Dreamcast-Talk.com

Motoracer5 wrote:Second Dpad may have been for twins sticks, both sticks are digital.

Wonder if the firmware on the Brook adapter is hackable to see second analog stick. What you want is pretty much an Xbox controller. Would be nice to be able to use either stick to emulate dpad or face buttons as well. Pretty much stuck with southpaw unless sticks could be switched

I have no idea how to alter controls in hex editors. I don't even have a hex editor and I've been unable to find a tutorial on how to do it. This, and adding Dreamcast controller controls to a Chinese VCD player software for Dreamcast, would be my testing grounds.

As for the Brook Wingman SD, it certainly has promise. If it can be modified to recognise additional controls we can also use it to add C and Z to the LB and RB on the controller too. But unless I can find a tutorial on how to edit these things somewhere, we'll more likely be waiting megavolt85's project. He's far more experienced (and there's no way I'll catch him up) and has been digging into this subject for some time.

If anyone knows where I can learn to edit files (from the position of an absolute beginner) then please let me know.

Roareye wrote:Jesus! Two D-Pads as well and 7 face buttons (8 including Start)? That's both fantastic and insane haha.
Is it common for consoles to have unused controls available? Does the Gamecube have 17 sticks hidden away XD

However it is awesome for us, if we can get a controller manufacturer on board, because that essentially gives us the perfect modern controller design/layout if we can assign the buttons as needed. Perhaps megavolt can share how he did so on a Gamecube pad? I'm all excited at the possibilities now haha

LMAO, did you not pay any attention when I posted the same info on the 2nd page? I posted the actual code used. You immediately started talking about VMU size so maybe didn't understand what I posted above your post?

Anthony817 wrote:

Roareye wrote:Jesus! Two D-Pads as well and 7 face buttons (8 including Start)? That's both fantastic and insane haha.
Is it common for consoles to have unused controls available? Does the Gamecube have 17 sticks hidden away XD

However it is awesome for us, if we can get a controller manufacturer on board, because that essentially gives us the perfect modern controller design/layout if we can assign the buttons as needed. Perhaps megavolt can share how he did so on a Gamecube pad? I'm all excited at the possibilities now haha

LMAO, did you not pay any attention when I posted the same info on the 2nd page? I posted the actual code used. You immediately started talking about VMU size so maybe didn't understand what I posted above your post?

Oh my, how did I miss that? Haha, sorry dude!

Hehehe all good. One of the cool things I had an idea for is to maybe map that unused "D" key which was actually a button for the Dream Eye camera, as maybe a macro of the A+B+X+Y+Start Soft Reset feature if that is possible for them to have on the firmware of the dongle. Maybe we have to add it on a game-by-game basis via hex editing? Like look at the dual analog stick Saturn controller again...



Now what if that was able to be mapped to the Home button of the dual analog controllers? It could take us back to GDEMU or similar with a quick press of that button possible? Hell I don't know maybe not even needed to map the home to "D' with a macro but that was just an idea I had for a long time.

Adding a Home Button akin to modern hardware sounds like a great idea to exit a game in a pinch, though it would likely have to be manually added in, naming "D" as "HOME" makes a lot more sense as I can't imagine many games requiring 5 face buttons on top of 2 shoulders, 2 triggers, 2 sticks and a d-pad.

Update to the previous picture. Only change I might make is to place START beside the face buttons and use the triangle "start" button as HOME instead. That way you can't accidentally hit the Home button during play, and it's easier to pause too.

::EDIT::
Switched the buttons on the controller in the mockup;

Yeah even something like that would be cool. However I still prefer the 8-Way D-Pad and 6 face buttons. I would like for the DC controller to have digital LB and RB too, just as a perk so we can choose to use the triggers, bumpers or C and Z face buttons since they all do the same function in games.

Anthony817 wrote:Yeah even something like that would be cool. However I still prefer the 8-Way D-Pad and 6 face buttons. I would like for the DC controller to have digital LB and RB too, just as a perk so we can choose to use the triggers, bumpers or C and Z face buttons since they all do the same function in games.

Obviously if we were to build a unique controller adding two face buttons might be more feasible. I was simply modifying an existing image and couldn't properly fit six face buttons on, and with the bumpers added it seemed an unnecessary addition. But I do confess to not playing 2D fighters, so I'm far from an authority on the matter. I did do a mockup of the six button on this design, and you'll see how cramped it gets. I even shrank the buttons to match the Retro-Bit Saturn and Mega Drive controller styles. Here's the mockup though;

So now that Megavolt's adapter has proven without a doubt that dual analog controls can properly work on DC, I guess the next step would be for people to use it and then hack games to support the second stick.

Controller manufacturers aren't going to just make a product with previously unused features and then hope that modders will later be able find ways to use them, it will have to be the other way around. If we want them to make DC controllers with 2 sticks, then first we're going to have to be the ones to demonstrate that it would have uses.

Like I mentioned before, those dual analog stick controllers are primarily designed for newer systems they support such as PS3, PC, Android ect. But their dongles work with all of their wireless controllers, and in the case of their Saturn dongle, even Xbox One, PS4 and Switch classic controller.



No reason to think this will not also be the case with the Dreamcast dongle they release as well.

That being said, this should also be something we could do to games and would work with megavolt's controller adapter project as well. It just needs to be attempted by people well versed with hex editing Dreamcast games. People make widescreen patched games all the time. So those same people should be able to test if this is even a remote possibility with it. Hell, even the Brook adapter may be possible to test this idea with since they are directly converting modern controllers to use the maple protocol on the DC.