can i play aleph one with an xbox 360 controller? please help.....

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JoeKool82185
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OK, I'm sorry if this topic has been covered. I HAVE been searching all over for information about this and even found a thread about it on this site, but it was too technical and I couldn't understand it.

Basically, I downloaded the Aleph One Marathon Trilogy on my Windows 7 laptop, back in the day when Aleph One had the Pathways into Darkness bit in the very beginning (I mention that because I hear that newer versions have come out, so I don't know if it makes a difference). It works, but I suck at PC FPS's. I can't use a keyboard and a mouse; I'm a console gamer and I need a controller. Don't even ask me how I managed to beat the first game and half of the second. Lots of patience, I guess.

Is there a way to use an X-Box 360 controller to play it? I know that there is, but there is so much conflicting information on how to do it that I'm beyond confused. Stuff with downloading software and installing drivers; I'm not very technically savvy and I don't know anything about source codes and the like. I just want to play a game.

Anyhoo, I bought one of the Wireless Gaming Receivers for my wireless controller (turns out it was a third party thing) and managed to download the drivers and everything. I don't know what to do with it afterwards, but nothing seems to work. Then I read that if I have the battery pack and charger, I could just plug that into the laptop and play it directly. I did, and it doesn't work. Then I hear buying a wired controller will allow me to play on the laptop with minimal effort (namely a simply driver download right off of Microsoft's website), only to find that there are also special X-Box 360 Controllers for Windows that cost three times as much and that there was almost zero agreement as to whether or not that specific controller was necessary or a waste of money. Then I find out that not all games allow you to play with the X-Box 360 controller and I can't find out where the Aleph One Marathon games stand. AND to top it all off, I hear that the button mapping may not be completely up to snuff (I've heard complaints of people being unable to assign a function to LT or RT for whatever reason. Something about Axises).

So yeah, I'm COMPLETELY confused and all I want to do is play these games with my X-Box 360 controller just like I can with the Halo games. Can someone explain to me if it's possible to play the Aleph One Marathon Trilogy on a Windows 7 laptop with a controller, and if so then how to go about doing that? Man, I wish they'd just give the first and third games an XBLA release like they did the second.

Anyway, thanks in advance for your help, guys.
Last edited by JoeKool82185 on May 24th '12, 23:43, edited 1 time in total.
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Hopper
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Aleph One should support the controller, but you need to do some setup in Aleph One before it will work. I don't know a lot about it, but try this:

From the main menu, click on "Preferences," then on "Controls," and finally on "Joystick." Turn on the "Use Joystick / Gamepad" checkbox. If the line underneath the checkbox says "No Joysticks," then Aleph One isn't seeing the controller and there's a problem.

Underneath that are the axis mappings for the sticks. These can vary based on the driver; it might take some trial and error to get them right. There's no testing for these besides starting a game, and returning to the prefs to swap them around if they're wrong.

Finally, the "Configure Keys / Buttons" button lets you get to the rest of the controls. Just click on the one you want to change (so it says "waiting for new key"), and press the controller button to map it. If nothing happens when you press the button, chances are the driver isn't sending the button in a way that Aleph One can understand. As you read, this will probably happen for the triggers.

If you want the triggers to work, you can use something like Xpadder to assign the triggers to key presses. Best of luck!
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thermoplyae
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i have the vaguest feeling that SDL input and the 360 controller are not very compatible, but i can't remember where this feeling came from and google is of no help. definitely hopper's post contains all the things you should do to troubleshoot it / set it up, but if alephone claims that no joysticks are found, i would expect the failure not to be on your part but on this SDL business.

at that point i don't know what we'd do. i guess someone with a 360 controller goes in and fixes alephone; the existing joystick code is very skeletal. probably there is something to do to fix it if we were more mindful of the 360 controller in particular.
dude, seriously. dude.
JoeKool82185
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Thanks for the help, you guys. I'm still working on it. I've confirmed that the 3rd party version of the Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows doesn't work (even with the drivers properly installed, it still says "No Joystick" under preferences and turning on the controller just turns on the X-Box instead), or at least I can't get it to work.

My only other chance is to be the 360 Controller for Windows, specifically designed to play on the computer. But with prices around $40, I really don't want to buy it without being absolutely sure this thing will work for Marathon. Is there anyone else on here that has actually tried this and confirmed whether or not it works? I can't be the only one on here trying to play this with a controller. Any other console FPSers around?
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interion
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My wired 360 controller was automatically detected, but there were definitely problems with the default button configuration and analog stick sensitivity that I didn't bother to try fixing.

