Trying again...Please answer survey about racing games and PC wheels

[Swami]

Okay, first poll apparently self-destructed from editing the question format, so trying again.

 

 

So, this is just an interest of mine to see what can be done and just like the idea of being able to use a wheel and pedals with all my consoles for racing and similar games. However, I know I have heard interest from about four other people in using an actual racing wheel on the 5200, so I wanted to see how many other people share this interest and have wheels they could use to try out such games. For instance, how analog versus digital gas/brake with pedals works or how well/centered the steering is, etc. I got such a thing working well with a playstation to PC gameport adapter, a mad catz universal racing wheel and a couple adapters, but it is not something easily obtainable or inexpensive, while good gameport PC wheels are often under $50 total with shipping or at a local thrift shop and a lot of people already have bohoki adapters.

Right now, for racing games, there is only pole position and pitstop, but I know a couple other 8-bit games have been talked about for conversion. Games like Asteroids also fit well with steering wheel and pedals, since if gas pedal is set to up, it is thrust, along with some others. Now, recently, Video61 came out with an Asteroids unoffical sequel called "Megaoids," which is quite interesting. It can also add a little barely noticable exercise to your gameplay. I've been looking into programming some and would find hacking this sort of thing interesting, although it could be a year or so before I am adept at it. I've also considered checking wheels and fixing if necessary and selling them, if there is interest, but of course the shipping cost is a consideration in not losing money yet keeping it affordable.

Edit: I rambled on about wheels and pedals but the paddle mods and pc ultra-racer are fun when you dont want to drag out the wheel. Ive used these a lot along with the PlayStation Puchi Carat controller. I think the main barrier to the wheel and pedals experience is games where acceleration is up. Also, a flight yolk with pedals and triggers on the yolk handles would be more ideal for those drive and shoot games like Car Fighter.

 

[rayik]

No disrespect intended but the 5200 games have simple control scheme designed to work with analog stick (steering) and digital buttons (gas / brake). Just don't see how pedals would add anything unless game code is rewritten for analog gas / brake input.

[Swami]

No disrespect intended but the 5200 games have simple control scheme designed to work with analog stick (steering) and digital buttons (gas / brake). Just don't see how pedals would add anything unless game code is rewritten for analog gas / brake input.

 

That is correct and that is what I am working on. I'm just finishing testing on a hack of pole position hacked by Paul of playsoft that uses analog or digital up/down for acceleration and braking and the buttons for gear shift. That is what I meant by "hacked to be compatible with a PC wheel with pedals." Otherwise, I would probably would have just said "hacked to be compatible with the 5200."

[Swami]

I should add, if you have a racing wheel without pedals, then you could either use a standard 8-bit to 5200 hack of a racing game, and you would probably use the fire buttons on the wheel for acceleration and braking, or a pedal hack, and you would use buttons or the paddle shifters, but either would not be analog.

[0078265317]

I have ps1 pedal and wheels but does not work with any adapters. I used a gyromite accessory once with masterplay for brake and gas.

 

[Swami]

In pole position, the analog gas allows you to slow down just a bit when rounding corners or weaving around cars so you don't have to use the grass or completely release the button. I was able to get a high score in Pole Position with the Saitek R100 wheel and pedals. Another nice thing about having the gas/brake hacked for up/down is that you can also use the PC UltraRacer and the finger trigger is analog, so you can have analog steering with the paddle and analog acceleration and braking with the finger trigger, which is analog, if you prefer a more compact controller to the arcade experience of analog gas and brake with an analog wheel.

 

Right now, I've been testing the pole position hack with the PC ultraracer and bohoki adapter and a Saitek R100 wheel and pedal system, which seems to work right out of the box with the bohoki adapter. Although, I may try to adjust the pot positions in the pedals a bit to check optimizing the performance. The Mad Catz Analog PC wheel also sounds like it would work "out of the box."

 

Also, with the standard controller, it saves a lot of strain on your button finger, since youre only shifting with it, but I have to check how much you slow down rounding corners. The game has two analog pedal modes and one digital up/down mode, so I believe in digital mode, at least, there is no slowing down on turns.

