Game pads and joystiks

Forum: Hardware Talk
Topic: Game pads and joystiks
started by: Zucca

Posted by Zucca on May 15 2007,19:28

I happened to stumble upon a < nice little program >.
I once had Gravis Game Pad controller (days back to Power Mac 133MHz times...) and it's driver (cotrol panel) had same kind of setup like that qjoypad tool. Even if I happend to find that old Gravis pad I couldn't use it because it uses Macintosh's "PS/2" port. USB was really rare at that time. ;)

I'd like to know what controller(s) you guys use with your Linux. I don't wanna go and buy one blindly. ;) And how easy/hard it was to set up working?

Posted by curaga on May 16 2007,06:25

I'll be using original Nes pads when I finish my nes-pc (missing only a nes now)
They require some soldering, but there are good instructions in the kernel docs, are fairly easy to set up, and it's just way stylish to use a media center interface like MythTv or Freevo with Nes pads...

Snes pads are more comfortable, but I can't fit a computer into a Snes case ;)

Generally nearly all gameport joysticks work easily, usb versions depend (surprise) on the fact if the company has released techical info...

Posted by Zucca on May 17 2007,15:43

Whoa. That's cool.
There one drawback with those controllers: only two buttons...
I think that 4-6 buttons is quite optimal.

Posted by curaga on May 18 2007,17:07

This is what made me think of it:

Your going to some Lan party. People sweat carrying their desktops, screens and stuff. You come with a small backpack. People ask "what are you gonna play with?" then you pick up the nes and say "this is my game machine". Whoa. Nice ;)

Even nicer when you turn it on ;)

Posted by Zucca on May 20 2007,10:50

True. ;)

Posted by chaostic on June 02 2007,19:23

Quote (Zucca @ May 15 2007,15:28)

Even if I happend to find that old Gravis pad I couldn't use it because it uses Macintosh's "PS/2" port. USB was really rare at that time. ;)

ADB, not PS/2 :angry:

And alot of the generic usb game pads are recognized as HID devices. And you can make nes/snes to serial, to parallel, and to usb adapters that work with linux very cheaply. Master System and Genesis too.

Posted by Zucca on June 03 2007,08:46

Ah. It's name is ADB.
I never heard that before that's why I said PS/2 between apostrophes. ;)