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Subject: Re: Joystick stuff

From: Celeste H <celesteh@...>
Date: 2000-02-23

> From: "Paul & Alleyne" <vulture.squadron@...>

> >If I can find a big enough die punch, I was thinking to make a module using
> >the IBM DB-15 connector, so any old PC joystick would just plug right in.
> the man is a true genius..?
> tho' i thought that PC style joysticks were those switching kind instead of
> good old fashioned pots, if i were a little less in a hurry to get to work
> i'd formulate the follwing conclusions:
> 1 - "cool, does that mean i could use a mouse to control my motm..?"
> 2 - "i could get a cheap steering column (for a driving game) for ridiculous
> motm control"
> 3 - "graphics tablet anyone..? (if i traced a picture of myself, what sound
> would it produce..!?"

pc joy sticks don't have the same hardware configuration as a mouse. this
is why yer joystick hung off of your soundblaster card instead off one of
the com ports. so if you want variety of devices, i suggest making a plug
to grab mattel nintendo controller data. you've got joystciks but also a
lot of other controllers too, like the handgun, or the weird floor pad
you were suppossed to jump up and down on for the track and field games,
or, best of all the powerglove. The powerglove was actually a glove you
stap on and it generates data for it's position in three dimensions and
for which fingers are bent and by how much. The possibilities here are
amazing. It's even better than a theremin.

the interesting thing is that it generates /much/ more positional data
than other nintendo controllers. They only had two buttons then, but this
tracks all five fingers and three dimensions instead of two.

Of course, it might be better to plug it into a computer and have that
process the numbers coming out of it before feeding it directly into a
synth. how about a mattel controller to usb converter? :)

(i'd trade my left arm for one of them, actually.)

celeste


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