Multiple Joysticks. Best Planning?
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I have a MayFlash F500 fight stick. It's the device I'm currently mainly using for Retropie control (pi4, Raspian/ES).
I've taken the time to edit retroarch's joystick cfg to add labels to help assign this better (for the first time in ages I have a workable Defender setup as a result). It's seen as a "Generic X-Box" controller.
We're now at the point where there's a family game we want to play (Dungeon Explorer on TG-16) which all four of us can play and there are other games that would be better with a standard gamepad.
The one thing I haven't been able to get a feel for is how to plan ahead (too late?) for intermixing of joysticks/pads. Now that I've done all this with my MayFlash, what's the best way to go forward when I swap that out for a gamepad, or four gamepads?
Thanks.
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@jamrom2 One of my all-time favorite games (and I seem to be in the minority) is on the Intellivision and it's Dreadnaught Factor. It works very well with my fight stick as it has no need for the keypad other than to enter the skill level at the start. It supports 1-7 skills and I have the first four entered into the fight stick.
I had hoped you could combine input devices as have each platform see it as one device. For Intv and Coleco I was going to use a separate keypad and bought one to plug into my Mayflash. It has a USB port so I thought a cheap keypad would make the Mayflash look like a device that also has a keypad. Nope. Doesn't work at all. Apparently that port is just for an Xbox or PS controller to get the Mayflash to work on an Xbox or PS. So then I thought I might get a bluetooth/wireless keypad, but saw that it would be seen as a distinct controller too. Ugh.
I did find what you pointed out. I selected about 20 roms for the Intellivision and I can't play most of them due to the missing pad. Same challenge on Colecovision. The funny thing is that the Intv hackfile LOOKS like it would support running on two devices, but I'll be damned if I can make it work that way.
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@jamrom2 What do you use to get the Intellivision controllers working? I wasn't quite clear on that. It sounds like you have some sort of Intv-to-USB device(s).
I also just ordered two of these: 8bitdo Pro 2 controllers.
This is one area that the whole industry stinks with. Every controller should be able to send a unique identifier just like any other device. Once you plug it in the system should be able to request its ID. Then you can set it up once on the system and the system knows what to do with it and what you want to call it, etc. Only the most basic, not electronic controllers wouldn't work with this, but even that could be addressed on the USB plug end . You could buy a TINY USB adapter that does the job.
Heck, that might even be a neat idea for a small project. Little dongle's you make that each can generate a unique ID. Then you just need a coder for Retroarch that could support that device and it would likely take over. Everyone would want one.
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@agrajag I agree with that. I have that issue with my MAME cabinets. I built 3 and am working on a 4th now. I use all HP Deskpro small form factor PC's and USB/BT keyboards. I bought 3 of the same models thinking the dongle would/should have a unique ID signal... nope.. they're all the same. So I can't have all three cabinets running at the same time because if I turn on the BT keyboard, it will just pick one dongle, and control that PC/Cabinet.
It's F'n annoying. I'd rather have 3 different dongles with 1 keypad... some kind of A/B/C switch for channel switching. That would be great for multiple use on one keyboard.
As for Intellivision games.... the ONLY way to really play them right, well... the majority of them... is to use JzIntv with the Ultimate Interface for Classic Controllers http://www.intellivision.us/interface.php This developer has been working on this one for years. Its now it it's 3 revision and handles a ton of different controllers. So you're able to play many of the emulators with the original controllers they were meant to be played with. It's a must have if you want to run Intellivision, Colecovision, Arcadia... etc. Stuff that needs keypad intput.
The down side is that is tends to screw up the port assignments in the Pi because it uses 2 ports in one. So your 1 & 2 ports are assigned to the UICC as 1 & 2 ....but you're really only using 1 USB port for the unit. If you leave it in use, meaning, leave a controller plugged it, it will drop your other USB controllers to different port numbers.
Example for clarity... I have 2 seperate USB ports for standard USB SNES controllers in ports 1 & 2 of the Pi3b+... then the UICC plugged into port 3 and my BT keyboard dongle into port 4. Works great with the two USB controllers plugged in... they get assigned as you would expect 1 and 2. As soon as I plug in a controller to the UICC... it becomes Port 1, then the two SNES controllers drop to 2 & 3... then I plug another controller into the UICC... I loose one SNES controller, and the other remains at 3.
So it's a little tricky. But it's really the right way to go. JzIntv it the premier emulator for Intellivision games. Lr-FreeIntv is very good, but you can't virtual keypad the games in Intellivision format... it just doesn't work. So you can use lr-freeintv for games like Burger Time, Frog Bog, Bump n' Jump.. etc.
The difference is that JzIntv does NOT support overlays or shaders.. so there are no cool effects to add to make it look authentic. However, you can play with the color palettes and other stuff. Lr-Freeintv supports overlays and shaders and like all Retroarch/Libretro cores, has a menu to select options from .
Whew... that was a lot. LOL>
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@jamrom2 WOW. I hadn't considered the BT issue for mulitple cabinets. This is nuts that in 2021 we don't have a simple solution for this. IDs are the answer, but we need the community to push for this. I approached 8bitdo about it and got a mild response yesterday. A first step has to happen.
On Intv, I use jzintv. I'll look up the Ultimate Interface as I'd not heard of that. Again on the head slap that this is a problem today. In Retroarch and any emulator including jzinput, I should be able to go in (with ID being a created thing) and just say, for this emulator use controllers A and B as one controller regardless of where you find them, etc. lr-freeintv looked so much crisper. I do wish it would step up.
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@agrajag There is a script you can download vie the Retropie menu. Make sure you update your Retropie script first.
That little app does exactly what you are suggesting. I just didn't have any luck with it with the UICC. Just seems to ignore it for some reason.
If you are using JzIntv... pull down my color palette. I'm actually IMBerZerk on the AA/Intellivision forum. I put a ton of time into tweaking the colors to look correct on an LCD. The base palette Joe included is really there to make JzIntv look like it did on a CRT... which on an LCD looks like shit.
Let me know if you need help loading it... and BTW... if JzIntv looks fuzzy or wrong, you don't have it setup correctly. It should look wicked sharp. It's a great emulator with lots of controls to it.
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@jamrom2 the script I read about sounded as if it was left to die in 2017.
On jzintv, I ran with however it was out of the box. When I tried lr-intv it was the first thing I noticed. The latter was super sharp on the selection screen but jzintv was very soft/fuzzy.
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@jamrom2 What's the name of this script? I thought I found it, but Mobile Gamepad isn't it. heheh
And given that my jzintv looks like crap, what do you recommend to get it right?
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