ConsoleBox Update!

I know I am terrible at updates and I am going to change that going forward.  Since the last post (in February, I believe) I have worked feverishly on getting this all together.  Some of the things I have done are listed below.

I placed an order for 2 drive bay Bliss Boxes (http://spawnlinux.dyndns.org/Bliss-Box/) in December, and the orders were fulfilled in the spring.  I asked for just about every port I could think of (though not getting the Saturn ones really bit me) and the guy who makes them (Sean I believe is his name) was extremely helpful throughout the whole process, answering my many questions.

Once I started playing around with them I realized that a PC restart was required in order for them to recognize different controller ports.  That was a real "oh shit" moment for me as I didn't even know if what I wanted was possible.  Once again I emailed Sean and explained that I wanted to be able to change controllers on the fly and he offered to put in a reset button on each box free, I just had to pay shipping.  Well how awesome is that?  I received them a few weeks later and they worked as advertised.

So how did I manage all of these ports?  XPadder! It was a lot different than configuring individual controllers because they are all coming off the same circuit board so some buttons are similar across all controllers but for example the left button on one controller might be the B button in another.

The rest was constant Hyperspin tweaking, as there were many emulators and individual settings.  As of now I have about 80 percent fully functional, and once I hook up the USB adapter I have for an old X-Arcade dual stick it will be a lot closer.

Once I was (mostly) done, I put this thing in my living room (I live in a house with 4 other guys and there are a lot of people that come through here and set a small sheet up on how to play.  Obviously the idea was to have it as user friendly as possible.  After a month of field testing what were the results?

The list in the living room, current status of systems

Well, most everything went off without a hitch.  NullDC kind of freaked out and I have to see what's up with that.  I believe Dolphin also glitched.  By far though the biggest problem (and I use that term loosely) are the controllers.  Sometimes the reset button does not work on the first try and you have to hit it a few times, or hit both on both boxes.  I am sure this has something to do with the PC seeing two identical devices and me trying to shoehorn a dedicated first and second player out of it. 

If I had to do it again (which knowing me I will some day) I would go with single dedicated USB ports so they are as static as it gets, and just get a USB expansion card.  This is not to say anything against the Bliss Box, it is a fantastic product, amazing for what it can do and it's insane compatibility, and Sean is extremely responsive and informative, I just think trying to reach the 100% idiot proof plane of existence I am going for here requires a bit of, ahem, extremeness.

Expect more updates on this and other projects/ideas/shenanigans in the coming weeks.  And feel free to comment below!