Topic: GameCube Controller to PC connector

[NickNiteQ93]

Sup dudes.  I remember reading about this rock hard gizmo and was wondering where in the heck I could get one???  I dig my Cube controller and was hoping to test my Quake III skillz wit it.  Anyone got some help fer me?

[Biohazard]

lmao good sig.  

However I don't know about any of theese products, however keep checking Planetgamecube.com or other affliates for the latest news

[RickPowers]

The Skillz Cube Connection USB should do the trick.

http://www.planetgamecube.com/hardware.cfm?action=profile&id=162

[Matt]

Is that only avalable through import?

I'd like to buy one, for I have a notebook computer, so I need the USB, and secondly, its hard to play some games with a touchpad.

[Gharakh]

quake 3 with a controller? have you gone mad? fps's are meant to be played with keyboard and mouse, especially when talking about pc shooters. you'd be crazy to try to play one with a controller (at least on the internet anyway)

anyway you can order them from lik-sang, i'm not sure if i'm allowed to post a link directly to the ordering page so just go to lik-sang.com and search for it. or go to google and do a search for cube connection usb, and it comes right up. it is 19 bucks american (not sure what shipping charges are) so it isnt a bad deal considering what you'd be paying for a pc controller. i've been planning on getting one of these for myself but haven't got around to it. if i get one soon i'll post back here to tell u what i think of it.
hope this helps

[NickNiteQ93]

first off, give props out to my boy opie for the second half of my sig.  Opie, you rock dude.  But yeah, I know Quake 3 is best played with keyboard mouse blah blah, but I've always done better with a console controller.  Seems weird to believe, but it's true.  Don't get me wrong, it'll take some time to get used to, but i just thought it'd be a neat to beat some ass over the Net and say my Cube helped out.    And if I lose, no one has to know......don't ask, don't tell.....
Oh and by the way, thanks Rick.  you rock dude!

[Gharakh]

can anybody offer a review or impressions about this connection? i'm about ready to order one but i would like to know if it gets the job done well or if simply buying a pc controller would be better. anybody who has this device please post your thoughts on it. rick, you guys should put up a hardware review of this if you have it. it would be helpful for me anyway

[Jollus]

I just got mine today.  So far it does what it says it does.  Connects your Gamecube controller to your PC.

First of all, installation.  You have to install the drivers before you even plug the thing in.  No prob, except the drivers come on a freaking floppy disc.  For people like me who have given up on floppy discs long ago this is a pain in the butt.  I had to run up stairs and copy the disc to my mom's computer and pull the files through our LAN.  Funny thing is they say that it has MacOS support, but how is someone on a mac going to install the software?  They haven't had floppy drives for years.  Maybe it is plug and play on the Mac.  Anyway, not a huge issue, just something to nit pick.  

After you run the setup.exe you just plug it in.  Windows will detect it and it will show up in Control Panel>Game Controllers as "Gamecube USB Adapter".  Clicking on Properties brings up a picture of a GC controller and a list of all the buttons.  As you push the buttons on your controller the buttons on the picture light up.  There are also two little things that lest you test the analog sticks, as well as a button that makes the controller rumble.  Everything seems to work great.  I tried to play GTA3 with it, but I couldn't get it set up properly (not the adapters fault, GTA3 for the PC doesn't have that great of gamepad support).  If I take a bit of time tweeking I might be able to get a playable setup, but I didn't feel like it (me=lazy).  I needed a game I knew would work great with a gamepad.  So I fired up my N64 emulator and loaded up Mario Kart.  Worked like a dream.  I did find some things out that I didn't know before.  Like when you hit the L button it turns off the music (really, how often did you ever use the N64 L button or D-pad?).

As with all PC gamepads it is very critical that you customize the controls to fit you and your controller.  I don't know of any PC game that came with a gamepad config that actually worked (GTA3 is a good example).

If you wanted you could hook up more than one to your system as long as you have the USB ports.  

Now for the bad news.  This adapter does NOT work with the WaveBird.  I pluged it in, and when I move the stick the light comes on, but the control panel doesn't show a picture of the controller and no games will respond to it.  I would hope that maybe there could be a new driver writen for it, but the website (www.extreme-skillz.com) doesn't even list the adapter as a product.  (The website is lame as well, doesn't even work in Opera.)  There is no place that I know of where you can download drivers for this thing (I checked when I saw the stupid floppy).

This product delivers what it says it will.  Let you use your standard Gamecube contollers on your PC.  It doesn't support the Wavebird, but it give that controller that came with your cube something to do.  It has been sitting on my shelf for the past 3 months just collecting dust.  If you have any questions let me know.

[Mario]

I have some questions. How much does it cost, and can i get one from Australia?

