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Post by elmer on Apr 28, 2022 17:37:01 GMT
Does anyone have Hudson's Joy Tap 3, or any other 3-port multitap?
I'm trying to find out how it responds to the multitap detection method that Vasteel2 uses.
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Post by elmer on May 2, 2022 3:05:52 GMT
Bueller? Beuller? Beuller?
Really, nobody has a 3-port multitap? How disappointing!
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exodus
Punkic Cyborg
Posts: 161
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Post by exodus on May 2, 2022 22:13:49 GMT
I know I've got one somewhere - my stuff is packed away right now so it's hard to get hold of, but I could probably dig it out eventually... getting my copy of vasteel 2 might be harder though! what would you want somebody to check?
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Post by elmer on May 3, 2022 0:15:27 GMT
I know I've got one somewhere - my stuff is packed away right now so it's hard to get hold of, but I could probably dig it out eventually... getting my copy of vasteel 2 might be harder though! what would you want somebody to check? Thanks, that would be really appreciated! Like everything else now, the price of this has ballooned to the point where I really don't want to buy one just to answer a couple of simple questions. If it's easier, I could write a HuCard ROM to test the capabilities ... but the most-important thing to see, if you can find Vasteel2, is whether the hardware-detect screen at the start of Vasteel2 reports the multitap as "Enabled" or "Disabled". The difference doesn't really matter for joyad games, but it's something that is worthwhile-for-accuracy (even if not necessarily critical) to detect for mouse games. Because I'm working on creating new libraries for assembly-language and KickC development (or HuC if someone wants to backport them), this is something that it would be really useful to know.
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exodus
Punkic Cyborg
Posts: 161
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Post by exodus on May 3, 2022 18:57:16 GMT
Alrighty, I'll take a look here, but it might be a while - I just moved, and everything is in boxes! If it's not immediately accessible in the first row of boxes we might be looking at a month or so before I get in there
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Post by elmer on May 3, 2022 19:07:09 GMT
Alrighty, I'll take a look here, but it might be a while - I just moved, and everything is in boxes! If it's not immediately accessible in the first row of boxes we might be looking at a month or so before I get in there Hahaha, I won't hold my breath then ... we've still got packed boxes outside from our last move 2-years ago! ;-)
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pokun
Gun-headed
Posts: 85
Homebrew skills: HuC6280 assembly
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Post by pokun on May 3, 2022 20:56:36 GMT
Heh I've always found it weird that there are so many different types of multitaps for the PC-Engine. Since the 5-port tap is not really expensive or anything I've never seen a reason to get any of the lesser multitaps. Unless there are software incompatibilities with it?
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Post by DarkKobold on May 3, 2022 21:39:52 GMT
I didn't even know the 3 existed! I have the two port, and I figured that was "rare."
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Post by dshadoff on May 3, 2022 22:22:27 GMT
Heh I've always found it weird that there are so many different types of multitaps for the PC-Engine. Since the 5-port tap is not really expensive or anything I've never seen a reason to get any of the lesser multitaps. Unless there are software incompatibilities with it? No, not with that tap - the 5-port tap is the official one. I ran the Vasteel 2 test on a 5-port tap, and it recoginizes it; The 4-port “battle tap” and 5-port XE-1 HE joystick are not recognized by Vasteel 2 (although I’ve never heard of any other issues with their compatibility).
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Post by elmer on May 4, 2022 14:03:02 GMT
I didn't even know the 3 existed! I have the two port, and I figured that was "rare." Cool! I assume that it "wraps" the ports, so that regular 5-port joypad code will see joypad 1 (the first port) repeated as joypad 3 and joypad 5? Is that correct? Or is it like the one that mooz wrote about that is externally a 2-port multitap, but internally a 3-port multitap which is smart enough to not wrap the ports at all? I ran the Vasteel 2 test on a 5-port tap, and it recoginizes it; The 4-port “battle tap” and 5-port XE-1 HE joystick are not recognized by Vasteel 2 (although I’ve never heard of any other issues with their compatibility). I can't think of why there would be compatibility issues with any of the multitaps. But, if there is a multitap with fewer than 5-ports that "wraps" around when you read it 5 times, then mouse-reading code should know about it so that they can avoid reading each mouse's movement more than once per game-loop (except when doing mouse detection). Most existing mouse games get around this by either not supporting a multitap at all (i.e. the mouse must be in port 1), or by only supporting mice/joypads in ports 1..3, and ignoring port 4 and port 5 (which also makes sense from the POV of making the mouse/joypad code run faster).
