New USB N64 RetroPorts

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bunnyboy
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New USB N64 RetroPorts

Post by bunnyboy »

http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.ph ... ucts_id=82

Use N64 controllers on your computer with a simple USB adapter:

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tepples
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Post by tepples »

I should buy one and see how it compares to my Adaptoid.
bunnyboy
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Post by bunnyboy »

The functionality of the Adaptoid that is missing is OS drivers for rumble support. The hardware can do it but there are no drivers to allow games to use it yet. I am hoping I can find someone that will easily write them.

Not sure if the Adaptoid works without custom drivers either, or just uses the built in HID system. Mine should work on any system that supports USB devices (Linux!).
tepples
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Post by tepples »

Adaptoid without drivers is a plain HID joystick, and it works in both Windows and Ubuntu. (I haven't tried it in Mac OS X; the Allegro library doesn't appear to compile in Snow Leopard.) The microcontroller has a couple useful features in how it translates keypresses:
  • The corners of the Control Stick's range are stretched slightly to remap the domain within the octagonal restrictor to the square area that games expect.
  • The user can reassign either the Control Pad or the Control Stick to be the main stick: hold L+R+Z and press Up three times on the stick you want to be the main stick. (The other stick becomes the hat switch.)
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koitsu
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Post by koitsu »

I have two of RetroUSB's devices -- the SNES-to-USB adapter, and the NES-to-USB adapter. If you have questions about how they work, let me know.

And yeah, they strictly adhere to the USB HID class -- no drivers needed. The USB device name they show up under in Windows is "SNES" and "NES" as well, which is an added bonus. (Some people DO adhere to the standard... thank god. :) )
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Super-Hampster
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Post by Super-Hampster »

awesome. An n64 Wii retroport would be awesome as well.
bunnyboy
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Post by bunnyboy »

koitsu wrote:The USB device name they show up under in Windows is "SNES" and "NES" as well, which is an added bonus. (Some people DO adhere to the standard... thank god. :) )
Windows actually doesn't adhere to the standard. When it doesn't find a dedicated driver it chops the device name down to 4 characters, so you see "SNES" instead of "SNES RetroPort". It displays the full name during install so there really is no reason to do that. Fortunately "SNES", "NES ", and "N64 " work fine but some of my other devices show up as "Retr" :)
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koitsu
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Post by koitsu »

I didn't know that -- well that's lame as hell. The USB HID class supports 8 byte descriptor strings for the Manufacturer, 32 byte strings for the Product type, and the 12 byte strings for the Serial number.

Oh well, at least it supports the HID class in general. I'm just happy when I see devices that completely adhere to the standard, since they work everywhere without drivers.
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MottZilla
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Post by MottZilla »

I might have to get one or two of these. Nothing better than a N64 controller to play N64 games. Only problem is the analog sticks by todays standards are rather flimsy and wear out.
BubbleBobble
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Post by BubbleBobble »

Super-Hampster wrote:awesome. An n64 Wii retroport would be awesome as well.
agreed

I have a devilish time trying to play Mario Kart 64 with the stupid classic controller and/or the gamecube one :roll:
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Link83
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Post by Link83 »

Sorry to slightly bump this thread :oops: Im new here and just had a few questions about the USB N64 RetroPort which I hoped somebody here could help answer...

How does the N64 RetroPort map the N64's analog stick 'octagonal area' to the 'square area' expected by Windows? As tepples said, when using the old 'N64 Adaptoid':-
tepples wrote:The corners of the Control Stick's range are stretched slightly to remap the domain within the octagonal restrictor to the square area that games expect.
So I was curious to know if the RetroPort did the same thing to allow full motion in all angles? The Adaptoid also allowed you to adjust the analog sticks sensitivity, and how much of the sticks range is mapped to the 'square area' expected by Windows.

Also, I think the Adaptoid used its own DirectX Force Feedback driver to support the Rumble Pak in games, so have any rumble drivers been written for the N64 RetroPort yet? (Or is the N64 RetroPort open source?)

Lastly, I was curious how the Controller Pak backup utility worked, on the Adaptoid it backed up the saves in a rather proprietory 'A64' file which isnt very good for emulators, and I have yet to find a program to convert the saves to a more useful format. What file format/method does the N64 RetroPort use? Or is this feature not completely finished yet?

For reference you can read more details about the old N64 Adaptoid here:-
http://www.wishtech.com/drivers/readme_1278b.txt

Thanks in advance for any advice/info anyone can give me :D
ulao
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Re: New USB N64 RetroPorts

Post by ulao »

A new Adaptoid like device exists.
https://bliss-box.net/adaptoid/
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