July 15, 2015

Ode to the Gamepad

Filed under: Main — Tags: , — admin @ 12:01 am

My son wanted to use the Xbox 360 controller on his PC. That makes sense. In fact, quite a few popular games offer that type of device input over using the traditional keyboard and mouse.

You can’t plug an Xbox controller into a PC. It doesn’t work. But Xbox-style controllers are available. They come with a USB connector. Plug it in and go, right? Not so fast.

Before reviewing the adventure, accept that this type of Xbox or Playstation controller is officially called a gamepad. Technically, it’s a USB Input Device. The category is Human Interface Device. So much for all that.

The gamepad my son purchased is a ZD-N+. He picked it out. I would have first ran a few reviews on it, but that’s not the point; he bought it because it looked cool. And it does.

The device connected to the PC’s USB port. It was instantly recognized and nestled in the list of system devices, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. According to Windows, everything is peachy with the gamepad controller.

Figure 1. According to Windows, everything is peachy with the gamepad controller.

The problem came when using the gamepad. The buttons are assigned in a specific manner and there doesn’t appear to be anyway to remap them.

For example, the N button in the center of the gamepad is in the same spot as the Xbox’s X (power) button. In one configuration, pressing that button starts the PC’s web browser. And that’s really the problem: You can’t map the buttons. At least, there’s no way I’ve found to do it.

The controller has three main modes. You press and hold the N button to switch between modes. Two modes are recognized by the PC. One works with the A-B-X-Y buttons mapped properly, but the Z axis stick not working at all. The other works with the A-B-X-Y buttons mapped to Y-B-A-X, but all stick input is mapped properly.

The way I’d prefer things would be for the entire gamepad to have customized controls. So you could enter a configuration screen and then map the buttons however you like. But for the controller my son chose, only two configurations are available, both of which are only half correct.

Another problem: All the documentation is in Chinese. It offers English subtitles, but these aren’t very helpful. And the online documentation isn’t in English.

Long story short, eventually we cycled through the configurations to the point where the gamepad appeared in the Devices and Printers window as an XBox 360 controller. Once we hit that magic configuration, everything worked well. But the process could have been far, far easier.

2 Comments

  1. Hmmm, not being a big gamer I have always used a USB joystick over the game pad. I was under the impression that Xbox used standard USB controllers which you could re-use on a PC provided the driver was available, well darn you can’t!

    Comment by glennp — July 16, 2015 @ 10:27 am

  2. I think the Xbox 360 and Xbox One use wireless controllers. In fact, I think all the game consoles went wireless a while back. I still find the keyboard a dynamic input device, save for GTAV, where it’s obvious they didn’t take advantage of all the keys they could have.

    Comment by admin — July 16, 2015 @ 11:17 am

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