Did you know all Amigas support 3 buttons? :)

[lmimmfn]

Originally Posted by Tigerskunk

Now that I am on my desktop i can give further info...

This is the thing in question.


Input with those buttons was so much faster that the players using regular joysticks were completely lost.

Seems a lot of fighting games could be exploited by holding more than one direction at once and then just releasing one for instance.

Seems it wasn't outright banned, but a few rules put in place:

That thing would be nightmare for Mortal Kombat 1 move the joystick around in a circle moves

For PC i have a Qanba arcade stick, works great when emulating Amiga games, maybe not so great with Turrican pixel perfect jump up & right or left mechanics but great for the majority of Amiga arcade style games.

[malko]

Good to have the precisions. Thanks.
And interesting to see such controller that is finally a big keyboard with less keys.
Like we say : "no stick, no joy"

[stx2199]

Originally Posted by jotd

Are there some native amiga joysticks with 3 buttons? (no hardware mods)

.

nope never existed and they don't exist yet

however, the Amiga joystick port supports 3 independent buttons which can be programmed easily for use in any game

The Amiga 500 should have been sold with some cheap pad and 3 buttons, this would have encouraged/forced the game programmers to use them in games instead using only 1 button for most of them

[giantclam]

There is this in diy/maker ... https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2416808 ...

[sokolovic]

Since the CD32 pad also works for the A500, I suppose that we can say that there is now an official solution for the multi button problem.

Bubble and Squeak OCS even have an original CD32 pad controlling option. Not a whdload patch.

[jPV]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

Why would it be reserved for Sega consoles (actually, just the Master System btw) ? It was perfectly compatible with the Amiga out of the box.

I bought a bunch of NOS two button Speedkings 10+ years ago. They were marketed as "For use with the SEGA Master System", but yeah, they work perfectly fine as two (separate) buttons joystick on Amigas without any modifications (Mega Drive / Genesis joysticks wouldn't work).

There were hundreds of them available when I bought them... a photo what I bought attached

[Megalomaniac]

Never knew that Master System controllers could be used as two-button Amiga controllers. I can understand why Amiga games weren't generally designed around two-button controllers though - many people kept the same joystick they'd used on the C64 / Atari 8-bit / Amstrad (Spectrum needed a different connection type, though lots of joysticks had both ports), and of course most early Amiga games were developed alongside versions for systems with no two-button controllers.

We got set in our ways on home computers, we were used to home computers having one-button controllers and consoles being multi-button - was it snobbery on our part? When developers did release games designed around two-button controllers (such as Kick Off 3 and FIFA), reviewers slagged them off as uncontrollable, and FIFA especially has a low average on LemonAmiga from people who clearly haven't played them on the recommended system

[alain.treesong]

@Photon

I've just post an Amos conversion of your little code to read button 2 and 3 of joysticks.
The Amos source is available here : https://github.com/alain-treesong/am...rdwareJoystick

Thanks for your article

Aghnar / Agima

[malko]

^ Nice idea
Maybe others knowledgeables coders could post code for blitz, c, etc. as well.

[Daedalus]

In Blitz anyway, buttons 1 and 2 are supported by the standard Joyb() function, and CD32 buttons are supported by the Gameb() function. Reading the 3rd button / middle mouse button would be done the same way as the AMOS example, setting the potgo register and then reading the relevant bits. For "politeness", particularly if you want to multitask or restore the system as it was before suspending multitasking, it might be a good idea to allocate the relevant bits using potgo.resource, as banging the hardware directly without it will interfere with anything else that might be using those pins, e.g. a scroll wheel driver, middle mouse button commodity etc.

[Photon]

Yep, awesome Alain and great to see so many answers!

I've also chimed in with field3d in his WHD slave tutorial request thread. I promise to not put all the burden on "someone else" to see this idea come through but want to contribute some work myself as well.

On 18 May I will also show how to convert your favorite joystick to 3 button on my Twitch livestream, to show that it's not so daunting. E.g. Megadrive, MSX, USB sticks and pads.

Originally Posted by Cylon

There are no 3-button-joysticks.
Only the CD32 pads and MegaDrive controllers.
New stuff not included.

