Very cool possibilities for building custom controllers

Comments

  • This is the best!
  • Microsoft is upping their game! It feels like this will make weird controllers more accessible than the whole Makey Makey thing :)
  • edited
    @Tuism ... I might be misunderstanding how this thing works... but as far as I can tell they're manufacturing new devices that can plug into this controller, and the nice thing is you can easily map any of these devices into any standard XBox input.

    So this will allow you to make setups that use a selection of pre-approved XBox controllers, and you will be able to use these setups with existing games that are configured for XBox input, which is rad!

    But is a lot less weird than the possibility space of Makey-Makeys, though with less hassle, but probably higher material cost.

    I do think this thing is cool, and I'm pretty certain this will make (for example) building a setup for a 4-player one-button each game super simple... Or taking an existing game and mapping it onto less conventional controls (within the limitations of the list of pre-aproved XBox controllers). Though I haven't been able to find what the list of supported controllers is or what their price is (as these parts will all be sold separately).

    I guess my point is that it's rad, but it's not a substitute for what I've used Makey Makey for in the past (like the Genital Jousting dildo controller Richard built).
  • edited
    @EvanGreenwood I took this to be that you could plugin in any sort of controller into the box, which emulates a standard xbox controller but perhaps I am wrong here

    Based on this article, I think that is the case:
    https://news.microsoft.com/stories/xbox-adaptive-controller/
    Thanked by 1CiNiMoD
  • @EvanGreenwod, @NickCuthbert's got this right. 3.5mm jacks are the industry standard connector in this space. i.e A person's wheel electric wheel chair will have an input for moving forward, the user could use whatever they are capable of to do this. In some cases it could be a pedal, other times a small button held between two fingers. Basically, whatever they were capable of. This controller allows them to use whatever equipment they already have to allow them to play however they can.
  • edited
    Okay cool. Never had a controller with a 3.5mm jack, and the article said that XBox was working with manufacturers and these devices would be sold separately on the XBox store, so I assumed it was for new hardware.

    Still, it means I cannot use a Sega Fishing Rod with this... which I hoped to be the case originally when I saw the advert :(
  • edited
    Might be able to, would have to build an adapter though to break out the inputs into their component parts:
    image
  • I was thinking since the jacks are all 3.5mm ports it would be easy enough to hack stuff to input into it?
  • Yeah, I mean if it is a standard port and there is a spec (Dom mentioned it being an international standard) then I see no reason why you couldn't make it work with your own bits and bobs.
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