FS: Naomi Dreamcast controller adapters
- Thread starter Dion
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I was successful with desoldering the DC ports that Reclaimer provided (you rock man! thanks again 
) using a desoldering braid and put my DIY kit together -- works great!!
So far I've tried Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Border Down -- controls work fine on both using a DC pad; MvC2 seems to recognize the VMU and shows Level/EXP on title screen. However, after playing a few matches the EXP didn't go up. I wonder if it's static and loads only from a Dreamcast MvC2 save? Border Down doesn't recognize the VMU but controls work fine.
I'll try to keep track of the games I test and what's supported as far as VMU/controls. I'll have to pick up a DC keyboard soon for Typing of the Dead!
) using a desoldering braid and put my DIY kit together -- works great!! So far I've tried Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Border Down -- controls work fine on both using a DC pad; MvC2 seems to recognize the VMU and shows Level/EXP on title screen. However, after playing a few matches the EXP didn't go up. I wonder if it's static and loads only from a Dreamcast MvC2 save? Border Down doesn't recognize the VMU but controls work fine.
I'll try to keep track of the games I test and what's supported as far as VMU/controls. I'll have to pick up a DC keyboard soon for Typing of the Dead!
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Yeah i was going to post Border Down does work with controls fully functional...I've tried Alien Front & all the button features work & i can move the screen around but cant cant accelerate. I'll dig up my old dreamcast wheel w/pedals to see if it will work if i have time this weekend.
Confidential Mission does not work w/ the Light Gun.
I really dont want to spend $25 on DC keyboard, is Innovation keyboard any good? I see it going for $19shipped on ebay.
Confidential Mission does not work w/ the Light Gun.
I really dont want to spend $25 on DC keyboard, is Innovation keyboard any good? I see it going for $19shipped on ebay.
What settings did you have to use for Border Down to work? I briefly tried but it didn't work so I moved on to other things.
The light gun won't work with this but if you were to purchase and mod an X/Y gun and use some cool hardware like, say, my S-JIHP helper pcb (shameless plug) you can play any Naomi light gun game using a positional gun instead. I have played Confidential Mission using my Revolution X gun. Pretty sweet.
Set capcom as VM kit type in supported game's test mode (e.g. MvC2), save, then the setting carries over to Border Down and controls work (dpad only, no stick for movement -- same as DC version iirc)
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Looks good kuze, remember the players are backwards of a console, 1p is on the right, 2p on the left (your pic is plugged into 2p, I'm sure you figured that out)
Have not tried border down, but powerstone 2 allowed the analog stick which was pretty cool.
Have not tried border down, but powerstone 2 allowed the analog stick which was pretty cool.
Very iiiiinteresting...
Could you share the wiring diagram?
Positional guns are very easy to mod. Especially if you just buy an actual arcade gun off ebay. X should be AD0 and Y should be AD1. Then any buttons on the gun can just be wired to shot 1, etc.
From what I have seen, most light gun games that work on a JVS system will have the guns connected to an additional gun I/O that in turn plugs into the traditional JVS I/O. The gun I/O will decipher the coordinates of the light gun shot on the screen and then convert that into an analog signal that the I/O uses to tell the PCB where the shot should hit on screen in the game.
Most light gun games reload by shooting off screen. The game determines this signal in two ways based on the system you are using. Older systems would determine where the shot should land by using a photo optic sensor in tandem with the pixels on screen to read where the shot was aimed at a CRT monitor. Newer JVS based systems such as Naomi, Chihiro or Lindbergh were designed for use with sensor arrays. Sega began using them with model 3. Why? Not sure. Did they have the foresight to see the CRT become obsolete years before flat screens made their appearance in homes? Regardless of the reason, they are necessary to use a light gun with flat screen displays.
With the traditional CRT system, the game would send the signal to reload every time the photo optic determined that the shot was not aimed within the parameters of the screen. So the sensor array does this a bit different. The game predetermines the boundaries of your screen and assigns them their X/Y coordinates. If the coordinates of where you are aiming the gun falls outside of the predetermined boundaries of the screen when you pull the trigger, the gun I/O will then send a separate digital signal to the JVS I/O that will tell the game to reload. The digital input used for reload is usually different for each game. It will probably never be shot 1 since this is usually assigned to the trigger pull.
That is a long winded way of saying that if you use a positional gun for a light gun game you will most likely need to wire up a reload button. But it is cool because you can bypass the gun I/O completely if you are using a positional gun and still have fun playing the game with an experience that is mostly the same. Once you are in the game you really don't pay attention to what kind of gun you are using. I have used my S-JIHP pcb to play light gun games on many different systems. I have used it to play Confidential Mission on Naomi. I have used it to play Rambo, Primevi Hunt, and Ghost Squad on Lindbergh. As well as Virtua Cop 3 on Chihiro. All have worked fine. The only one that didn't require a reload button was Rambo but I think that is because it was designed to work with either type of gun.
PS---I am no electronic engineer. Some of this may be inaccurate. It is just how I have gleaned that the systems work from looking at schematics and playing around with the hardware.
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Sounds complicated, im more visual haha...