Cheers Cylon, however my thinking is that "new" is now, we see many new games coming out, and since the 80s we see complaints about controls on C64/Amiga, and I see it as a problem that can be solved.

There were certainly multi-button joysticks even before the Amiga. The MSX would be a great example, and Quickshot joysticks were not expensive, but unfortunately MSX didn't follow the Atari standard. OTOH, the simplest mod is very simple: move 1 wire inside.

During the heyday of the C64 and Amiga, there were several options for multi-button joysticks compatible with both systems: Competition Pro, Speedking and similar hand-held ones, and arcade style sticks from Germany and Greece advertised in magazines. And of course Megadrive pads as you mention (and third party pads and sticks for it).

Originally Posted by phx

Maybe because they are happy with their joysticks and can control all Amiga games just fine, like decades ago?

Why? Good game design has simple controls.

Using "up" is the most natural and effective control in jump&runs, if you use a joystick. Not so much if you prefer a gamepad.

Thx phx, but hmm shots fired. I think many disagree with this view, and you can see some complaints even in old C64/Amiga magazines by reviewers. Pixel platformers were especially bad with "up to jump" and the response mostly was to play them and curse and smash things , or simply not play them. On console these lingered for ages, but I bet they would have died out quickly the same way if they used up to jump.

I bring up the subject of shared controls because this is the real reason why e.g. Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, Rodland, Parasol Stars (and Turricans, Gianas, Beasts, etc) didn't feel good to play. Snow Bros is an early-ish supporter of native button 2 to jump, and it makes the game more playable enjoyable - both with stick and pad.

I'd rather say that game ideas that did anything at all special, like shoot a bomb or missile, open a box or activate a shield, even simple stuff like this, were forced to these shared controls on the 1 button and became worse games for it. Prime examples would be Super Cars 1/2, any car game with accel AND brake (often brake was made auto, and forget about gearboxes, even just Hi and Lo...), Paradroid 90, and many more.

It's also up to the difficulty of the game and whether you want to complete it or just play for a few minutes and not care. As soon as good controls are required to avoid mistakes, such as in these cases or in competition, you quickly notice which games have bad controls.

I propose that we can fix this now and retro-improve those games! (And closer to arcade, which went through the same 1, 2, then 3 button evolution during the years 1983-87. For those, the task was harder - you needed to make a new panel or cabinet, we can do it much more easily than that!)

Originally Posted by jotd

Are there some native amiga joysticks with 3 buttons? (no hardware mods)

A few games need 3 buttons, specially with 2nd button jump and say, 3rd button for special weapon. Turrican 2 maybe? But the great majority only needs 2 buttons, then 3rd button is pause.

There's no such thing as a 3rd button in a CD32 pad. There's a "play/pause" button though that most games use for pause.

Yes, see list above and yes, my idea is secretly inspired by your questions about the CD32 buttons this can be done as a second stage - maybe.

I say maybe because the problem is that you are then forced to use a pad or slaughter one and put inside a joystick, and it's a little more complex and time-consuming to add CD32 support, which could then cause stutters (you address this below). And if we skip the already built in support for 3 buttons in a normal joystick, emus and games that support button 2 but not 3 won't get that support, which means the wrong wouldn't be righted! If you know what I mean.

There's a great chance here to say to Master/NES/Megadrive users who tout their pads, that of course you can play games with 3 buttons on Amiga with a stick or pad that follows the standard, instead of their custom not so good pads!

Originally Posted by jotd

most whdload slaves that have CD32 joypad support also support 3 buttons. By default, 3rd button is mapped to "pause", but can be mapped to something else if useful in the game.

button 1: normal fire
button 2: second button (on sega controllers, also right mouse button)
button 3: middle mouse button.

Unfortunately, last time I checked, the 3rd button is not the same 3rd button as sega joysticks 3rd button. So maybe a HW modification is required on those to work. Or my sega joystick had a problem? Not sure.

CD32 buttons aren't read with the same code: it can read all 6/7 buttons but it's a serial read with a small delay (which consumes some CPU), as opposed to 2nd / 3rd button read that just need 1 read and 1 write to POTGO.

Ooh, this seems good! - but only if the slave doesn't require the "CD32 version code" i.e. AGA or CD32 hardware features. (Don't some of them also "remove" the music? Or at least rely on a CD being present and removing music+SFX options in game? This is what happened to me when I tried some of them recently.)

