Playing With my SE/30

[jwse30]

It seems the only topics on this subforum are repairs. Don't get me wrong, I've posted a query or ten here myself. But I thought I would post something different tonight.

I bought a Gravis Gamepad to use with my SE/30, and have spent the past few nights playing a few games with it. It took me more than a few attempts to get it working, but it was nothing that could have been prevented if I had read the instructions.

TetrisMax is much more fun with the controller, as is Glypha. Some of the games aren't quite right though. An example is Wolves in the Wind. I cannot get the guy to jump left or right, only straight up. I have to use the keyboard command while using the direction on the controller. I've only recently started playing that game, so there may be other things  and/or solutions too. Mouse Stampede is a lot more fun with the controller than using the mouse too.

One thing I am planning on doing soon is going through the game files that the control panel uses and move the ones that won't run on the SE/30 into another folder so they won't show up. I think it installed 120+ files, and if I had to guess, half of them are for color only games. That will make getting the right profile for the controller a bit easier. I am also planning on renaming a few of the games files I use frequently to something that will make them show up at the top of the list.

It's been a fun few nights in the basement playing these old games on this old machine.

J White

 

[LaPorta]

I’ve got a game pad from back when somewhere. It was fun to use when I was a kid for sure. I hope yours is just as good for you!

I also didn’t know TetrisMax would run on an SE/30!

 

[Crutch]

The earlier versions do. The final version doesn’t I believe. 

 

[Crutch]

I don’t know much about the Gamepad. Was there a separate version made for the Mac? What port does it connect to on an SE/30?

 

[jwse30]

The Mac version hooks to the ADB port and has a passthrough connector (or a Y cable) to plug your keyboard/ mouse into if you need to. I watched a Youtube video that showed a little joystick that could be screwed into the center of the pad. Mine didn't come with it, but I can't imagine it being very useful. It looked like it was about 2 inches long and easily breakable.

There is also a switch on the top of the unit that switches it from being a keyboard to being a mouse. It looks like you could use this instead of a mouse if you wanted to, though I think it would take quite a bit of getting used to.

The driver is on Macintosh Garden (I would guess it is available elsewhere as well). My only "complaint" is that the driver  takes forever to unstuff  and install (on an SE/30 anyway) due to all those program profiles it comes with. That's pretty weak for a complaint.

If you can find one, I would pick it up. I'm having fun with mine, and they don't go for much money.

J White

 

[Mu0n]

I had a Gravis Gamepad for my Pentium PC and the stick was atrocious. The main problem with this gamepad, under certain games, is that you can't easily and reliably go to purely horizontal or vertical directions. So many badly designed gamepads have that problem and it's very showstopping for twitch arcade/platform games that require precision. The best D-Pads are the ones where 4 buttons protrude out independantly.

 

[cheesestraws]

Mine didn't come with it, but I can't imagine it being very useful. It looked like it was about 2 inches long and easily breakable

Opinions I've heard from people who have used it classify it universally as "awful", so I don't think you're missing much.

 

[Byte Knight]

I remember having a flight stick with an ADB passthrough which I used for flight sims like Falcon back in the day.  I never knew that there was a game pad however...

 

[LaPorta]

I still have a game pad and it’s original install disk somewhere as I mentioned. I’ll see what version it is.