Game supporting multiple buttons

[mrknight]

I'm in the process of rewiring a Sega Mega Drive controller to use with my Amiga. As it is now, I can use button B and C on the controller (Button 1 and Button 2 on the Amiga) without further modifications. I'm thinking of rewiring so C is Up. Good for games with jumping. I prefer to have the jump button on the right side of the fire button (I'm an old NES player!). This would be easiest but I would loose one button.

That's the background, now for the question. Most game as far as I can remember only supported one joystick button and Up was commonly used for jumping in platform games. Did any game support multiple buttons, and if so, which games?

[matthey]

Flashback
Street Fighter 2
Sqrxz 1 & 2
Hired Guns (supports 3 buttons with mod)
Doom (supports 6 buttons with 6 button controller and mod)
ADescent
Chaos Engine (CD32 version)
Lotus II (CD32 version)

A Sega controller C button is the same as the CD32 blue button (B=CD32 red). There are also an increasing number of WHDLoad, JST and hard drive installable versions of games that support 2 buttons. You might be able to switch wires so C uses the A button and wire up to C (original A).

[Kesa]

I think Alien Breed Tower Assault did. You push a button and then start walking backwards.

[Heiroglyph]

I rewired a Nintendo controller for use with Turrican II.  I wish I still remembered how I had it laid out.  I'm not sure how anyone played through that series without one.

Here's a list I found:
ADoom
Agony (WHDLoad version / original?)
Aladdin
Alien Breed 2
Alien Breed - Tower Assault
Apidya
Banshee
Battle Squadron (WHDLoad version)
BC Kid
Brutal Sports Football
Bubba'n'Stick
Bubble and Squeak
Cool Spot
Desert Strike (WHDLoad version)
Dragonstone
Fightin' Spirit
Fire and Ice
Flashback
Football Glory
The Great Giana Sisters
Hybris (WHDLoad version)
Leander
Lionheart
Lollypop
Mega Typhoon
Mercs
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat 2
Powder
Project X
R-Type
R-Type 2
Shadow Fighter
Skeleton Krew
Street Fighter 2
Turrican
Turrican II
Turrican 3
Virocop
Xtreme Racing

[Mrs Beanbag]

I still need to get round to making that Megadrive pad adapter... in theory it should be possible to program to use all the buttons if only two wires are swapped round. Not that that will help with existing games, but I hope to be able to take advantage of it in future.

[mrknight]

thanks for the help! That was a fair number of games supporting two buttons. I did rewire the  controller yesterday so A=Up, B=Buttion 1 and C=Button 2 and tried to  play Turrican 2. It's really hard jumping on the 'wrong' button so I  started using up instead. Still hard. I guess the quality of the  controller didn't help the experience (very cheap stuff).

I have bought two original Mega Drive controller but I will leave them  unmodified. But I will make an adapted using an AVR (ATtiny2313 seems ok  for the task) and then I can read all the buttons and map it however I  want. And maybe add a switch or two to select modes. Hopefully this solution will be much better for the playing experience.

[matthey]

I still need to get round to making that Megadrive pad adapter... in theory it should be possible to program to use all the buttons if only two wires are swapped round. Not that that will help with existing games, but I hope to be able to take advantage of it in future.

The ADoom manual recommends swapping pins 5 & 7 and putting a 470 ohm resistor between them. Hired Guns and ADoom support 3 buttons then. I recall some emulators did also. None of the buttons map to other CD32 buttons so different code has to be used to read a 3 or 6 button Sega controller than a CD32 controller.

[paul1981]

I still need to get round to making that Megadrive pad adapter... in theory it should be possible to program to use all the buttons if only two wires are swapped round. Not that that will help with existing games, but I hope to be able to take advantage of it in future.

How's Mr Beanbag doing? Has there been any recent updates?

[Mrs Beanbag]

The ADoom manual recommends swapping pins 5 & 7 and putting a 470 ohm resistor between them. Hired Guns and ADoom support 3 buttons then. I recall some emulators did also. None of the buttons map to other CD32 buttons so different code has to be used to read a 3 or 6 button Sega controller than a CD32 controller.

I read elsewhere it's recommended to use diodes as well because the Sega pad pulls lines up to +5V whereas the Amiga only expects connections to ground.

The code is much simpler than reading a CD32 pad, the extra buttons are simply multiplexed. Unlike the CD32 which uses some kind of serial protocol.

[Mrs Beanbag]

How's Mr Beanbag doing? Has there been any recent updates?

I've made it so you can load in special levels from the main menu, and fixed a couple of bugs, but not uploaded anything lately, really should upload something soon.

[paul1981]

I've made it so you can load in special levels from the main menu, and fixed a couple of bugs, but not uploaded anything lately, really should upload something soon.

Looking forward to it... Thanks for the update.