 

A bit of a disclaimer: Although, some wheels and pedals will work "out of the box", as bohoki has said in other threads some gameport pc wheels after about 1995 may not work, probably due to making them compatible with dos in windows or programmability. These are usually those with more than four "fire" buttons or more than two on wheel and two with shifter or programmable ones or require drivers to work in DOS. Also, some may require a simple rewiring of the pins, such as the Thrustmaster Formula T2, with a homemade adapter which can be easily made quickly with a couple very inexpensive DB15 breakout adapters, a couple capacitors and a couple 500k pots. The T2 has the gas and accelerator on the second x-axis, so it has to be wired to the y-axis and the +5V pot common is on pin 9 rather than pin 1. As mentioned above, the PC Ultraracer paddle with analog finger trigger should work out of the box.

[Swami]

Also, Paul asked me to handle the game and comments, so be nice to him for giving us this gift and dont chase him. ?

[0078265317]

So if pole position is analog then how does my masterplay clone work which is digital.

[Swami]

So if pole position is analog then how does my masterplay clone work which is digital.

I think you get the extreme joystick value in each direction for steering. With analog steering, you can see three distinct angles to the car in each direction, as you slowly move the joystick left or right. With a digital joystick, it would only move between centered and the farthest of the three angles in either direction, I suspect. With the hack you could only use the digital gas/brake mode. I suspect, whichever mode you chose, it would always go full acceleration or brake.

[Swami]

So if pole position is analog then how does my masterplay clone work which is digital.

Also, some of these Masterplay clones have a paddle mode. I don't have one with paddle mode, so I'm not sure whether you can get analog joystick behavior or not in paddle mode.

[0078265317]

Also, some of these Masterplay clones have a paddle mode. I don't have one with paddle mode, so I'm not sure whether you can get analog joystick behavior or not in paddle mode.

No paddle mode in mine either. But I have that other custom built paddle.

[Omega-TI]

I honestly cannot commit to anything, because I don't envision myself buying a new controller for a single game. I have a 'wait & see attitude' when it comes to the 5200. If multiple (decent) games are ever released (that I want to play), I'll re-evaluate the situation then. But for that to happen, I expect YEARS to go by.

[Swami]

I honestly cannot commit to anything, because I don't envision myself buying a new controller for a single game. I have a 'wait & see attitude' when it comes to the 5200. If multiple (decent) games are ever released (that I want to play), I'll re-evaluate the situation then. But for that to happen, I expect YEARS to go by.

That's understandable. At $20-$40, some people will want to buy something like the PC UltraRacer or a PC racing setup for the game because it is of particular interest to them and some won't. I know several people already have the UltraRacer or a racing setup, so it's not an investment in their case. Mostly, I'm just interested in seeing how the group compares to some people I've talked with with those interests. It would be nice if it were useful with other controllers as well. If I ported a game like this, I would probably include both the original and 4-way analog options in the hack. And, yes, we've come to expect you never know how long or if something is actually going to be completed.

[Swami]

No paddle mode in mine either. But I have that other custom built paddle.

Is the Robbie device itself an on/off switch or is it analog? You might be able to splice it in with an analog stick or flight yoke on the bohoki adapter, like you did with the Masterplay clone.

[0078265317]

Is the Robbie device itself an on/off switch or is it analog? You might be able to splice it in with an analog stick or flight yoke on the bohoki adapter, like you did with the Masterplay clone.

No its just the controller holder for the nes controller with the blue and red big circles. The nes controllers are digital. So no good. The arkanoid paddle isnanalog but the one I have is busted. So I wont know for sure if it works with PP 5200.

[Swami]

No its just the controller holder for the nes controller with the blue and red big circles. The nes controllers are digital. So no good. The arkanoid paddle isnanalog but the one I have is busted. So I wont know for sure if it works with PP 5200.

 

It still gives you a bit of the arcade experience with the pedal, so that is cool.