So i tried out Chaos Field & full controls work, there was a picture of a little girl in the VMU. Beach Spikers no bueno. Didn't even recognize the vmu. I'll try a couple more after the big game! Go Hawks!
So i tried out Chaos Field & full controls work, there was a picture of a little girl in the VMU. Beach Spikers no bueno. Didn't even recognize the vmu. I'll try a couple more after the big game! Go Hawks!
Thanks for the info on positional guns. I'm going to give that a try for my next project. Hopefully it'll be an easier build than the racing wheel as I should be able to just use the existing wiring and extend it from there.
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Do the Naomi driving games have a drive board for the I/O?
Tried a couple racing games.
Crazy Taxi - No controls
18 Wheeler - i forget but i think the shifter worked & buttons but couldn't accelerate, its possible they didn't work at all. I'll try it again to confirm it, should have wrote these down
Waverace - No controls, says no drive board
Alien Front - Controls moves side to side, fire buttons work but pedal does not. Used DC controller/steering wheel. I wonder if i have a different I/O pedal might work.
Cvs2 - No controls
Dolphin Blue (Atomiswave) No controls
Gigawing -No controls
I also wanted to check if the Ps360+ would work on this...Yes & No.
I tried it with Border Down & Chaos Field which i know works perfectly w/ DC controller. When i plugged my ps360+ stick, it did not seem to recognize it at all. Could not press start to start game. I decided to put in the the DC controller & then unplugging it & put the ps360+ stick & actually worked partially. The buttons worked but the controls acted weird, like it was stuttering/ stop n go movement very unplayable.
Tried a couple racing games.
Crazy Taxi - No controls
18 Wheeler - i forget but i think the shifter worked & buttons but couldn't accelerate, its possible they didn't work at all. I'll try it again to confirm it, should have wrote these down
Waverace - No controls, says no drive board
Alien Front - Controls moves side to side, fire buttons work but pedal does not. Used DC controller/steering wheel. I wonder if i have a different I/O pedal might work.
Cvs2 - No controls
Dolphin Blue (Atomiswave) No controls
Gigawing -No controls
I also wanted to check if the Ps360+ would work on this...Yes & No.
I tried it with Border Down & Chaos Field which i know works perfectly w/ DC controller. When i plugged my ps360+ stick, it did not seem to recognize it at all. Could not press start to start game. I decided to put in the the DC controller & then unplugging it & put the ps360+ stick & actually worked partially. The buttons worked but the controls acted weird, like it was stuttering/ stop n go movement very unplayable.
Yes, you have to have a JVS I/O board and a wheel with analog controls for steering/gas/break (and the shifter is digital). If you use Mitsurugi-W's JVS Helper PCB and wire up an old console racing wheel, you should be able to get most of the racing games to work.
http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?255586-Finally-FS-Mitsu-s-Sega-JVS-I-O-Helper-PCB
For me, this game doesn't work right no matter how I try to play it. I've tried it both on a Capcom I/O (joystick/buttons) and Sega JVS I/O (with helper pcb/racing wheel), and it just spins around and never moves forward. There's gotta be some wiring tweak, but I haven't had a chance to research it further.
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Have to ask, but is your capcom IO powered? The NAOMI cannot power an IO board, the capcom IO gets its power from a JAMMA harness. I'm assuming it is or you'd probably get a missing IO error.
I've only booted that game with a sega JVS IO... I could possibly test a capcom one but it would be a pain in my ass to do it right now.
The Rev 1 JVS are cheap. There are a lot of games that are not compatible with the Capcom I/O. Especially if you go to Lindbergh, Chihiro, etc. There are even some Lindy games that a Rev. 2 or 3 are required.
It's a bit convoluted, but you can have a Capcom I/O and a Sega I/O Rev 1 hooked up at the same time.
- Have your Naomi powered by its own power supply (a must if you're Netbooting anyway).
- Naomi should have the Audio and Video going into the Capcom I/O, and the Jamma cable plugged into the Capcom I/O.
- The Sega I/O Rev. 1 needs to be powered (CN1 and CN7), so power it from your power supply. Pinout.
Then all you need to do is have two USB cords. One for the Capcom I/O and one for the Sega I/O. Just switch them whenever you want to play a game that requires the alternate I/O board. (You do have to power off the Naomi to swap them. It doesn't like you to hot swap the USB cable.)
(You can see this type of set-up running at the 8min mark in Mitsurugi-W's Helper PCB video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=311LCTC7rqs )
- Have your Naomi powered by its own power supply (a must if you're Netbooting anyway).
- Naomi should have the Audio and Video going into the Capcom I/O, and the Jamma cable plugged into the Capcom I/O.
- The Sega I/O Rev. 1 needs to be powered (CN1 and CN7), so power it from your power supply. Pinout.
Then all you need to do is have two USB cords. One for the Capcom I/O and one for the Sega I/O. Just switch them whenever you want to play a game that requires the alternate I/O board. (You do have to power off the Naomi to swap them. It doesn't like you to hot swap the USB cable.)
(You can see this type of set-up running at the 8min mark in Mitsurugi-W's Helper PCB video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=311LCTC7rqs )
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