NeoGeo CD controller on PC

[ffman1985]

Finally, we can play using the ngcd controller on pc. A very good news for ngcd fans.

https://automaton-media.com/articles/newsjp/20230706-254744/

 

It is perfect on game like Windjammers.

Edited July 9, 2023 by ffman1985

[mer-curious]

Yes, I've always wanted to try one of these controllers with NG games on emulators, especially with fighting games. But then I read in some forums that the d-pad in this controller is terrible for fighting games, which is quite a surprising allegation since SNK was the master of fighting games in the 1990s. Then I lost the motivation to look for one it's been a while already. I was interested in the PS2 or the PS3 versions which were released over a decade ago.

Now this new 8bitdo release looks very tempting from the promotional pictures, here:

https://www.8bitdo.com/neogeo-wireless-controller/

And the price is very inviting too:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9BZR395

Anyway, I'll let you know my impressions if I ever get one of these, and, of course, how it works with Raine.

Edited July 28, 2023 by mer-curious

[ffman1985]

The neogeocd controller may not be the best choice for fighting games, i prefer the neogeo stick more, but it does not have a newer release which supports the xinput.

Also, bear in mind that the 2018 release of the ngcd style controller did not follow the design of the click-style joystick of the original controller, plus the button layout is switched. So, even of its low price, neogeo fans should not buy that.

However, for the 8bitdo one, it officially states that “Featuring the iconic classic click-style joystick”. So, it will be sth totally different from the 2018 one, i am very confident to this one according to my experience on its other classical controllers, it always try to follow the design of the original.

Edited July 28, 2023 by ffman1985

[Tux]

While on the subject of controllers, I tested this cheap controller on my part : https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WBYFX24/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The plus : it's solid. The minus : the d-pad is really not precise, not advised if you want to use this for fighting games !

Also from kernel 5.16 in linux if i remember correctly, this thing is recognized as a nintendo  switch controller instead of an xbox one, which means inversion of buttons and the sticks feel slightly different (if you reboot in windows after that, the sticks are unusable, windows can't adapt to this config ! you need to turn the computer off to reset the autodetection so that it can recognize it as an xbox controler).

Ah, and a last thing, it has some long usb cable to charge the battery but oddly it can't be used as an usb controller, you must use it in wireless mode, eventually charging its battery with the usb cable at the same time !

But I have it since 2021, and it still does its job, so it's not bad. You can turn off the annoying lights of course. The battery is charged quite quickly and lasts for long sessions after that so it's ok.

[mer-curious]

On 7/28/2023 at 11:51 AM, ffman1985 said:

Also, bear in mind that the 2018 release of the ngcd style controller did not follow the design of the click-style joystick of the original controller, plus the button layout is switched. So, even of its low price, neogeo fans should not buy that.

Yes, I know about that. Instead of the traditional A, B, C, D button layout (from left to right) they came up with B, A, D, C in the NG Classic Mini controller. I don't know why on earth SNK approved this decision, especially considering that some early NG games do not support button remapping if I'm not wrong, but I also strongly disliked this change in the controller design. Hopefully 8bitdo fixed this.

 

On 7/28/2023 at 3:59 PM, Tux said:

While on the subject of controllers, I tested this cheap controller on my part : https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WBYFX24/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The plus : it's solid. The minus : the d-pad is really not precise, not advised if you want to use this for fighting games !

Thanks for the suggestion, Tux! This controller has a nice price too, but I'm not sure if it is worth it considering the issues with the d-pad and the PC drivers. Perhaps for the Switch, Android and PS3...

By the way, the 8bitdo controller is also available from Aliexpress, here:

https://aliexpress.com/item/1005005795535578.html

I'm inclined to getting one from there to avoid the import taxes to Brazil. But I guess I'll wait some reviews first...

Edited July 30, 2023 by mer-curious

[Tux]

There is no pc driver, the auto detection problem is in linux only since kernel 5.16 or so, so if you boot only windows it will always be recognized as an xbox controller. And even for me, if I want the xbox controller the only reliable method is to boot windows 1st, then reboot in linux, too bad they didn't include something to force this auto detection to something... ! It's annoying, but it's just that, annoying, you can work around it.

[Leonhard]

I recently purchased it and it's quite good, pretty faithful to the original with some minor differences.

[Tux]

And an update on this too, I recently bought a new one, chose one recommended by tom's hardware : Nacon EVOL-X

Really good compared to the piece of crap I had previously, you sense some resistance in the joysticks moves which is very nice (more precision and durability probably), and even in the cross. Really not comparable to what I had before.

Worth mentioning : it's for the xbox one apparently, it requires that the pc sends some initialization command through usb otherwise the gamepad remains inert (and its power led is off). It's done automatically by windows since they push to have xbox controllers to become standard on pc, but it's not in the mainline linux kernel yet, so you have to use an alternate driver for this one, I got xone-dlundqvist-dkms-git from arch, works flawlessly with that.