Controller Converters for Gamecube

[Lakster37]

Sorry, I didn't make the button mapping configuration that I wanted clear, so I edited the original post.

I'm VERY confused.

Why would anyone want the GameCube's B button to be mapped to the PS2's O button? That makes no sense whatsoever.

The PS2's primary buttons are NOT X and O - they're X and Square. (unless you're talking about Japanese exclusives). That's just like the SNES's Y and B are the "primary" buttons.

Really? I don't own a Playstation and haven't played one much, but that's the first time I've heard that. Admittedly, I don't own an SNES either, but I've never heard that Y and B are the "primary" buttons either. I do know that that's certainly not the case for the Dreamcast, Xbox, Wii (Classic Controller Pro), or Wii U, all of which use A and B as the "primary" buttons (although these buttons are reversed in position in the first and last set of two, it still corresponds to the right and bottom buttons in the "diamond").

I guess it can be a little difficult to determine which buttons are considered the "primary" ones because it could conceivably be different for each game, but the easiest way I could think of would be the buttons that are most used to "accept" or "decline" in menus.

By redoing the traces inside the adapter, the two buttons could be solder modded... Other games already follow the face button direction placement layout, GC Midway Treasures Robotron for example.

I may have to end up doing that, but I'd still like to try and find an adapter that does it natively. Also, I had heard that some games map the buttons that way (I assume mostly ports from companies that couldn't figure out the radial button design properly, even though they're labeled the same as the SNES), but of the 40+ Gamecube games I've played I have yet to run into one. Do you have any idea how many games actually use this "swapped" mapping on the Cube?

Even better, the pre Duel Shock PS1 Flightstick which has limited Playstation game support works with every single Gamecube and Wii GC Controller game!

I've never heard of this before - well to be honest I haven't looked into much Playstation stuff before, but it definitely sounds interesting; I'll have to check it out.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

When Nintendo released the Super Famicom the button layout was
___X
Y____A
___B

Y shoot fireballs, hold to run.
B Jump
A Spin Jump (secondary)
X Unused

Megaman X

Y Shoot
B Jump
A Dash
X Unused

Super Metroid

Y Shoot
B Jump
A Dash
X Change Visors

It is also like this for Dreamcast, Xbox, PS1 and PS2 games, as well as modern games.

Y and B or the bottom and left buttons are ALWAYS used primarily.

For GameCube, it would be downright silly and awkward to move the GC's B button to the RIGHT button position. I can't think of anything where that would be preferable, except for Megaman Anniversary Collection which has broken controls to begin with.

[Lakster37]

When Nintendo released the Super Famicom the button layout was
___X
Y____A
___B

Y and B or the bottom and left buttons are ALWAYS used primarily.

For GameCube, it would be downright silly and awkward to move the GC's B button to the RIGHT button position. I can't think of anything where that would be preferable, except for Megaman Anniversary Collection which has broken controls to begin with.

I spent some time looking at controls for various games on SNES, PSX/2/3, Gamecube/Wii, and Xbox/360 and I have to say that I'm more confused than when I started. Based on my own experience playing with games (mostly on Nintendo systems, but lately on Sega and Xbox) I'd assumed that there was a sort of set of "primary" vs. "secondary" buttons and although this IS true for most games, WHICH buttons are primary vs. which are secondary doesn't seem to have been set in stone. I won't bother listing everything I looked at and whether or not it used the "left" vs. "right" button (Nintendo Y vs. A, Playstation square vs. O) but I did find a good example that shows just how much that there is no set "standard":
Beyond Good & Evil controls across 5 systems
Even though BG&E was released on systems with virtually identical buttons (PS2/3, Xbox/360) the button mapping changed significantly with its HD release on the newer consoles, which just goes to show how button mapping is changing even still. If you want to look up button configurations for other games, I found that site extremely useful, especially for cross-platform games.

However, I do still stand by my original button mapping. Even though the the primary/secondary buttons on a console may not be as clear as on the Gamecube (since the very shape of the Gamecube's buttons marks a clear difference, as opposed to Playstation and most other consoles) there is one thing that (I think) is much more consistent across different consoles and different button layouts and different games: menu control. Although there are some deviations, in general, games on Nintendo platforms almost always use A for "accept" and B for "back" or "decline". In general, this is the same for Sega and Xbox games. I've heard that this is similar for Playstation and that (again for the most part with a few exceptions) X and O play these roles, with an added complication that these roles are generally reversed for Japanese and Western markets. Since I'm more concerned with Western releases, this would correspond to A -> X, B -> O. Taking another look at the traditional four-button "diamond" shape:

Code: Select all

Playstation:      Nintendo:        Sega/Xbox:
....Δ.................X.................Y
□.......O.........Y.......A.........X.......B
....X.................B.................A

As can be seen, these all correspond to the same two buttons, bottom and right (although whether one is "accept" or "back" depends on the console and region).

For every game that you can think of that use the bottom and left buttons more in-game, I can list a game that uses the bottom and right buttons more (especially more recent games - for example, look at Mega Man 9 and 10). In this respect there really isn't any sort of "universal" standard. The closest "universal" standard that I think we do have is with the "accept" and "back/decline" line of thinking, which is why I would still prefer an adapter that maps buttons according to my original post.