What controller do you use for PC?

[EnergyOne]

If anyone is considering a 360 controller: don't.

Buy an Xbox One controller instead with the charging pack. As soon as you plug it into your PC, it stops being a wireless controller and will automatically work with Pinball Arcade without you having to configure anything (as long as the driver is installed of course.)

Here you go.

The controller is quite superior IMO to my 360 pads.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

If anyone is considering a 360 controller: don't.

Buy an Xbox One controller instead with the charging pack. As soon as you plug it into your PC, it stops being a wireless controller and will automatically work with Pinball Arcade without you having to configure anything (as long as the driver is installed of course.)

Here you go.

The controller is quite superior IMO to my 360 pads.

XOne controllers didn't work with Windows when I got my X360 pad. Today I'd make a different choice, for sure. Maybe when I upgrade to Windows 10.

 

[EccentricFlower]

I use a keyboard. (it's a G510s gaming keyboard but really I just got it because I like keys that light up)

But I have an actual question. Yup. Here's the thing:

I'm damned if I can find a good mapping for the nudge keys that works (works, as in, can find them when I need them in a hurry but also don't need to move my fingers too far from the shift keys). I've tried four or five ideas.

I am thinking of taking my Extreme 3D pro joystick (that I never use except for my once-a-year MAME bender), mapping the flippers to the buttons on the joystick head, and using the stick movements itself for nudging. Is this workable? Is this insane? Opinions welcome.

P.S. I can't use console-style controllers. Never have found one I didn't hate. So that's out.

 

[Snorzel]

I use a ps4 remote with a thing called ds4tool. I would really like one of those xarcade contollers though

 

[JPelter]

I use DS3 with betterds3, with the shoulder buttons mapped to xbox triggers so I get analog action off the shoulder buttons for two-staging.

 

[hammr25]

I use a wireless 360 controller with the game receiver Microsoft used to make. The game receivers that are sold now can be hit or miss because they're knock offs.

 

[seattlemark]

Use a little program called AutoHotkey to make a custom script that will make windows think that they're any key you want:

http://www.autohotkey.com/

I can paste my script if you aren't familiar with the program. It's pretty common among cab users for various things.

Hi Jeff, I was familiar with AutoHotKey because I was already using it at work. Then, after seeing your post I tried to get AutoHotKey to work with middle mouse button as the hotkey to send the letter "A" to do a nudge to the left in TPA. I ran into an issue, where it is also doing a left flipper at the same time as the Nudge.

Then for debugging purposes, I tried instead to use a keyboard sequence hotkey.
For example:

^!y::
SendInput A


So doing a CTRL-ALT-y as the hotkey.

I ran into the same issue. It is incorrectly triggering a left flipper along with the nudge to the left. In fact in some cases it's doing the left flipper and missing doing the nudge.

I am running the AutoHotKey script as an Administrator. Have you run into this where AutoHotKey is incorrectly doing a left flipper? Please do post your AutoHotKey script.

P.S. The middle mouse is actually going to be expanded upon (if I can get it to work at all in the simple case of a single middle button use first). To expand it's use, I want to use that middle button as a hotkey "modifier" in AutoHotKey in conjunction with Left Mouse/Right Mouse click so as to trigger Nudge Left and Nudge Right, plus still have it working as Left Mouse/Flipper and Right Mouse/Flipper. I have it working in Notepad where I can send letter "A" or letter "D", but in TPA I run into that problem with the unwanted Left Flipper side effect (even when I am not clicking the left mouse). (I have two sideways mounted mice that I am using this with on two parallel sides of a box for now. I got the idea from that cool post in this thread showing nudnick's two scary looking keyboards. Plus your post about AutoHotkey. )

 

[Zaphod77]

you will simply have to swap the buttons so the mouse buttons are in front. this will let you use the other two for nudge with TPA, and you can autohotkey to map them for games tht can't see the mouse.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Hey sorry for the delay on posting my script. My folks are currently visiting and they've taken over my office/spare bedroom, so I haven't been able to get on my PC all week. I'll see if I can sneak in there soon. I don't recall my script off the top of my head but I know it works perfectly with left and right nudging.

 

[seattlemark]

you will simply have to swap the buttons so the mouse buttons are in front. this will let you use the other two for nudge with TPA, and you can autohotkey to map them for games tht can't see the mouse.

Zaphod77, thanks for the advice, but I am not really following what you mean about swapping the mouse buttons. I did physically rotate the two mice if that's what maybe you mean. And to avoid having to do that , I did try a "Switch primary and secondary buttons" in Control Panel/Mouse Properties, but TPA would not recognize it that way for me. And I don't know what you mean about the "other two", as I am only using a couple of 3 button mice. (A couple of Amazon Basic wired mice that I bought the other day for less than $7 each.)

