Mapping a Quit button to a gamepad on JZINTV

SpudsMcToole

@dudleydes Yeah, I found that when I searched before posting the question, but like I said, XBOXDRV is absolutely terrifying :)

dudleydes

@SpudsMcToole I agree xboxdrv isn't the most user-friendly application but the work has been done for jzIntv and PS3 controllers. It would be a case of placing text files in appropriate folders and editing existing files.

Like yourself, I used keyboard hack files to map my PS3 controller but I never found a satisfactory mapping to play Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Cloudy Mountain. Until, that is, @mediamogul posted his excellent xboxdrv guide.

I can now play Cloudy Mountain as a twin stick shooter, the left stick to walk/run and the right stick to fire arrows in 8 directions (as well as map navigation). I would say that this is a better experience than on the original Intellivision because it's now possible to run and fire arrows at the same time. I'm ready to take on the fastest Hero skill level!

I recommend you give it a go. I'm happy to advise so that you can set up without upsetting your existing hack file(s).

PS. The other game xboxdrv makes possible is Tron Deadly Discs.

mediamogul

@dudleydes said in Mapping a Quit button to a gamepad on JZINTV:

I can now play Cloudy Mountain as a twin stick shooter

Very nice usage! It's always great when you think up a control scheme that improves on the original.

The other game xboxdrv makes possible is Tron Deadly Discs.

I have a mapping for this game that I like, but I can't help but think I could improve it. How did you go about mapping the keypad-directional firing? If it was all mapped to the right stick, how did you handle the diagonals?

dudleydes

@mediamogul By default, jzIntv, maps the first joystick's first hat's 8 directions to the numeric keypad on the right Intellivision controller. The d-pad on a Xbox controller registers as a hat so pressing up and left on the d-pad would be the same as pressing key 1 on an Intellivision controller.

The d-pad on a PS3 controller registers as buttons so using xboxdrv allows me access to the numeric keypad of an Intellivision controller. Now playing games with the d-pad and the left analog stick is difficult so I swapped the hat (d-pad) with the redundant right analog stick with the following in my xboxdrv config:

ABS_Z   = DPAD_X
ABS_RZ  = DPAD_Y
ABS_HAT0X = x2
ABS_HAT0Y = y2

I also removed the line dpad-as-button = true from the config so that the d-pad inputs are read as hat axes.

The emulated Xbox controller is assigned JS1 so I created a hack file for jzIntv to interpret the inputs correctly. You can check my xboxdrv config and hack file here.

Kudos really goes to the developer of jzIntv for mapping the left analog stick to the left controller's disc and the hat to the right controller's numeric keypad, thereby removing the limitation of having to release the disc before pressing a key. Time to take those bloody winged dragons!

mediamogul

@dudleydes

Very, very kool. I'm going to have fun reworking my Intellivision controls around this information. Thanks!

edmaul69

@SpudsMcToole you can add PAUSE as well to your controller.

edmaul69

@dudleydes @mediamogul there is a guy on the atariage forums who takes two intellivision flashback controllers for people and makes them one controller with two cables. The keypad is one controller and the disc is the other. Works for tron deadly discs as well.

mediamogul

@edmaul69

It's amazing what people come up with. I'll have to look that up.

dalves

Does anyone know what the JS0_BTN number would be if I wanted to be able to quit jzintv by pressing the select and start buttons together like with the other emulators?

dudleydes

@dalves Like most non-RetroArch emulators, jzIntv uses a single button to quit. To find the JS0_BTN you would like to assign to quit jzIntv, you can use the event_diag.rom rom. More info at: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Mapping-a-Controller-for-Intellivision/

ts-x

@dalves Once you've identified your button numbers per @dudleydes suggestion, you have two options for emulating the hotkey behavior of the other RetroArch emulators.

Use Select as a hotkey equivalent (this example is for an Xbox360 controller, so Select is 8 and Start is 9)...

MAP 0
JS0_BTN_08 PSH1

MAP 1
JS0_BTN_08 PSH1
JS0_BTN_09 QUIT

Or define Select + Start as a combo button press (may need newest version of jzintv for this?)...

ADD_COMBO 0 JS0_BTN_08 JS0_BTN_09
COMBO0 QUIT

As a follow up to the discussion above, I recently discovered that it's also possible to use combo button presses as an alternative to the right stick for diagonal shooting in games like Cloudy Mountain & Tron Deadly Discs...

ADD_COMBO 0 JS0_BTN_02 JS0_BTN_03
ADD_COMBO 1 JS0_BTN_03 JS0_BTN_01
ADD_COMBO 2 JS0_BTN_00 JS0_BTN_01
ADD_COMBO 3 JS0_BTN_00 JS0_BTN_02
COMBO0 PD0L_KP1
COMBO1 PD0L_KP3
COMBO2 PD0L_KP9
COMBO3 PD0L_KP7
JS0_BTN_00 PD0L_KP8
JS0_BTN_01 PD0L_KP6
JS0_BTN_02 PD0L_KP4
JS0_BTN_03 PD0L_KP2

Using that mapping, X shoots west, Y shoots north, and X+Y shoots northwest. This also works really well in sports games requiring 1-9 keypad zone press e.g. Slam Dunk, Spiker & Super Pro Football.

Zazie

I did not understand anything. How do I map the reset on the emulator? And what does the PS3 have to do with it?

thedishking

@ts-x
Thank you for posting this! The combo allows JZINTV to respond to multiple buttons, while leaving discrete function for something else.

Appricate your help!

ts-x

@thedishking No problem, glad it was helpful. I actually added a more detailed version to the docs a few weeks back as well. My revisions include some other more advanced functions e.g. custom palettes, custom resolutions, and analog dead-zone tweaks.

I also have pre-configured keyboard hack files for about 140 games that I'm planning to upload to GitHub within the next few weeks. Kind of my interpretation of how to best map the 16-key Intellivision controller to modern controllers with dual analog sticks and shoulder/trigger buttons. Spent a ton of time getting things just right, as 30+ years later Intellivision is still one of my favorite systems!

SavedByZero

@dudleydes Hey there -- glad I found this. I've tried out your xboxdrv file that includes this snippet,and (EDIT) managed to map it to my Xbox controller after finding the right names for the analog sticks and whatnot. However, in Tron:Deadly Discs, I can no longer fire diagonally since the mimic-xpad setting kills the diagonal movements for the second stick. If I remove mimic-xpad, I get the diagonal disc throwing back, but the controls jam up and break if I try to map the disc throwing buttons to the fully enabled 8 directional R2 stick -- and weirdly, ONLY when I fire diagonally.

Anyone else have this issue?