Microsoft sells two 360 controllers for Windows, a wired one that uses USB and a wireless one with an included receiver. Both controllers are identical to the standard 360 controllers, except for the name on the packaging. You can buy the receiver separately if you already have a controller.

For the wireless one in particular, you'll occasionally have problems with games because the hardware identifies it differently. Assassin's Creed being famously incompatible.

Microsoft sells a separate "Play & Charge" kit that connects a USB cable to a wireless controller, but it CAN NOT be used to connect the controller to a PC because it supports only power, not data, over the cable.

So your best choice is a standard wired 360 controller. Second best is wireless with an official Microsoft wireless receiver, which should eliminate driver issues.

If no one else has a 360 controller or the time I might take a look at the code and see if I can improve support. Since it's becoming such a common accessory it would be nice to be able to plug in and play without messing around with the settings.
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JoeKool82185
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Tim wrote:My wired 360 controller was automatically detected, but there were definitely problems with the default button configuration and analog stick sensitivity that I didn't bother to try fixing.

Microsoft sells two 360 controllers for Windows, a wired one that uses USB and a wireless one with an included receiver. Both controllers are identical to the standard 360 controllers, except for the name on the packaging. You can buy the receiver separately if you already have a controller.

For the wireless one in particular, you'll occasionally have problems with games because the hardware identifies it differently. Assassin's Creed being famously incompatible.

Microsoft sells a separate "Play & Charge" kit that connects a USB cable to a wireless controller, but it CAN NOT be used to connect the controller to a PC because it supports only power, not data, over the cable.

So your best choice is a standard wired 360 controller. Second best is wireless with an official Microsoft wireless receiver, which should eliminate driver issues.

If no one else has a 360 controller or the time I might take a look at the code and see if I can improve support. Since it's becoming such a common accessory it would be nice to be able to plug in and play without messing around with the settings.
I just got a wired controller (third party) from Best Buy, and it works just like you said. I'm able to haphazardly move the Security Officer around, but I can't assign any buttons, so I can't shoot or anything like that. It only allows me to map basic movement controls, and not to analog sticks but to things like "Axis 1" and "Axis 2", which I don't know what that means.

I know you're looking into it, but does anyone else know how to configure the buttons so that it plays more or less like Halo? Or like the XBLA port of Marathon 2: Durandal which I only briefly played a demo of (which played more or less like Halo)?

And seriously, this whole waiting days for my posts to show up shtick is getting old.
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Make it better, like this
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treellama
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JoeKool82185 wrote:I just got a wired controller (third party) from Best Buy, and it works just like you said. I'm able to haphazardly move the Security Officer around, but I can't assign any buttons, so I can't shoot or anything like that. It only allows me to map basic movement controls, and not to analog sticks but to things like "Axis 1" and "Axis 2", which I don't know what that means.
Axis 1 and Axis 2 are just that--analog axes (left/right, up/down, the game doesn't know) on the sticks.

I don't know much about the 360 controller because I don't have one, but you should be able to assign most of the buttons. It's the left and right triggers that you won't be able to get to work since Microsoft's driver reports them incorrectly. Xpadder should help with that.

For the rest of the buttons, though, you're going to the keyboard preferences, clicking on an action, and pressing the controller button, right?
Last edited by treellama on Jun 4th '12, 19:12, edited 1 time in total.
JoeKool82185
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Is there anything other than Xpadder? They won't let me download the product (it misleads you into thinking the sale didn't go through, leading me to accidentally buy it twice), and I need an account on their forums. There is no way to actually register on their forums, though. Every link just leads to their "Forum Account Manager" which just tells you all the perks of having a forum account. That means that I paid for it twice and still don't have access to it.

Is there something more reliable than Xpadder? If they can't even run a message forum, I shudder to think how shoddy their product is.






Never mind. I got it to work! Now I can play Marathon with a controller........once I figure out how to adjust the analog stick sensitivity, that is.
Last edited by JoeKool82185 on Jun 5th '12, 03:55, edited 1 time in total.
CKT1138
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I used JoyToKey to do this a long time ago. I made a post here about it too, and I think i included the scripts that allowed it to work properly. But I'm sure controller support is better now than it was back then.
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