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pokun
Gun-headed
Posts: 85
Homebrew skills: HuC6280 assembly
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Post by pokun on May 4, 2022 17:58:48 GMT
I see. There is a Hudson-branded 3-tap called the "Joy Tap 3" (HC63-8) though as seen here, so I suppose it's official too. The author is as confused as I am of its half-hearted existence.
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Post by SignOfZeta on May 4, 2022 19:28:47 GMT
I see. There is a Hudson-branded 3-tap called the "Joy Tap 3" (HC63-8) though as seen here, so I suppose it's official too. The author is as confused as I am of its half-hearted existence. That is my favorite PCE site on the internet…hasn’t been updated in like 15 years. Doesn’t need to be. It’s perfect as it is.
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pokun
Gun-headed
Posts: 85
Homebrew skills: HuC6280 assembly
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Post by pokun on May 5, 2022 19:44:21 GMT
Heh mine too! I hope it will never go down.
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Post by elmer on Jul 5, 2022 23:14:07 GMT
I have the two port, and I figured that was "rare." Well, there are a couple of different 2-port multitaps, and I'm definitely curious which type you have! I ended up buying a Hudson JoyTap3, and so can now confirm that it behaves just like an NEC 5-port multitap. Stangely enough, even after all of these years, there doesn't seem to have been a really in-depth attempt to document the differences between the various multitaps, so I'm calling out for people to help. I'm attaching a hardware-detect HuCARD that's written to both help document the different mutitaps, and test the new library functions that I'll be using in KickC. I'd appreciate it if folks with the various different 2-port and 4-port multitaps could run this ROM and see what the output says. In particular, I need to know what the different multitaps report as the value of the 6th-port that NEC and Hudson's multitaps use to signal that a multitap is present. I also need to know if, when a button is pressed, whether that button is mirrored into a different joyad port. Basically ... if you put a joypad into port 1 of the multitap, run the HuCARD ROM, and press a button ... what happens? If the 1st port is mirrored as a different port, then the ROM should detect this and describe the multitap as a 2-PORT, 3-PORT or 4-PORT multitap. If the 1st port is not mirrored, then the ROM should say that it is a 5-PORT mutitap. Please y'all ... if you have anything other than the regular NEC 5-PORT multitap, or Hudson's 3-PORT JoyTap3, please give this a try and let us all know the results! <EDIT> As a bonus for anyone with a SuperGRAFX ... you rare people should have a nice scrolling background! :-) <EDIT2> Mouse users ... you should also get a functional mouse pointer, plug in as many mice as you like! <EDIT3> Updated the HuCARD ROM to fix a graphical glitch on soft-reset <EDIT4> Updated the HuCARD ROM again after more changes hwdetect.pce (40 KB)
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Post by elmer on Jul 6, 2022 19:23:46 GMT
Here are the current results of the testing ...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEVICE DEVICE PHYSICAL LOGICAL 6TH PORT NAME MANUFACTURER PORTS PORTS VALUE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TurboTap/MultiTap NEC 5 5 $00 JoyTap3 Hudson 3 5 $00 Battle Tap Nihon Soft Hanbai 4 5 Port 1 XE-1 PRO HE Micomsoft 1+4 5 $FF X-HE2 Micomsoft 2 5 $FF
For people that are going to try the ROM, after testing and pressing a button to see what multitap is reported, please also do a SELECT+RUN soft reset on joypad 1 and see if the "Port 6" value changes to $F3, which is sign that the multitap wraps back to Port 1 after reading Port 5.
Thanks!
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