The gamecube analog stick is capable of something like 36 unique directions, was there ever a stick made for gamecube that would do this? Just curious as me and a few friends were talking about playing smash with a stick for some laughs.
Most sticks are microswitch based which gives you 8 directions. You could buy a big enough case, and the case would have to be HUGE, and buy an analog stick to put into it. Then you’d have analog control that would give you as many degrees as the game would allow.
I was thinking more on the lines of some kind of mod from an optical stick, but I don’t know what kind of readouts those give. Just curious if it’s feasible, if it wasn’t too expensive i’d give it a go as I have plenty of casings and buttons. Just setting up an optical stick to read correctly is something I would have no idea how to do.
I’m not sure if optical sticks have more than 8 directions. I know for sure an analog stick will, and then some. It would be like having a giant DualShock analog stick in your case.
Seimitsu makes the LS- 64. Its a Huge for a Japanese joystick. Think of it like a oversized PS2 analog stick, uses the same signals as a analog thumb pad.
Akihabarashop is the only one I know who carries it. Also it is not cheap, 6,490¥ or aprox $80.50 US****.
MC Cthulhu or Kitty can do that for you with a standard stick, for either Mellee or Brawl.
Padhacking a Wii-mote could also do it for Brawl, but not Mellee.
Using analog sticks to make a monstrous GC controller or Wiimote controller: Bad idea. Not because of the sticks, but because of the triggers.
Now I am thinking is this 36 directions on paper on in practice? Also I am wondering what game if any takes full advantage of this?
Far as I know Melee, Brawl, Soul Caliber II, TvC and other GameCube and Wii Fighting games are only set to recognize 8 directions.
I think Toodles suggestion is the most practical. Also trigger hacking is a #$%@*&^% Pain in the Ass.
gamecube analog sticks are 8 bits, so (2^8)^2 = ~65k possible combinations of X and Y for each of the two analog sticks.
All I know is I read something about certain teleport recoveries like shiek/zelda can go 36 different direction based on what you do. 8-bit makes more since though.
I could of sworn that Teleport recovery of Zelda/Shiek is only in 8 directions. Where did you read that Zelda could go 36 Directions from?
Some tutorial video for how to play sheik/zelda. Think it was a brawl video, not 100% sure about it as I never checked it but looked pretty convincing.
brawl/melee as far as i know recognize 16 directions. Up, tilted up, up right, tilted upright, right, tilt right, down right, tilt downright, down, tilt down, down left, tilt downleft, left, tilt left, up left, tilt up left.
I know Zelda/Shiek’s animation looks like it’s going directly from point A to point B. However I’m curious, is that from a single joystick readout or is it more like Pikachu in that you have to press several directional directions to get such a final outcome? Don’t take my word for it alone I vaguely recall doing some really swively movements with the joystick when warping as zelda on melee and ending up at somewhat strange angles.
The thing I’d be most worried about is that that Smash Bros attacks are not only a function of orientation but also one of velocity. The difference between a basic move and a smash attack, insofar as the controller’s concerned, seems to be a function of velocity. The former can be done by just pressing the directional key and hitting A, while the latter requires a quick sharp peak in acceleration in order to execute. Can a digital input device even detect the difference between a slow movement and a fast one? Do correct me if I’m wrong I think it’s just direction on, direction off, based upon my last test in the Windows Gamepad panel. I vaguely recall having rather jumpy results with the JLF no matter which modality I put it in.
That was quite a while ago but if this just so happens to be the case, you might not even be able to access most of the characters’ basic moves should you ever need to, at least, not unless your character already had momentum going in that direction. This is bad because Smash Bros games tend to be all over the place, especially in free for all games. You’d be using needlessly crippled controls with a more nominal digital stick if this is the case.
It’s a home console game designed around home console controls and it’s most particularly centered around proper use of the analog thumbstick. I’d personally try to emulate that function of the controller as closely as possible to make sure all design considerations were properly executed. I’ll leave you to think most of that over yourself but I do think you’ll need an analog joystick at the very least, as moonchilde suggests. My one word before I do is how’re you going to block without lock in trigger buttons of some sort? Separate button assignments?
You could actually probably use a resistor button, like the first button of the bottom row to half all the voltages so the digital outs are reporting differently. That way you could hold it in with your thumb to walk for example, do basic attacks, block while using the top row freely with your 4 fingers. But that would require a very custom stick, one you couldn’t use for street fighter since the first button of the bottom row would be a “walk” button in PC terms. Or, you could make the bottom row a 5 button row, which would actually work much better since then you could hold the walk button with your thumb and easily go from top to bottom with your 4 fingers and you could still use it for street fighter.
Good luck figuring out how to wire a beast up like that though. I have no idea how you’d get the joystick to wire to an analog spot on a GC PCB.