Home
News
2nd August 2005- About time for an update - Qoob review here. Buy one, they're great!
- Exactly a year since it was first published, and I've updated the Nuon N505 game port mod. This update gives you new info and pictures on modding the Logitech pad, and a bugfix where I'd labelled Data and Clock the wrong way round. Many thanks to Bernard Schendstok (and his soldering iron wielding friend) for pointing out this error - if you have any feedback on this article, then let me know.
- I finally played Tempest 3000 a few weeks back, and decided I'd put off buying a Nuon long enough. The only problem is that I could only find a UK version of the Samsung N5xx, which doesn't have any game ports. The American 501, Swiss 504 and Korean 591 all come with game ports, but in the uk we got a jog dial instead. Yay us.
So... heres how I added my own custom game ports to a UK N505 :-)
- Long time, no update. I've added some pictures of the funky Dreamcast Karaoke unit. I blame my web hiatus entirely on the Dreamcast, the best console ever made :-)
- I do still get the occasional email regarding Playstation Controllers, and I try to answer any I get. If you haven't heard from me I'm sorry, if you still have a question then I'll try to help. Here is a mini-faq on what I get asked most about:
- The Playstation controller software here is for DOS, not the latest versions of Windows (NT/2k/XP). It will work with Win95/98/Me though, and can be coaxed into working on Linux
- The software here is only for the Parallel port adaptors, not the USB ones. If you just want to use your controllers I'd highly recommend getting a USB adaptor and drivers for that. I can't really help with this though, I don't have a USB adaptor.
- If you want to use your Parallel port adaptors with Windows, I'd recommend searching for the NTPad driver. I can't really help with that either, I'm afraid. DirectPadPro is sadly no longer in development.
- The software here is for Playstation one (psx/psone) controllers, not PS2. I don't know how to read the analog buttons on Dual Shock 2 controllers, or how the PS2 Multi Tap and Memory Cards work. The Dual Shock 2 controllers will work with the software here in non-analog-button mode though.
- I got hold of an Ascii Sphere recently, and figured out how it works. If anyone is interested I can send you my notes (if I can find them).
- I no longer develop the Parallel port software because I hit a brick wall with speed. Basically, its not possible to read and write to the parallel port fast enough to reliably poll every controller. Sony stuff tends to be ok, but third party controllers can be twitchy. Driver speed settings are a work around that sometimes fix this.
- Yes, I should write up my notes on Playstation Controller internals rather than asking people to read through the source code :-p
- Updated the PSX Peripheral Bus Library, PSX Controller Tools and PSX Memory Card Tools all to v1.4! Heres whats new:
- Ported to Win32, a Win32 DLL is also available!
- Ported to Linux, thanks to Artemio Urbina Garcia! Note: Some tools may not work properly under Linux.
- Memory Card Tools bug fixes, thanks to Artemio Urbina Garcia.
- Controller Tools bug fixes, PSX Controller Test rewritten to be multiple OS friendly.
- Improvements to Controller detection.
- This update has also highlighted problems with the Allegro driver. Namely, the Mouse axes are the wrong way around, the Lightgun reading is too sensitive, and good data is expected every time a controller is polled (which is not always true). I will be sending Shawn Hargreaves an updated version of the PSX Controller driver in the near future which fixes these problems.
- Updated PSX Controller Tools for the 'Twin Stick' with the correct binaries. Lets see if it works now :-)
- Fixed the links on the PSX Controller Tools page, thanks to Steve Man for letting me know.
- PSX Twin Stick update - this has now been found to work with a Multi Tap, but not without. The Blaze Pro-Shock Arcade Stick has also been tested and works fine. Thanks again to Steve Man for this news.
- After months of nothing, at last some news! It's about time I updated this page with the latest regarding the console controller drivers. I have moved myself down to London (from Sheffield) for a new job, and it's taken ages for everything to calm down again.
- The N64 driver in Allegro has unfortunately been disabled for the last couple of months, due to a bug elsewhere in Allegro. Other than that the driver seems fine, with no reported problems. This also means that N64 pad support in DOS Mame has been disabled since about v36 beta 2. I contacted Shawn Hargreaves last week in order to fix the problem, so hopefully we'll see that fix sneak into Mame by beta 8 or 9. Thanks to several people who contacted me regarding this problem.
