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    setting up 2 gamepads on one computer

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by londez, Oct 8, 2008.

  1. londez

    londez Notebook Evangelist

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    Is it possible to have 2 of the same joysticks/gamepads plugged into a computer and detected separatley, or will they override each other? I recently downloaded MAME and a whole bunch of multiplayer ROMs and the keyboard is a pain in the but to control with (plus i don't want to have friends mashing on it when we play two player).
     
  2. Hep!

    Hep! sees beauty in everything

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    Depends on the emulator you use, but I've done this before. Simply maps the buttons on the joypads to unique keyboard keys. So the "A" button or whatever on one pad maps to Q, the other maps to P, etc. As long as nothing overlaps, no issues.
     
  3. redrazor11

    redrazor11 Formerly waterwizard11

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    Yes, but it usually depends on the emulator or type of game pad you use. It's just as easy as programming the key's seperatly. The computer see's it all as one extention to the keyboard, so there shouldn't be much of an issue.
     
  4. FatMangosLAWL

    FatMangosLAWL Notebook Evangelist

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    Joy2key ftw. Just map different keys to different commands to each of the gamepads.
     
  5. Tinderbox (UK)

    Tinderbox (UK) BAKED BEAN KING

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  6. IWantMyMTV

    IWantMyMTV Notebook Evangelist

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    I use two Saitek P2600s with mame and they work just fine without even using Saitek's keyboard emulation software...

    You fire up the emulator, load in your rom, and then hit 'Tab' to enter the menu...you can either adjust the keyboard/joystick inputs globally or for the game currently running...

    I used the D-pad for up/down/left/right, Select for coin, Start for start and then however many buttons the game needs...the input menu will display Joystick 1 Up or Joystick 1 Button 0 or Joystick 2 Down or whatever you press after you hit enter...

    The shoulder triggers I use for games where you rotated a knob (ie, Ikari Warriors)...I think mame sees them as buttons 4 and 5...

    The only difficulty I have is the initial determination of which gamepad is #1 and which is #2...

    I won't guarantee this works for all pads, but the Saiteks are very easy to set up with mame...

    I do the same thing for EA Sports games, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, X-Men Legends 2, Demonstone, Tony Hawk 4, other emulators (N64, Genesis) and never use the keyboard emulation software...