I think it would be good if the "main/latest" did this i.e. support both controller types and therefore button 3 on standard Amiga joysticks. I'm assuming button 3 for pause requires a recompile to map to a game control?

Megadrive controllers are modded similarly to MSX - just connect button 3 to pin 5 wire. I don't know if MD converters support button 3.

Even better might be something like this USB to Amiga converter, but again - IDK if it supports button 3. If so it would be great, because this would give you tons of options for pads, sticks, and reissues-for-USB.

I've ordered one, let's see.

Nice to see sentiments echoed by many e.g. Dreadnought and TCD.

First step is to add button 2/3 "hooks" to a few slaves, for emu and real Amiga to have actions to map inputs to.

I have also shared my joystick routine on Coppershade, although slaves should already have something like it. But just for completeness.

[Bren McGuire]

amazing that is 2024 and some people still defend joystick+1 button operation it wasn't good by 1992 it is awful to still have it nowadays

[Daedalus]

I still don't really get it. It's a problem that has long been fixed already. 2-button controllers are relatively common, as is support for them in games. And there are two standard that already exist for multi-button controllers and have controllers readily available: CD32 and Megadrive (with simple adaptor), along with a third standard being introduced by Abstraction for twin-stick, multi-button controllers that's already supported in a couple of games. If another, incompatible standard is used for new games or WHDLoad slaves, it seems silly to have to go get or make yet another different, incompatible type of multi-button controller.

If you need multiple buttons with a joystick, you don't even need to gut a CD32 or Megadrive pad - both have primitive logic that is easy to solder up on a bit of stripboard. There's no need to destroy any existing controller for the sake of £2 of parts. And because there are no 3-button controllers without modding anything, you'll be soldering and replacing cables anyway, so it's not that big a jump.

Yes, reading a CD32 pad is a little more complicated. But if the timing of the game is really that tight that simple reading the pad causes frame drops, then the Megadrive scheme is much quicker, reading all 4 buttons in less time than reading the first 2 buttons of a CD32 pad. And building the adaptor required is no more complex than modding an existing controller.

I would be very surprised if the various USB->Amiga adaptors support the 3rd button for game controllers, even if they do for mice, simply because the 2-button and CD32 methods are standard, and the CD32 scheme matches the standard controller layout quite well.

To be clear though, I have no problem with any amount of different control types as options in games or slaves, so long as it's not at the expense of other established options, i.e. certain controller functionality is only available with 3-button controllers. It just seems like a lot of effort for no significant gain.

[sokolovic]

Jus saw in its manual that Hired Guns is playable with a 3 button Megadrive pad after modification (like Flashback).

[Photon]

Deadalus, that's a lot of nope in one go. I won't address it all, but I definitely think establishing a userbase with more than one button will help make games better.

I usually argue this using Asteroids, which by all accounts is a simple game idea, yet it's still limited by stick+fire. You need to thrust, that's button 1 gone. You need to shoot, so add button 2. And then there's shield or teleport... and you don't want to put any of these on a stick direction, because you will mistrigger them sometimes.

There are of course many racing games that simply lack a brake button due to stick+fire, and many platformers that use up to jump. Look no further than Turrican II for a game that uses button 1 to fire, 2 to curl up into a ball, ...and this leaves up to jump, unless you add support for a third button.

Originally Posted by sokolovic

Jus saw in its manual that Hired Guns is playable with a 3 button Megadrive pad after modification (like Flashback).

That's interesting - me and friends I've talked to were pretty there were none that supported the 3rd button. Maybe there are more?

Since posting I spent an evening converting 3 joysticks. The MSX one took the longest, and I must mod it further due to its player 1/2 multiplexer. The Megadrive clone pad was tight and therefore fiddly, but I could keep the autofire function (which was seriously OP in Silkworm!). And the easiest one was an arcade stick - connect the two disconnected wires to button 2 and 3 and done.

I've also received a firmware update for HID2AMI which will use the button currently mapped to "down" as fire 3, which I will test today.

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by Photon

Deadalus, that's a lot of nope in one go. I won't address it all,

Which parts are a nope?

but I definitely think establishing a userbase with more than one button will help make games better.

