Using arcade-style controls with .app file through keyboard encoder?

Lokitoes

Hi all,

Has anyone ever connected their GS game to arcade equipment through a keyboard encoder? Eg. make an animation go off on 'G' button, and make arcade button think it is the 'G' button through keyboard encoder? AND/OR use keyboard encoder arrow buttons for basic 2-way or 4-way joystick.

I'm planning to do this but I realise that I am just blindly hoping that it will work without seeing others do it. Do you think there are any potential issues I would run into? Is there any documentation around of others doing it? (It’s hard to search for ‘gamesalad arcade controls’ without a lot of other things coming up!)

Bearing in mind that this is for a stand-alone home-built arcade project, so I’m not really asking about native joystick support (though I know this is currently a GS work in progress?) because this isn’t an app that I would be releasing online for others to use with their own equipment – it only has to work with my own controls and keyboard encoder.

To be more specific about what I’m planning to do this for: I use GS on mac so the outputted file would be .app for desktop. This will be for a projection display so I will just have it running at fullscreen constantly. I plan to have one arcade button being a bit 'reset' button, as I’m sure that’s one problem I’ll run into, and the other buttons plus joysticks will set off some basic animations, change levels, or move things from side to side. Thus, what I’ll be making isn’t so much an intricate game but an interactive display (which is necessary due to the space it will be in).

Cheers
Lokitoes

PS. If anyone on here happens to be a fabricator of custom arcade controls feel free to pop me a line for paid work.

tatiang

I don't have much experience with this but I don't see why you couldn't do it. I assume you're just mapping a physical control (e.g. a joystick button) to a keyboard key. GameSalad should see the key input as it does an actual press of the key.

Lokitoes

That's what I'm hoping as well - seems right in theory. We'll see how it goes!

jamie_c

I don't have any experience with it either, but as was mentioned above if the control maps to keyboard buttons it seems like it should work. I'd be interested in hearing about your progress, I've wanted to build a cabinet at home for ages to host my own games and just have not had time. I'm not sure what control you are looking at, but in the past I've looked at the X-arcade and they seem awesome.

http://shop.xgaming.com/collections/arcade-joysticks/products/x-arcade-solo-joystick-usb-included

Lokitoes

@jamie_c‌ that looks good! I'm having to build my own as I only have a specific amount of space to fit the control box in. I've bought a bunch of Sanwa buttons and joysticks - they're meant to be a good brand. If it works out I'll post some pictures!