Twin-Stick PC now works! (found how to do it)

[Viper2]

I've been playing VOOM on an old PC since a few months now, and although I can control everything pretty well using the keyboard, I wasn't too happy about not being able to execute certain moves (due to the maximum number of keys that can be pressed in at once).

Having tried a gamepad, and not liking the experience, I decided to get a Twin-Stick PC. I received it today, but it doesn't seem to work My system apparently doesn't see the Twin-Stick. I've hooked it up to the game port, but in VOOM I can select the Twin-Stick, but VOOM won't let me set the options for it (so VOOM doesn't see it). I've tried removing the game port in Device Manager and letting Windows reinstall the driver - doesn't help.

Some system specs:
- Pentium II 266 MHz with 192 Mb RAM, Ensoniq AudioPCI soundcard with game port, Asus Riva TNT2 M64 32 Mb videocard (about right for when VOOM was released, don't you think?)
- Windows 98 SE
- VOOM Win98

Now I mentioned the gamepad (USB), which required some software to be installed to work. Could that be interfering with the game port? If not, that leaves:
- Broken game port
- Broken Twin-Stick PC (does it need a driver? I got the box, very new looking Twin-Stick PC, Japanese instruction sheet (which I can't read), some customer response card thing, and that's it...no driver disc)

Any ideas?

[MentholMoose]

That is a very old setup, I don't think I've dealt with a gameport for 10 years!!!! It actually sounds like a fun project, though.

The 9x OSs are temperamental, so the USB gamepad could be causing problems. Try uninstalling the drivers and see what happens. Also make sure the Ensoniq drivers are the newest available (sounds weird to say "newest", maybe "least old" is better ). The sound card might have a configuration utility that has options for the gameport, so check that out.

Unless you are on a super tight budget, I'd suggest replacing the soundcard, maybe with a Soundblaster Live ($5-10 on eBay). I think those were the best for gaming back then.

Sorry I couldn't be more help, I don't have much experience troubleshooting 9x systems... I gave up on 9x since the Windows 2000 beta and never looked back.

[Viper2]

Okay, figured it out:

The Twin-Stick is essentially set up as two separate joysticks attached to one gameport using a splitter - except that the splitter is built into the Twin-Stick housing instead of being a separate box, so there's only 1 cable coming out of the Twin-Stick.

- Attach Twin-Stick PC to gameport.
- In the Game Controllers Control Panel, add two 2-axis, 2 button joysticks. Each will control one stick.
- For each joystick, go to the settings, and calibrate each using the corresponding stick on the Twin-Stick - the first joystick in the Game Controllers list is the left Twin-Stick stick, and the second is the right Twin-Stick stick.
- Click OK a few times. Close Control Panel.
- Start Virtual-On Operation Moongate PC version.
- Hit the spacebar once if the Demo movie starts. Hit the Alt key to access the menus. Go to the "Options" menu, and choose "Device Settings..." (alternatively, you can hit F7 once the game has started to go straight to the "Device Settings..." dialog box).
- At "Input Device" choose "Twin-Stick PC". Hit the "Next"-button and click "OK".
- Twin-Stick PC ready to use.

Since VOOM PC can be had for cheap on Yahoo Auction Japan (it cost me around 15 Euro including middelman fees and shipping) and there's gameport-to-USB adapters there is nearly nothing to stop other people from playing VOOM on a Twin-Stick on a PC, except that you need to run it in Win 98 since it doesn't work in XP and Vista/Win7 do not support gameports anymore. I'm not sure if the Twin-Stick will work if you run Win 98 in Virtual PC or another OS virtualizer.

[Viper2]

Some additional information:

I also had a look inside the Twin-Stick housing, and I believe the sticks are exactly the same as those of the Saturn controller. There's just a small daughterboard that functions as the internal gameport splitter. It shouldn't be hard to convert a Saturn Twin-Stick to PC use.

For those that feel adventurous, the pin layout of a gameport can be found on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gameport

The pins used on the Twin-Stick PC are:
1 to 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14
Pin 4 is used as the ground pin for all buttons
Pins 14 and 10 are used for button 1 and 2 of the right stick, I think.

[MentholMoose]

I'm glad to hear that you got it to work!

One quick request... Since I have never seen the innards of PC Twin Sticks, would you mind taking and posting a couple pics when you get a chance?

[darwinshah]

hi bro.. ive just got my pc twinstick.. i even bought the converter for the old port.. however, im unable to calibrate my joystick with my windows 7 setting.. do you have any idea how to solve this problem? should i emulate windows 98 with virtual pc 2007? any other ideas? thanks man.. have a nice day..