I'm all for supporting more buttons and lament the prevailing standard approach of using just one for most games. 2-button support is long established and should be further supported, and games requiring more than 2 buttons are already served by more than one standard for which hardware is already available. Why do we need another, incompatible standard? I really would like to hear a very good reason for this new 3rd-button standard instead of simply dismissing my points.

I usually argue this using Asteroids, which by all accounts is a simple game idea, yet it's still limited by stick+fire. You need to thrust, that's button 1 gone. You need to shoot, so add button 2. And then there's shield or teleport... and you don't want to put any of these on a stick direction, because you will mistrigger them sometimes.

There are of course many racing games that simply lack a brake button due to stick+fire, and many platformers that use up to jump. Look no further than Turrican II for a game that uses button 1 to fire, 2 to curl up into a ball, ...and this leaves up to jump, unless you add support for a third button.

I'll again reiterate what I've said many times before. I'm not against multiple buttons. Quite the opposite - I think multiple button support is a good thing, and wish more games had it. Thankfully, many games now do, thanks to WHDLoad.

So please don't confuse what I'm saying in that way, or dismiss my arguments by telling yourself that I think one fire button is enough.

That's interesting - me and friends I've talked to were pretty there were none that supported the 3rd button. Maybe there are more?

From memory, there's also one of the Doom ports that can use a Megadrive pad. But, I'm assuming you're not considering the many games that also support CD32 pads?

Since posting I spent an evening converting 3 joysticks. The MSX one took the longest, and I must mod it further due to its player 1/2 multiplexer. The Megadrive clone pad was tight and therefore fiddly, but I could keep the autofire function (which was seriously OP in Silkworm!). And the easiest one was an arcade stick - connect the two disconnected wires to button 2 and 3 and done.

Sounds like a lot of extra effort, especially considering the Megadrive clone pad could easily have been left unmodded and instead used via a simple adaptor (which can be built or bought). That would allow all four buttons and the autofire to work, and leave the pad so it still works with a Megadrive too.

[Solo Kazuki]

Originally Posted by Photon

Should an effort be made to at least provide new games and new WHD slaves with perhaps the most sought-after request (by me, at least): allow button 2 instead of up for jump - and button 3 for games that can use it?

Too late, it's already done.
Apano Sin not only native support 3 buttons but it was also sold with 3 buttons joy. Also some WHDLoad games supports 3 buttons, e.g. Hybris, Aladdin, and some more. Latest WHDLoad slave supporting 3 buttons is Turrican 3.
So, answering to question in topic: Yes, I know. Even more, I have this 3 buttons joystick:
https://arsoft.netstrefa.pl/joycart.htm

[Photon]

Daedalus: a lot of nope against the simpler way. Really, a single line of code enables the third button.

But it's good with discussion, because this is about awareness, and this could speed up the transition to multi-button joysticks in most Amiga users' hands, which has been the main obstacle for devs (i.e. targeting multi-button joysticks reduces the userbase).

CD32 mode comes with a few problems:

1. CD32 controllers are not microswitched, plasticky, and have different-sized buttons. I think many will agree that even the best CD32 replacement pad is not good. Also, they are just pads - no good for shooters, and autofire doesn't help if the shooter limits fire rate. If a joystick was made for the CD32, it must be even more rare than the ones for other consoles. I want players to use their favorite joystick or pad, it really increases enjoyment and comfort.
   
   
2. If a to-CD32 converter is used, and it takes DB9, it's either limited again to the 3 buttons of the Atari standard, or the 4 buttons of the Megadrive. The Megadrive would give the same problem regarding choice as 1. The other way is USB, but for this to add more buttons you would basically have to build the joystick. NP for me, but a lot more work than connecting a wire. Or you would have to like fighting sticks, because they are the only preassembled ones. I don't like fighting sticks, because they have a very short, floppy loose stick in them, which makes it harder than necessary to hit diagonals consistently, and can even spring back and trigger the opposite direction when playing fast.
   
