Need help with UPCIntv and Retropie DosBox

[IMBerzerk]

Hiya fellas,

 

I'm really stumped with this one... I presently have my UPCIntv plugged into USB0 on my Pi3 and all seemed happy...except DosBox. I have my #1 gamepad in slot USB1 and #2 gamepad in slot USB2, which for whatever reason, do not get recognized by the mapper program for DosBox... I posted this issue on the DosBox Vogons forum as well.

 

I have tried to no avail to swap around the the UPCI into other USB slots and setup the hackfile to represent what it is...leaving USB0 to handle my USB gamepad. However, as soon as I remove the gamepad from USB0, the UPCI wants to go back to joystick 0/1 and dumps the config settings in the hackfile rendering the setting useless. Meaning the hackfile is there, but the UPCI seems to ignore it and only works correctly in USB0.

 

For example.... I put the UPCI in USB1 and my gamepad in USB0. I then setup my hackfile to assign player 1 as JOY1 and player 2 and JOY2 respectively changing all button assignments as well.

 

All works good as long as I have my gamepad plugged into USB0... as soon as I take it out... the USPCIntv seeks JOY0 and JOY1 regardless of what I have in the hackfile. Reboot is no help.

 

 

Now... forward to DosBox... the problem is this... if I leave UPCI in USB0, DosBox does not recognize anything other than USB0 and USB1 and only sees the two INTV controllers plugged in.

So I need to have 1 USB gamepad plugged into USB0 in order to configure DosBox to have a game controller.

 

Make sense?

thanks in advance for any help or advice.

 

JR.

 

 

[IMBerzerk]

I see what's happening, but I can't stop it from occurring.

 

Unless I have the UPCI physically plugged into USB0 at all times, it constantly looks to go to USB0... meaning I plug it into USB2, if nothing is plugged into USB2 or USB1, the UPCI will get assigned USB0 regardless of what USB port it's physically plugged into.

 

This is wreaking havoc on my setup. Is there any way I can lock the UPCI into another physical port (USB2) or is this a OS issue with Retropie/Raspberry?

[mr_me]

Well you are lucky you're not using windows, it's even more limiting. Computers don't have port or game controller numbers. Linux assigns game controller order by usb port order. So if only one controller is plugged in, it becomes the first controller regardless of what usb port its plugged into. In Linux you can change the order by moving them around. In Windows you can't even do that. These computers use the game controller names and expect applications to assign them by their names. Unfortunately neither DOSbox or jzintv uses controller names.

 

DOS only recognises upto two joysticks. As far as I know DOSbox takes the first two game controllers and that's it. It might be possible to use a Linux keyboard mapper rather than the Dosbox mapper to use the third or fourth controller and possibly identify them by name.

 

Jzintv assigns the first four controllers j0 to j3. And using hackfiles you can use any of the four js as left or right controller. You can ask the developer to add assign by name as a wishlist idea. As a workaround you could setup two jzintv keymaps (eg. Map1 uses j0/j1 and map2 uses j2/j3) and flip between them as needed.

 

So, as you know, one solution is only have two controllers plugged in at a time. And it makes no difference which usb ports you use. The other solution is leave them all plugged in and don't change the order.

Edited June 10, 2017 by mr_me

[IMBerzerk]

Looks like that's what I have to do... leave 1 USB gamepad in USB0 at all times... it's ok... the INTV controller is very difficult to use as a menu navigator anyway...

 

Thanks for the help..

 

JR

[pimpmaul69]

Looks like that's what I have to do... leave 1 USB gamepad in USB0 at all times... it's ok... the INTV controller is very difficult to use as a menu navigator anyway...

 

Thanks for the help..

 

JR

Ok so the best thing is to leave your hackfile set to player 0 and 1. Put the the upci in port 2 leaving usb0 and 1 for your other controllers. When you arent using other controllers unplug them. Now i am not around here as much as i used to be, but if you want to know anything about dosbox on the pi you should post over at the retropie forums. I live there. I have an extreme amount of knowledge with running dosbox and setting up .sh files to be able to boot straight into games seperately.

[mr_me]

Actually there is another solution. In the jzintv hackfile under "map 0" assign js0 to pd0l, js1 to pd0r, js2 to pd0l, and js3 to pd0r. That way no matter if one, two, or no other controllers are attached, jzintv still uses the upci, although left/right is reversed with one extra controller.

Edited June 10, 2017 by mr_me

[pimpmaul69]

Actually there is another solution. In the jzintv hackfile under "map 0" assign js0 to pd0l, js1 to pd0r, js2 to pd0l, and js3 to pd0r. That way no matter if one, two, or no other controllers are attached, jzintv still uses the upci, although left/right is reversed with one extra controller.

i havent really paid attention past the first part of the hackfile, but using the hackfile.cfg from intellivision.us it automatically uses controllers 0 and 2 as the same and 1 and 3 as the same. The only thing i dont remember is if the exit reset and pause worked on controllers 2 and 3

[IMBerzerk]

Just wanted to say thanks for this. I went with option#1. I moved the UPCI over to USB2 and will just remove the USB controllers before I play any games. It works really well.

 

It's good to know even crazy stuff like this we can rely on guys here to answer. LOL! Was driving me nuts for hours as I thought you could hard assign the USB ports like a serial port.

Best,

 

JR

[pimpmaul69]

Was driving me nuts for hours as I thought you could hard assign the USB ports like a serial port.

Best,

 

JR

now as far as retroarch libretro emulators you can assign specific joysticks as player 1-4 or assign specific joysticks to specific systems. If you go into retropie menu and choose runcommand. Then you can enable joystick selection. Exit.Then restart your system. Then in the retropie menu you will see joystick selection. Remember though, only emulators that use retroarch (which about 80% of them do) can use this. Edited June 11, 2017 by pimpmaul69

[mr_me]

i havent really paid attention past the first part of the hackfile, but using the hackfile.cfg from intellivision.us it automatically uses controllers 0 and 2 as the same and 1 and 3 as the same. The only thing i dont remember is if the exit reset and pause worked on controllers 2 and 3

If exit/reset/pause functions are missing on js2 and js3, they can be added easily.

[pimpmaul69]

If exit/reset/pause functions are missing on js2 and js3, they can be added easily.

yeah, i just dont use the same setup so i stopped messing around with it.