[Jollus]

$18.90 + $6 shipping from lik-sang.com
I think the shipping is a flat rate anywhere so it will be $24.90 (US dollars)
I wasn't even using my corded GC controller, and I wanted a pad for my PC.  It all worked out.  I think it is a pretty good deal myself.  Good PC pads can cost $50+, and I got one of the best controllers made for less than 25.

It came to me international mail, so I think they will send them anywhere.  Isn't Lik-Sang.com based in Hong Kong?

[ThePerm]

yo howd you get that...i went to their website and its mass lame...i click on gamecube products they say they have no info on gc...i go to their pc product section nothing ever loads up.

nevermind

[Azule]

Jollus,

Can you tell me how the analog controls are configurable, specifically, is the sensitivity on the L and R triggers configurable? Also, how does the "click" factor in? Thanks.

[Gamefreak]

Yeah that's what I want to know. I'm sure the analog sticks work fine since the latest good PC gamepads have dual analogs. But I haven't seen a PC gamepad with analog triggers...Do they work? And can you set the "clicks" as extra buttons? Like say you are in a driving game. The R trigger will be an analog accelerator like a gas pedal, and clicking it will cause a nitro boost or something. Can you do that?

edit: Never fear, I have all the answers. There is a FAQ on www.lik-sang.com about this device. According to it, the dual analogs work perfectly as long as the game supports analog, the R and L triggers both support analog so they can function like gas and brake pedals in racing games, and yes, the clicks on the R and L buttons work. Nice...I want one..

So is there any place at all where I can buy it without importing?

[Jollus]

I didn't find any place to buy these without importing.

As you found out already the anolog triggers do work,  and so does the click.  One thing that I have found is that some games will register the anolog triggers, but some don't show anything until you hit the click.  It makes it kind of hard to set up your controls because most games use the first button you hit when you are setting up your keys.  So if you want to bind the "Click" to the nitro it is going to get the anolog signle first and bind to that.  (I haven't done this, but because of things I have seen in other games I am pretty sure it is what would happen.)  

Some games also use different names for the buttons.  Like one game labels the A button as one, but others call it button zero.  This is a little annoying.  I noticed the same thing with my older PC gamepads, so it isn't the adapters fault.  Because PC games are not played with pads very often I think it boils down to how much effort the developer put into it.

The best way I can think of making your button configs is to figure out what the game names each button, and then edit the config file in Notepad or some other text editor.  Of course this becomes a problem if a game stores its key bindings in something other than a plain text document. (GTA3 is an example)

[Folken]

Hi,

I'd like to ask you just a little question : which OS were you on when you tested that adapter...?

I'm currently on WinXP on one machine and Win2K3 on the other and both suffer with the same issue : the analog sticks cannot be calibrated in a "stable" way.

Without the drivers, the adapter+pad is seen as a "6 Axis - 12 Buttons" pad, but doesn't work at all.

Once drivers installed (yeah, i plugged the thing off, installed the drivers, then plugged it back) it works, but the two sticks are permanently... "flickering".

The left stick permanently tries to go backwards, and the C stick always tries to go left-backwards.

With the drivers installed you have that pretty useless GC Pad control panel which only allows you to test the buttons and not to calibrate anything.

I removed then the usbpadcp.dll from my system, and after that i got back a "standard" dialog box when hitting "properties" on the "Gamecube GC Adapter" in the Game Controllers control panel.

Here is a screenshot of the standard control panel, when usbpadcp.dll removed : http://rain.00.free.fr/temp/control.gif

But still, calibrating didn't help, the unstability cannot be solved...

At the first step, for X Axis / Y Axis calibration, when you're asked to move the handle in complete circles, even after several complete circles the cross still moves "alone" from center to low position.
Same for the Z Axis calibration, moving up and down the C stick doesn't stop its constant moving ...

After that i'm asked to calibrate X Rotation / Y Rotation but i don't even know what to do there : nothing happens anyway in that section, there's nothing moving.
Next step is Z Rotation : there again, the blue bar flickers from left to center, and nothing seems to be able to change that.

Finally all i can get, as you can see on my screenshot, is :
- X Axis / Y Axis being unstable, moving alone between center and low position.
- Z Axis and Z Rotation red bars being unstable too (Z Axis blinking between null and medium position, Z Rotation blinking between medium and full position).
- X Rotation / Y Rotation bars stuck on full position.

That's definitely unusable...

As a matter of fact, browsing through the net led me to jandaman.com (an online store), where the adapters can be bought.
The product page says "WindowsXP experiences problems. (driver issue?)"...
(I bought mine @ Lik-Sang)...


Any ideas...?

Thanks for your time,

Have a nice day.

[The Omen]

So, does it work in the end?  Or should I send mine back>?...damn it, i just ordered it 2 days ago!