Comments for Retrode.org

Comment on iPad, meet the Retrode by Phil

Phil — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:01:13 +0000

Glad to see someone else enjoying this feature, Felix!

I’ve ordered some SNES controllers, so hopefully they’ll turn up in a few days and I’ll be able to see if I can replicate your problem.

Matthias, would you consider adding a kludge addition to the iCade protocol to support a second controller? I think it might be worth trying to convince Robert Broglia to support it in his emulators. Finding enough remaining sensible characters to build another whole map of Press/Release key bindings could be tricky, though. Number keys spring to mind as a starting point.

I don’t even know if this is possible, and how iOS would respond to the key press/release events of two players.

UP: 1/2
DOWN: 3/4
LEFT: 5/6
RIGHT: 7/8

BUTTON 1: 9/0
BUTTON 2: -/=
BUTTON 3: B/S
BUTTON 4:
BUTTON 5: ;/’
BUTTON 6: [/]
BUTTON 7: _/+
BUTTON 8: ,/.

I’m not sure how necessary a hack the iCade protocol actually is on jailbroken devices, it may be that the “release” states could be discarded for emulators, allowing the normal characters to be split between two controllers.

This is all highly hypothetical and unlikely, though, as I can’t imagine many folks would benefit from it.

Comment on iPad, meet the Retrode by Matthias_H

Matthias_H — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:31:01 +0000

Both Sega and SNES controllers should trigger iCade functions. For the SNES, the mapping to buttons is as follows:

   U      L    R    X    A
 L   R    Sel  Sta  Y    B
   D

Comment on iPad, meet the Retrode by Felix

Felix — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:27:41 +0000

Updated the firmware, did a google search for best iCade apps, and lo and behold, I had Atari Greatest Hits already installed.

Started it up and it worked like a champ using a real Sega Genesis 3 Button controller. The SNES controller either still needs a little love, or I just didn’t configure it properly (it does nothing)

This is on a Stock iPad 1 on iOS 5.0.1

Comment on iPad, meet the Retrode by Matthias_H

Matthias_H — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:42:14 +0000

Yep. The shipped firmware of the Retrode requests 200mA from the USB; I have lowered that to 100mA in the current version. E-mail :)

Comment on iPad, meet the Retrode by Felix

Felix — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:28:39 +0000

I tried it with the shipped firmware + camera adapter + iPad 1, and the iPad 1 says the Retrode takes too much power. I will try with a powered USB hub (ordered one from Amazon.de so it should be here in a few days) and will let you know.

Comment on iPad, meet the Retrode by Matthias_H

Matthias_H — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:04:32 +0000

Magnificent! Thank you so much for your effort!

Comment on iPad, meet the Retrode by Phil

Phil — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:23:37 +0000

This morning I tested the controller on both a non-jailbroken iPad, and a never-been-jailbroken iPad 2. It worked fine on both, and the iPad 2s owner enjoyed playing a quick blast of Velocispider.

Obviously you can’t run emulators without the jailbreak, but it’s still handy for adding a classic controller to play a variety of iCade supporting apps. And everything that supports the iCade protocol should, hopefully, help grow that list!