- Mar 26, 2014
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Let's face it gamers; arching over a mouse and keyboard in your office chair just isn't as comfortable as leaning back with a wireless controller. Luckily, there is a happy middle I'd like to share with you and that is retro gaming controllers for your PC.
Most of you might know about Xbox and Playstation USB compatibility with your computer. Steam even has its own Big Picture mode that works seamlessly with an Xbox or Logitech gamepad. But let's push the compass- I want to use any controller with any game.
First, pick your favorite controller. They're excitingly cheap! (Feel free to search outside these links, there are many to choose from)
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dvideogames&field-keywords=usb%20controller&sprefix=usb+con%2Cvideogames
http://www.retrousb.com/index.php?cPath=21
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1b4c/
Second, most of these require no driver software or will include it. Plug and play.
Third, the most important part- customize your buttons! Using free software, you can enroll a controller's buttons to correspond with mouse clicks, keyboard strokes, and more. You can also save button profiles for each game (ex: if Space Bar does something differently in another game) With this, the combinations are pretty limitless.
http://www.xpadder.com/
http://joytokey.net/en/download
https://github.com/Ryochan7/antimicro
And that's it!
Confused? TLDR? Here's an example.
You want to play Super Smash Bros on an N64 emulator with an N64 USB controller. Install your game, buy a cheap USB controller, jot down your keyboard buttons (Z for attack, X for special attack, Arrow keys for movement, etc) and assign them to your Xpadder image. Play.
This tutorial is part of the contest entry. I've written it out of personal experience and would like to share my home PC setup in hopes of inspiring similar ideas. My desktop PC sits in the living room tucked behind a 40'' TV as my monitor. I use a wireless Xbox controller with Xpadder to assign my mouse clicks, mouse movements, and simple keyboard commands like Enter or Backspace. The joystick isn't as fluid as a mouse, but it works for normal use (Facebook, Netflix, whatever). When starting a game, I change profiles that effectively match my buttons with the correct keyboard/mouse commands. Good luck out there, I will be here to answer any questions!
Most of you might know about Xbox and Playstation USB compatibility with your computer. Steam even has its own Big Picture mode that works seamlessly with an Xbox or Logitech gamepad. But let's push the compass- I want to use any controller with any game.
First, pick your favorite controller. They're excitingly cheap! (Feel free to search outside these links, there are many to choose from)
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dvideogames&field-keywords=usb%20controller&sprefix=usb+con%2Cvideogames
http://www.retrousb.com/index.php?cPath=21
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1b4c/
Second, most of these require no driver software or will include it. Plug and play.
Third, the most important part- customize your buttons! Using free software, you can enroll a controller's buttons to correspond with mouse clicks, keyboard strokes, and more. You can also save button profiles for each game (ex: if Space Bar does something differently in another game) With this, the combinations are pretty limitless.
http://www.xpadder.com/
http://joytokey.net/en/download
https://github.com/Ryochan7/antimicro
And that's it!
Confused? TLDR? Here's an example.
You want to play Super Smash Bros on an N64 emulator with an N64 USB controller. Install your game, buy a cheap USB controller, jot down your keyboard buttons (Z for attack, X for special attack, Arrow keys for movement, etc) and assign them to your Xpadder image. Play.
This tutorial is part of the contest entry. I've written it out of personal experience and would like to share my home PC setup in hopes of inspiring similar ideas. My desktop PC sits in the living room tucked behind a 40'' TV as my monitor. I use a wireless Xbox controller with Xpadder to assign my mouse clicks, mouse movements, and simple keyboard commands like Enter or Backspace. The joystick isn't as fluid as a mouse, but it works for normal use (Facebook, Netflix, whatever). When starting a game, I change profiles that effectively match my buttons with the correct keyboard/mouse commands. Good luck out there, I will be here to answer any questions!
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