15pin (DA-15) gameport to usb on modern pc?

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:06 am

Hello,
Recently I bought a new M/B (Asus p5b), only to find out that it does not feature the old 15pin gameport (DA-15), so I can't connect my two MS Sidewinder 10button pads.

I also noticed that none of the modern mainstream, Creative Soundblaster cards have the 15pin gameport either! (At least it is not mentioned in their descriptions at the creative home site. Please correct me if I'm wrong)

I searched the web and found a few 15pin to usb adaptors, but most don't support 8-10 button pads, nor the 10 button MS Sidewinder pad!

So, what are my options to connect my two 15pin MS Sidewinders on my new pc and again play the shmups on MAME?!

Please any help will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:48 am

http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCa ... ound-Cards

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:26 pm

Somebody suggested that I get an XBOX 360 pad instead, since it will work on WinXP just fine? Interesting, is it any good, or at least as good as the MS Sidewinder pads?

And most importantly, is the directional D-PAd (Cross) of the 360 better than the sucky SONY PS1/2/3 D-Pad?! I've always hated that D-Pad, it's too hard and stiff, totally useless for semi-circle moves in 2D Beat Em Ups like Street Fighter & King of Fighter series and for 2D Shoot Em Ups (Raiden,RayStorm,etc..)

Will this work in 2D PC Emulators MAME,ZSNES,etc...?

Thanks in advance

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:39 pm

Ciao ST Dragon!

Long time no see you around here. Nice to have you back ^_^

Err, yes, that's the only thing I have to say, sorry I cannot be of help.

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 5:44 pm

Nice to see my Florentian friend, Turrican!

Yeah, there have been some major changes lately (Moved to another house, new job, etc...) so my DSL connection was disconnected and had no time to play any shmups for ages!

I did post a few threads at the trading forums around Xmas though

but with no luck however.

Anyways, I wish you an Awesome shmuping 2007!

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:41 pm

ST Dragon wrote:Somebody suggested that I get an XBOX 360 pad instead, since it will work on WinXP just fine? Interesting, is it any good, or at least as good as the MS Sidewinder pads?

Hey there. Could've been me. Yes, it will work on XP perfectly. However, the free joystick doesn't work well with all 8-way shooters. I find it works great for most Genesis and SNES games, but on some shooters you really need the differentiation between diagonals and cardinal directions.

That's just the joystick, though. I haven't even tried using the d-pad on mine (a Mad Catz pad, actually pretty nice aside from this) because it's so bad. Instead of being deeper in the center, there is simply a semispherical hole and then the pad seems to slope from the edges of that dowards. It's terrible, to say the least. Don't recall how much of an issue this is with the official 360 pads, check out a demo kiosk near you to get a feel.

I agree about the PSX d-pad. Simply terrible.