Did you every have any problem with Autohotkey triggering a Left Flipper, even when you aren't doing anything with the left mouse button?

 

[Zaphod77]

The issue is that tpa directly reads the mouse buttons.

You will need to change the mouse bindings in TPA itself, to make sure the middle mouse button is NOT bound to anything id you want o use it s a modifier.

i was under the impression that you had the tankstick which has two MOUSE buttons on the side.

 

[seattlemark]

The issue is that tpa directly reads the mouse buttons.

You will need to change the mouse bindings in TPA itself, to make sure the middle mouse button is NOT bound to anything id you want o use it s a modifier.

In TPA, the middle mouse button is not used at all in my Options/Controls/Keyboard-and-Mouse. And my problem with the "Left Flipper side effect" still happens when I run the test with the AutoHotKey hotkey being just the middle mouse button alone (without anything being a modifier in that simple test).

The Left Flipper Side Effect also happens if I test using AHK with just a keyboard sequence hotkey such as:

^!y:: ; comment, uses "Ctrl-Alt-y" as the hotkey
SendInput A

where that letter "A" is Nudge-Left in TPA's Options/Controls/Keyboard-Mouse. Oddly in that case I am seeing more Left Flipper in TPA, and less of the nudge (but if I try enough times the nudge does show up). Using Send instead of SendInput in the script makes no difference. Please Note: If I am not running the AutoHotKey script, Ctrl-Alt-y has no effect at all on TPA.

On my PC, unfortunately TPA is interpreting any AHK hotkey I have tried as Left Flipper.

Note: Prior to this experiment, I have always used an Xbox controller, with Joy2Key mapping the two triggers to nudges of "A" and to "D", and do not have any problems in TPA doing it that way. (I use the bumpers on that wireless Xbox Controller as my left/right flippers, and I have those two bumpers mapped to the flippers in TPA's own Options/Controls/Controller settings.)

 

[seattlemark]

I may have this at least partially figured out. If I do a "Send a" I am not getting the Left Flipper problem. If I do a "Send A" I am getting the problem. In both cases I do get the nudge left, but the nudge even works much much better with "Send a". Interesting. It may be because of the Capital A, is getting interpreted by TPA as Shift a, and Left Shift is indeed a Left flipper.

I never thought of "A" being a problem here because in TPA's own Options/Controls/Keyboard-Mouse it shows "A" as the default for "Nudge Left" (rather than "a").

I don't get this symptom withJoy2Key where I was also using a "A". More experimentation needed!

 

[Zaphod77]

yeah seems sending upper case letters also sends the shift key. mystery solved it seems.

 

[seattlemark]

yeah seems sending upper case letters also sends the shift key.

Yes, and it appears that it's somehow specifically the Left shift key, since it's triggering a Left flipper and not a Right Flipper. What an odd situation.

 

[EccentricFlower]

I know y'all were all on the edge of your seat about my weird experiment to try to play TPA with a joystick. (I kid. I know you don't give a flying fart, but I'm gonna update anyway.)

What I did was, the joystick has four buttons up on the head of the joystick (plus a top hat); the lower pair of those buttons were mapped to flippers and the upper pair mapped to alt. flippers (y'know, in case I one day actually remember MagnaSave exists or bother using the third flipper in Starship Troopers). The joystick motions themselves were not for the flippers, but for nudging. Trigger for ball launch. (Enter and backspace were mapped to buttons on the joystick base and the top hat mapped to arrow keys for menu navigation.)

The joystick trigger gave me more control over the plunger than spacebar does, which is interesting, and the flipper buttons worked GREAT. I thought it might be a problem to be working with my hands that close together at the top of the joystick, but no.

The problem is, it didn't make nudging easier or more effective, which was the whole point of the experiment. I was hoping that in desperation I would be able to jolt the joystick to one side, rather than reaching for a key in panic that I can't find ... but it turns out that I'm just not very good at remembering to nudge, or timing nudges, or even remembering which way to nudge. (I was never good at it on real pinball tables either.) Also this joystick has a pretty firm threshold for "off zero" and I had to remember to nudge it HARD.

Back onto the shelf it goes until my next MAME bender. Oh well.

 

[nromo]

I built this.

http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=27496

 

[shutyertrap]

I built this.

http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=27496

I love when people go crazy on stuff like this. And then I become fiercely jealous that I don't have any friends that would build me one.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Very nicely done!

 

[nromo]

LOL!
I had a lot of fun building this! And more fun playing pinball with it. The snapping flippers do add realism. If ever TPA gives us LEDwiz support, I will build a pincab.
I am currently restoring two real pinball machines: F-14 Tomcat and a Sharkey's Shootout.. I should be done in about another year. Hopefully there will be some cab support from TPA by then..