- The PSX driver has fared better :-) It seems to have been included in the last couple of Raine releases (but I haven't tested it yet). I've had some useful feedback from people using their PSX controllers with DOS Mame, so thanks for all those who got in touch, and apologies for not getting back to people as soon as I would have wanted.
- So then, what next? Well there are a number of things I intend to work on concerning the PSX Peripherals:
- I was contacted by someone who had bought a 'Twin Stick' (2 digital controllers in a single unit) and has problems with slowness when using it with the Allegro drivers or DirectPad Pro. I have added a couple of different versions of the PSX Controller Tools to see if that helps, but more work is probably needed. I suspect that this problem will be caused by broken behaviour of the Twin Stick, but hopefully I'll find a workaround.
- I have yet to figure out the force feedback commands for the Jogcon.
- I should look at adding calibration for the GunCon controllers, Operation Wolf in Raine with a lightgun is a tantalising prospect!
- I'm investigating adding force feedback to the Allegro joystick routines for the Dual Shock and (hopefully) Jogcon.
- I intend to look at building a PSX Peripheral Bus Win32 library, so that native support for the parallel port interface can be added to PSXGameEdit.
- There is always the possibility of adding support for more PSX Peripheral adaptors, like Simon Neild's USB adaptor, and the PlaySave adaptor.
- Finally, I should write a PSX Peripheral faq with all the new info I've discovered whilst writing this PSX stuff.
Should keep me busy, eh? ;-) - Regarding Mame, it seems that improved support for analog controllers is slowly being added. However, Robert J. Ragno has released a version of Mame called MameJoy with even better support for multiple analog controls.
- I have removed the Console Controllers section (as the drivers are now included in Allegro), and updated the Console Controllers and Mame and PSX Controller Tools sections.
- Huge update! I've been busy working on adding Memory Card support to my PSXTest program, and the results are now ready at last.
- PSX Peripheral Bus Library v1.0 added! This contains the basic set of functions you would need to communicate with Playstation peripherals through DirectPad Pro, MegaTap and PlaySave (untested) parallel port interfaces.
- PSX Memory Card Tools v1.0 added! This is set of programs that will allow you to read, write, measure the speed and get information using your Memory Cards and the DirectPad Pro, MegaTap or PlaySave (untested) parallel port interfaces. You can also use PSXGameEdit to edit Memory Card images created using these tools and write them back to your Memory Cards.
- PSX Controller Tools v1.0 added! These are a couple of programs that will allow you to detect and test your Controllers and the DirectPad Pro, MegaTap or PlaySave (untested) parallel port interfaces. They supercede my previous PSXTest program.
- MAME and Console Controllers updated! The next version of DOS MAME (v.36b1) should use the latest Allegro Work In Progress. As a result I have removed my version of MAME with console controller support, and changed the page to instead give information and a few tips to people interested in using them.
- PSX Peripheral Bus Library update! I've been informed by Lars Ole Dybdal (author of PSXGameEdit) that psxpblib does not work properly with the PlaySave interface. I will have to build the PlaySave interface to investigate further, I've double checked everything else. I will update the library with a fix as soon as I can. Thanks go to Lars for testing this.
- Site created! I've had webspace for over a year now, but I decided not to build a site until there was something worthwhile to put on it...
- PSXTest v1.1 added! This is a DOS based PSX Controller to PC parallel port test program, created with Djgpp. The parallel port interface is the same one as used by DirectPad Pro. The code is based on...
- Console Controller Drivers v1.1 for Allegro v3.11 added! These drivers support PSX and N64 controllers. The PSX driver supports many more devices than DirectPad Pro, including the neGcon (steering wheels), Mouse, Multi tap, Jogcon (force feedback steering wheels) and G-con45 (light gun). Thats right, if you can connect your PC to a normal TV (using composite video out present on some video cards for example) you can use Playstation light guns! Help is still needed with identifying other PSX controllers, if you have any interesting controllers (read: weird) contact me so they can be added.
- Console Controller MAME added! This is a compile of the latest MAME source (v35 rc2) with the above Allegro drivers added. The (slight) changes to the MAME source are [no longer] available here. Note that due to current limitations with MAME some controls cannot be used properly, see CCMAME for details. Let me know if you find this useful, as that will dictate whether I continue to update it or not.
Made With Notepad
Graphics Copyright Weebl 2003
Best Viewed With Any Browser