Analog Thumb Pad - Directional Pad Swap?

[mattp]

Hi all,

I'm using Reicast (a Sega Dreamcast emulator for Android) to play Daytona USA and loving it!

I use this Bluetooth controller to play lots of emulators on my Android:

http://www.fc30.com/eng/

I love this controller but it only has a directional pad (no analog thumb pad).

I can't see a way to swap the analog thumb pad with the directional pad, within Daytona's settings: Options/Player 1 Controller Settings/Key Config and Analog Calibration. Reicast's settings also don't allow this.

Is there anything within Dreamcast's console settings which would allow me to swap the analog thumb pad with the directional pad?

I wonder if anybody can think of a way for me to properly play Reicast, using my Bluetooth controller - which has no analog thumb pad.

Hope to hear back.

Thanks,

Matt

[Aleron Ives]

All Dreamcast games are designed to assume that you're using a real Dreamcast controller with both a joystick and a directional pad, so I don't know of any games that let you swap the functions, although some games let you use either the Dpad or the joystick to do the same things. The only way you'd be able to swap them is if Reicast lets you map the controller manually, which it doesn't; therefore, you need a better controller.

The normal way to swap the functions of the Dpad and joystick is to press the swap button on the controller, as most PC controllers with both a Dpad and a joystick have such a button. Yours doesn't since it has only a Dpad. It's assumed that you will use a controller capable of all the inputs a real controller can use. If your controller doesn't have enough inputs, then it isn't suitable for playing Dreamcast games. A replica Famicom controller isn't going to work for a system that expects you to have a joystick.

[mattp]

Thanks Aleron Ives,

You have confirmed my suspicions and even though I would have liked a different answer - at least I can now move on to other possibilities.

Perhaps the Reicast team may eventually allow the analog thumb pad to be mapped - which would solve my problem...as I don't need any of the Daytona functions which the directional pad offers.

[lastcallgames]

If you're going to play Daytona, the best I could suggest is a Saturn emulator (this one has a free version https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... rnEmuBeta2) with the game for it.

[mattp]

Thanks lastcallgames,

I went ahead and tried out Saturn.emu for Android. I was able to load Daytona but it was very slow and ultimately crashed.

As you would know...Saturn.emu is considered Beta and unsupported. I have heard that the Sega Saturn is notoriously hard to emulate.

I think at this stage Reicast is still my best bet. I have also been posting on the reicast.com forum and their team says that in the future they plan to allow mapping for the analog thumb pad. This would solve my problem.

Thanks,

Matt