Console Emulators on Linux


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Okay, so I'm gonna start playing around with SNES, NES, and Genesis emulators on my Linux system. I want to use a Kensington console-style USB controller as I'm having trouble playing the games with my keyboard. My questions: Will Linux like the controller? Will the emulators?

BTW, I'm running Mandrake 10 if that helps.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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I don't know. I suspect that it will work, but you never know until you try. :)

I'd just like to be reassured before I pay 30 bucks for the controller, hehe.

You're right, of course. I guess I'll just have to buy it and try it.

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While I haven't a clue about your specific controller, I use a Playstation DualShock 2 controller through one of those USB converter things from SmartJoy - as long as you have joystick support, even if there isn't native support, you should be able to use the controller. (while there is support for actual game pads, that support is for rewiring of the ports on a ajoystick to a parallel or serial port, not using a converter like I have - the system just sees is as a generic 4-axis 16-button controller).

If you opt to get it, check out the Joystick Wrapper Library (libjsw & jscalibrator). As long as you have /dev/js0 (or such joystick device), you can get all of your configuration done with it.

My guess is, as long as you have joystick support and USB support as modules (or compiled) for your kernel, then you should be golden.

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While I haven't a clue about your specific controller, I use a Playstation DualShock 2 controller through one of those USB converter things from SmartJoy - as long as you have joystick support, even if there isn't native support, you should be able to use the controller. (while there is support for actual game pads, that support is for rewiring of the ports on a ajoystick to a parallel or serial port, not using a converter like I have - the system just sees is as a generic 4-axis 16-button controller).

If you opt to get it, check out the Joystick Wrapper Library (libjsw & jscalibrator). As long as you have /dev/js0 (or such joystick device), you can get all of your configuration done with it.

My guess is, as long as you have joystick support and USB support as modules (or compiled) for your kernel, then you should be golden.

Manly.

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Have you taken a look at KnoppiXMAME?

KnoppixMAME is a bootable arcade machine emulator with hardware detection and autoconfiguration. It works automatically on all modern and not-so-modern hardware, including gameports and joysticks. It is powered by Knoppix Debian GNU/Linux, X-MAME, and gxmame.

might be an easy solution if you cant do what you want with 'drake.

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As for emulators liking it, I can say that I've got ZSNES, Gens, and Tuxnes working with aforementioned controller, though Tuxnes required a little tweaking:

I aliased this in my .bashrc to have tuxnes launch automagically wth the controller settings since AFAIK it doesn't have a config file:

alias tuxnes="tuxnes --enlarge=2 --geometry=512x448 --js1=/dev/js0 --joystick-map=1:B2,B3,B11,B8,B15,B13,B12,B14 "

Yes, the space at the end is intentional, so I can do:

tuxnes Star\ Tropics.nes

And have it launch properly.

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