responds to my analogue thumb-sticks in an on/off fashion.

Any help appreciated.

Halvhjearne

obviusly, this is possible somehow, but it would most likely take the fun out of the game.

the major diffrence in these two ways to control is that the analog stick centers automaticly, while a spinner or mouse/trackball stays at the posisiton it has reached.

i suggest you use one of these options instead.

mediamogul

@OneSwitch

For games like 'Arkanoid', I map my left thumbstick for mouse movement in xboxdrv to allow analog control without having to worry about auto-centering. This works very well and controls infinitely better than digital, but it's still no replacement for an actual spinner.

OneSwitch

@Halvhjearne Understood, but I'm looking for having it workable in a multi-arcade vertical type set-up with the likes of an Ultrastik analogue joystick - without having to mess about with extra controls.

OneSwitch

@mediamogul Ah, I'll try that, many thanks.

barbudreadmon

@OneSwitch said in Arkanoid working with analogue control with an analogue thumb-stick. Can it be done?:

lr-mame2000 seems my best bet so far

Meaning you tried other arcade emulators ? What was your issue with FBNeo ? Idk the state of arkanoid emulation in old mame cores, but arkanoid uses analog controls in FBNeo (analog thumb stick by default, but you can also set it to mouse by playing around with RA's Quick Menu > Controls device types, you can also mitigate sensitivity in core options)

OneSwitch

@barbudreadmon said in Arkanoid working with analogue control with an analogue thumb-stick. Can it be done?:

FBNeo

I'd tried most of the MAME builds, but I didn't really know about Final Burn Neo. I'll take a look. Thanks.

OneSwitch

Thought I'd post an update. Final Burn did give analogue stick control in Arkanoid, but it's a horrible way to play (at least certainly with an Xbox 360 controller). I guess I'll have to invest in a spinner and look into that if I want to play this game half-decently.

Halvhjearne

@OneSwitch

you can try a mouse or trackball first, its not the same as a spinner, but its (usually) cheaper and it works a lot better than with an analog stick.

i have seen some ppl make a homemade spinner from an old ball mice, but they seem very fragile.

OneSwitch

@Halvhjearne Good thinking. I'll try that too.

barbudreadmon

@OneSwitch said in Arkanoid working with analogue control with an analogue thumb-stick. Can it be done?:

but it's a horrible way to play

In which way ? If you mean it's too fast, there is a core option called "analog speed" for this.

PS : RA also included a similar setting in its own config recently, it's not present in RetroPie's outdated RA 1.7.6 though.
PS2 : Also, you might encounter other issues with trackball (see https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/9325).

OneSwitch

@barbudreadmon said in Arkanoid working with analogue control with an analogue thumb-stick. Can it be done?:

ast, there is a core option called "analog speed" for this.
PS : RA also included a similar setting in its own config recently, it's not present in RetroPie's outdated RA 1.7.6 though.
PS2 : Also, you might encounter other issues with trackball (see https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/9325).

It's very clumsy. The deadzone seems massive, and the amount of movement between moving slow and fast seems very small. Hang on / Super Hang on is the same too. I'll have another fiddle with the analogue speed settings in the retroarch settings, to see if I can make it less awful.

OneSwitch

@barbudreadmon said in Arkanoid working with analogue control with an analogue thumb-stick. Can it be done?:

@OneSwitch said in Arkanoid working with analogue control with an analogue thumb-stick. Can it be done?:

but it's a horrible way to play

In which way ? If you mean it's too fast, there is a core option called "analog speed" for this.

PS : RA also included a similar setting in its own config recently, it's not present in RetroPie's outdated RA 1.7.6 though.
PS2 : Also, you might encounter other issues with trackball (see https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/9325).

On RetroPie 4.4, I can't find a RetroArch core option for analogue speed. I'm using Final Burn Neo (it says) in RetroPie, and have dialed down the analogue deadzone, but it may just be an Xbox 360 stick is introducing its own deadzone, and as such is not a good controller for playing Arkanoid.

It does feel that the band for slow movement is tiny, the band for faster movement huge and the deadzone massive too. Can't access any settings other than RetroArch (which says 1.7.3 - FB Alpha v0.2.97 43 5e771bo).

Would be lovely to have some more adjustment for this.

OneSwitch

In the end, I connected a mouse to play Arkanoid in lr-mame2003, and it worked from the off. Xbox 360 controller just too baggy and too huge a deadzone to make it playable. Thanks for advice though.