Has anyone been able to get the new VCS Classic Joystick working with Stella?

[Mockduck]

The fire button works but nothing else. This is with the Classic in Xbox mode. Anyone been able to get it working? 

 

So far I have found very spotty compatibility with the Classic on PC, although recently I was able to get it working ok in Steam in Xbox mode. Twist doesn't work that way of course, but I could get it working on Steam. Nothing else though!

[mr_me]

How does it show up in the windows game controller test program (joy.cpl)?  Any difference between different modes?

 

Stella will normally map automatically, both the first x/y axis and the pov hat to the emulated joystick directions.  Look in Stella > Options > Emul events.  Try manually mapping joystick directions.  You can also check the emulated paddle inputs for analog input.

[Mockduck]

5 hours ago, mr_me said:

How does it show up in the windows game controller test program (joy.cpl)?  Any difference between different modes?

 

Stella will normally map automatically, both the first x/y axis and the pov hat to the emulated joystick directions.  Look in Stella > Options > Emul events.  Try manually mapping joystick directions.  You can also check the emulated paddle inputs for analog input.

YES!!! Thanks to you I've got it working. 

 

I checked the settings in Windows and that remained fine, with Windows continuing to pick up directional and button movement in its properties. It displays as "Controller (Xbox 360 for Windows". I was still unable to get it working with Stella, including getting it to re-map the directionals. I could attempt to Map a stick movement, but Stella failed to recognize the input. 

 

Then, just for the heck of it I hit the Default button. Whatever that did cleared out whatever issue was going on and the controller "just worked". So, I'm now good in Stella! I attempted to remap the Paddle increase and decrease to the Twist, but the program wouldn't register the input. The Classic will use basic joystick left/right for paddle games. I did notice that the directional pad still does not re-map in Stella but I was able to map the Fire button. 

[mr_me]

How does the spinner show in the windows test program?  The spinner should show as an analog axis.  The individual game/rom settings in stella should be set to paddle and it sounds like that's the case here.  You probably also tried mapping the spinner to the paddle in stella settings. 

 

If it's all detected properly in the windows game controller test program than the problem should be with the game software or its settings.

[mr_me]

You can see the spinner working with Stella in this video, around 9:30 mark.

 

[+stephena]

Options -> Input Settings -> Devices & Ports -> Autofire rate: Make sure it is 'Off'.

[Atari Nut]

On 3/15/2021 at 11:54 AM, Mockduck said:

The fire button works but nothing else. This is with the Classic in Xbox mode. Anyone been able to get it working? 

 

So far I have found very spotty compatibility with the Classic on PC, although recently I was able to get it working ok in Steam in Xbox mode. Twist doesn't work that way of course, but I could get it working on Steam. Nothing else though!

What would the advantage be of setting the controller to xbox mode instead of just using it in the default mode?

[Mockduck]

3 hours ago, Atari Nut said:

What would the advantage be of setting the controller to xbox mode instead of just using it in the default mode?

When you hook it up over USB it makes no difference that I can tell, but if you are connecting over Bluetooth I've found that it is necessary to set it to "Xbox mode" to map the controller to a standard Xbox 360 bluetooth set of drivers and get it recognized without issue in Steam and Windows (and now, thankfully, Stella. I will have to look into twist.) 

[Mockduck]

I would also note that the VCS Modern Controller "just works" so far and was immediately recognized by everything but my old version of MAME, which is probably related to it being an older version.