   
3. If game programmers wrote a very performant game for A500, A1200 or CD32, it would require the stock platform and not accelerators, run full framerate, and be very close to frame overrun. The reason that games like Turrican II and similar tight games get slowdowns even on accelerated systems is that chipmem and DMA is used fully. You can't increase the speed of chipmem; then, the last thing you want to do is add wait loops or interrupts (if possible and interrupts are available) to add the polling times to the existing overhead of WHD; the alternative to this - requiring fastmem and moving code around - means substantial changes to the original image or files in the slave which affects memory mapping, loading and decompression (as opposed to a simple patch).
   
   
4. CD32 (and Megadrive) are not standard, since they were only used once. Amiga supported the Atari standard; a 3-button joystick or pad for Amiga will work on all computers supporting the standard which really is most of them. If you convert a joystick to the Atari 3-button standard, you can use it with many machines.

With regards to 3. though, I don't see requesting CD32 support as a bad thing for a new game or WHD slave. I.e. in software, I don't see my suggestion "competing" with CD32 support; both can be added and depending on the game, users can take their chances with slowdowns and it will be NP for emu users, who have maybe already found a favorite USB joystick or pad, to increase chipmem speed or tick Instant Blits to fix it.


Solo Kazuki: Hehe, awesome. Maybe I will make a ruckus in the WHD 2-button thread and ask for button 3 to jump in Turrican II.

And that joystick looks sensible, not huge like fighting sticks and with an option for right-handed players. Does it support 3 buttons on Amiga with the right adapter, and can you still buy them? I might add it to the article and give AmigaLive another link for their page then.

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by Photon

Daedalus: a lot of nope against the simpler way.

Ah, my apologies. I thought you were saying nope as a curt dismissal of my points.

this could speed up the transition to multi-button joysticks in most Amiga users' hands, which has been the main obstacle for devs (i.e. targeting multi-button joysticks reduces the userbase).

With multibutton controllers having been available for many years now, and WHDLoad slaves with multibutton support also being available for many years now, I would suggest that that transition is already underway, and fragmenting it with different, incompatible control standards isn't going to help.

CD32 controllers are not microswitched, plasticky, and have different-sized buttons. I think many will agree that even the best CD32 replacement pad is not good.

A lot of that is down to personal taste. I find the KTRL-CD32 to be excellent, for example. But yes, the original controllers are pretty rubbish.

Also, they are just pads - no good for shooters

I know of a few people with CD32 arcade sticks, though they're DIY projects, not commercial. Immortal Joysticks were looking at a CD32 version that would fill that gap, and building a stick that uses the CD32 protocol is not much more complex than building a 3-button arcade stick.

If a to-CD32 converter is used, and it takes DB9, it's either limited again to the 3 buttons of the Atari standard, or the 4 buttons of the Megadrive. The Megadrive would give the same problem regarding choice as 1.

A CD32 - DE9 adaptor only really makes sense to maintain compatibility with the CD32 protocol, by translating 6-button Megadrive controllers. Otherwise, a passive adaptor lets the Amiga read Megadrive controllers (both the 3/4-button and the 6/8-button varieties). And, Megadrive arcade sticks are available, both newly built and from back in the day. Also, building a (3/4-button) Megadrive controller is simpler than building a CD32 one, with just a single logic chip involved.

The other way is USB, but for this to add more buttons you would basically have to build the joystick.

USB is what I had in mind There's a huge variety of USB arcade-style sticks with all manner of button and stick types and combinations, all readily available. There's no need to go building anything. And it will ultimately need to be arcade-style, because once you go above two buttons, a handheld stick is pretty much out of the question - even two buttons is tricky unless one of those buttons is mounted on the stick itself.

the last thing you want to do is add wait loops or interrupts (if possible and interrupts are available) to add the polling times to the existing overhead of WHD

Agreed, the CD32 pad is a little time consuming compared to reading other controllers, though we're still only talking about a handful of cycles here. But which games are actually so tightly timed that CD32 control support pushes them over the edge? I suspect there aren't that many. And if there are games that are that tight on stock setups, the WHDLoad overhead would already be causing issues regardless of the controller support, and thus the refactoring for fast RAM should probably be done regardless.

CD32 (and Megadrive) are not standard, since they were only used once. Amiga supported the Atari standard; a 3-button joystick or pad for Amiga will work on all computers supporting the standard which really is most of them. If you convert a joystick to the Atari 3-button standard, you can use it with many machines.

