Posted by Druin on 7, 2000 at 5:53 PM:
In Reply to: Question posted by Marshall on 7, 2000 at 3:56 PM:
: >that's how the joystick Y cables work, they >don't do anything magical, they just provide the >extra connections that normally go wasted in a >single joystick being plugged into the game port >directly.
: Does a joystick Y cable split the outputs like my idea does, or does it simply provide two inputs for the gameport. In other words, does a Y cable connect Pin 1 Connector 1 and Pin 1 Connector 2 to Pin 1 Gameport, or does it route the Connector 2 Device to the Gameport 2nd joystick inputs, in which case you really wouldn't need my device?
I finally looked more closely at your wiring scheme and I see what you've done, making the extra 2 buttons from the other joystick available on the current joystick cable so that after the joysticks are split, each device could still be a possible 4 button joystick instead of being split so that you only get 2 buttons max per joystick, taking away from the benefit of plugging a 4 button single joystick into a dual joystick port and wiring into the unused joystick #2 to use its buttons for extras on #1.
I don't know how the Y cables work, if they completely split it as strictly joystick 1 controls going to the first Y split and strictly Joystick #2 controls going only to the second Y split....if that's how it does work, then your scheme does have a benefit in allowing more buttons to work on a split cable, but someone who actually has a Y cable will have to answer that.
And I don't know about simultaneous 2 player action with the swapped buttons...like if player 1 is mapped into the player 2 buttons to use those, then player 2 can't simultaneously use those buttons for its own unique function...because that would mean Player 2 button 1 would need to at the same time be set up as player 2 button 1, and player 1 button 3..etc..
But I'm just going in circles now...