more info on second analog maple inputs?

http://mc.pp.se/dc/controller.html

i always see people toss around the fact the maple bus has inputs for a second analog stick, but obviously sega never got around to releasing a controller using it

has anyone ever tinkered with some sort of dev board to explore this further? perhaps with games like q3 with custom configurable controls, maybe it was programmed in a way to be able to map the second analog inputs to a function

there's so many talented people here, if its never been explored it would be really cool to watch someone rig something up and share what they find

i'm not trying to start a movement for a new crowdfunded controller or something, just would be interested to see if there's more to this subject developmentally

this dc forum has been kinda quiet lately, we need more threads like this imo (if the interest in this stuff still remains)

 

IIRC Randy Linden made some BleemPod prototypes, those were supposed to be used with bleemcast to use a DualShock controller with full twin joystick support.

Whether it ever worked is speculations though.

 

I think the twin stick fits in this category. But is it using the analog triggers for the other stick?

More information might be found looking into the Naomi.

 

my thinking is maybe a few games with map-able controls like quake3 were programmed to assign a maple input value without hardcoding each available button, so if you tried to map camera XY to joyx2 and joyy2, quake3 for example might have similar logic to:
"joy2? that shouldn't be here but that's the user input from the maple bus, so fine then joy2 it is"

its not hard to see at least a little plausibility to that theory. would be a neat little project to rig up a board capable of sending the inputs and see what happens

i wonder if there's anything in the katana SDKs pertaining to the joy2 registers. maybe someone with experience and a rainy afternoon one day can dig around for science

 

AFAIK, the twin stick uses the second D-pad buttons (the Maple packets have space for both a second D-pad and a second analog stick). If I had a twin stick controller, I’d put my Maple sniffer on it to be sure. =)

 

I have been meaning to message Retro-Bit to ask them if they would be able to use these drivers with their anticipated Bluetooth Dreamcast dual analog stick controller. I mean it is all but assured that we will get them now that they showed off the Mega Drive and Saturn controllers, so if we can get in contact with them while the controller is still in development, it could theoretically help us to have an official controller that would work with upcoming homebrew and indie games. Plus the bastards are officially licensed by Sega.

What I am going to do, is message them now on Twitter and link the comment here. I will then need as many people here to retweet or reply to the message as possible to show them we want this. I will link to this thread if I have enough space in tweet.

https://twitter.com/Anthony_817/status/1042839529525321728

 

i mean slim chance someone here discovers adding the maple inputs is useful in some games before retrobit reveals their new dc controllers publicly, which is supposed to be soon

but hell, maybe if they're going to do the second stick anyway, send the proper maple input when being used on a dreamcast so they can answer this thread for us lol.. highly doubtful though

 

Never know, they answered another guy in my retrobit controllers thread after he contacted them via email. Also, dammit I want an optical mouse for DC too. That should be super easy for them to create. But we have a better chance of convincing them to implement what is already on the system, and what they are making work in harmony. If they are going to all this trouble to make these updated controllers, what is a few lines of code extra to make it work with the system natively instead of just not being recognized at all? If we never mention it to them now it is a wasted opportunity as you never know what could happen?

I mean hell, I was hoping that all 3 controllers would be compatible with all 3 Sega systems dongles, and that came out to be the case. So fuck it, worth a try.

 

i have an idea demul emulator team. we can ask them if a controler with 2 sticks and more buttons is gona be compatible @MetalliC probably knows something.

 

@TerdFerguson @truemaster1
Demul supports this during many years already, you may configure 2nd analog in DC controller settings "Extended buttons" section.

so called "joyx2", "joyy2" was used in:
- racing controller, for external accelerate and brake pedals, as a lever values.
- fishing controller, acceleration sensors X/Y
- maracas controller, 2nd maracas X/Y
and I think that's all.. I doubt there exists single DC game which supports it as 2nd analog stick.

also, why don't look in official Sega Dreamcast docs ? there is pretty much full documentation for Maple protocol, and devices implementations.
Marcus's docs is ancient and much incomplete, not sure why still use it these days.