Multiple arcade joysticks per player, how to set up

ledsled71

I have built a 4-player arcade cabinet, running the Arcade Bliss image by Virtualman. I built the control panel w/ 2 joysticks each for players 1 and 2, so I could play 2-players on games such as Robotron and Smash TV. My joysticks and buttons are connected to the Pi via Dragonrise USB controllers which only have a single joystick input.

Any tips on how to configure the hardware to allow me to add the second joystick input? I had made a custom wire harness so that the Sanwa joystick cable can be sent to 4 discrete inputs, but the Dragonrise card only has spots for 12 buttons. My layout is 6 action buttons + hotkey + select + start, so 9 buttons total, leaving me short 1 spot.

Thanks, in advance!

IanDaemon

@ledsled71 In the arcade Robotron: 2084 only had two sticks on the cabinet. Both players alternate with the two sticks with arcade emulation. There should be a setting in Retroarch to "map right stick as buttons". You can then use two sticks as Player One in games like Robotron: 2084 and Cloak & Dagger.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/28441/mame-row-175-robotron-2084/13

ledsled71

@iandaemon
Sorry, shouldn't have used Robotron as an example, as you are right, both players don't play at the same time.

Let's use Smash TV or Karate Champ as examples where you would need a total of 4 joysticks, 2 per player at the same time.

I currently have it set up to play Robotron using Joystick 1 player 1 to move, and joystick 1 player 2 to fire. That works OK on that game, but still need the fix to play Smash TV with 2 players.

ledsled71

It's probably worth adding that I tried adding a 5th and 6th USB controller to my setup, putting each extra joystick on a single controller. This worked as I wanted, except for each time the system is powered up, the pi reassigns any usb controller on a usb hub a random controller #, screwing up the setups for the other controllers on the hub. If there was a work-around to this randomized assignment, this setup would work (or if I never powered the system down)

Clyde

Maybe another joystick interface could help you with this. The Ultimarc I-Pac boards, for example, appear as keyboards to the system, so any emulator (core) that supports keyboard keys as controller inputs should be compatible with it.

Alas, I don't own an I-Pac myself. Maybe someone who does can help with that.

ledsled71

@clyde
That's fantastic, thanks for the info! I had been searching for usb interfaces on the web, but hadn't seen one like this. I don't see why this wouldn't work. I'll give it a shot, and let everyone know.