I'd argue that 3-button isn't standard because it's never been used. 2-button is, but not 3-button. Thus, 2-button, CD32 and Megadrive are all more "standard" than a 3-button Atari-style controller.

With regards to 3. though, I don't see requesting CD32 support as a bad thing for a new game or WHD slave. I.e. in software, I don't see my suggestion "competing" with CD32 support; both can be added and depending on the game, users can take their chances with slowdowns

Indeed, and this is what I have tried to say previously. Having 3-button support as an option is perfectly fine, so long as including that option doesn't make the developer think that they don't need to support another multi-button control method. If a games comes out that requires a 3-button controller specifically, I won't be playing it because I already have several multi-button controllers. But any games I play that I feel would benefit from multi-button support already seem to have it either by default or via WHDLoad, so once that continues with support for the many people already using legacy multi-button controllers then it's all good.

[Photon]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

With multibutton controllers having been available for many years now, and WHDLoad slaves with multibutton support also being available for many years now, I would suggest that that transition is already underway, and fragmenting it with different, incompatible control standards isn't going to help.

Perhaps for some games, but you still can't jump with a button in Turrican II. Which is not among the least played games.

Originally Posted by Daedalus

A lot of that is down to personal taste. I find the KTRL-CD32 to be excellent, for example. But yes, the original controllers are pretty rubbish.

As are most pads for most game ideas. You might reply as someone who has tried everything, and that means we should perhaps find out what's out there through you! Anyone else heard of this one though, raise their hand? I was referring to the HoneyBee. The general problem with pads is the game kind of have to help them out a little. Even more limitations of gameplay ensues.[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

I know of a few people with CD32 arcade sticks, though they're DIY projects, not commercial.

Building a joystick is possible via USB, Megadrive adapter, CD32 adapter, and directly to the Atari standard (which is much simpler than any of the other alternatives).

Originally Posted by Daedalus

A CD32 - DE9 adaptor only really makes sense

Let me stop you there, because I think you got it the wrong way around? - you say games should support CD32, the very real problem this poses is that there are no Atari DB9 multibutton converters to CD32 DB9. So, people throw away their favorite joysticks or pads?

An Atari 3-button standard converter to CD32 would make CD32 (input only) conversions of WHD (only, mostly) very attractive!

[QUOTE=Daedalus;1686174]USB is what I had in mind There's a huge variety of USB arcade-style sticks[QUOTE]
Show me the huge variety. All I get for USB is fighting sticks. Sanwa sticks are not precise enough, and I recommend them to no-one. Just one source of a Happ controls arcade stick with blade switched buttons would make me feel there's hope left in the world. <3

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Agreed, the CD32 pad is a little time consuming compared to reading other controllers, though we're still only talking about a handful of cycles here. But which games are actually so tightly timed

I detail every aspect of this in the post you replied to. There is no "refactoring" to fix everything. Slowdowns are already a thing without CD32 input. It's not a few cycles.

The only thing that stays the same from my previous post is that emulation *can* fix everything. I don't say every user finds the right settings.

Originally Posted by Daedalus

I'd argue that 3-button isn't standard because it's never been used. 2-button is, but not 3-button. Thus, 2-button, CD32 and Megadrive are all more "standard" than a 3-button Atari-style controller.

And my point I think is that 2-button was an absolute standard, despite being supported since 1985 just like 3 buttons, until some started raising a ruckus. I'm raising a ruckus.

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Indeed, and this is what I have tried to say previously. Having 3-button support as an option is perfectly fine, so long as including that option doesn't make the developer think that they don't need to support another multi-button control method. If a games comes out that requires a 3-button controller specifically, I won't be playing it because I already have several multi-button controllers. But any games I play that I feel would benefit from multi-button support already seem to have it either by default or via WHDLoad, so once that continues with support for the many people already using legacy multi-button controllers then it's all good.

The "support" we're talking about is 1 line of code. (That is actually a few cycles.)

But I also share how to think about controls and remapping in the article, so that real games can be adapted to the wishes (or ergonomics) of the player on a real Amiga, even without a 3-button or CD32 routine anywhere in the code, and without adapters or emulation.

(This will also help those with adapters and emulators, because if the real problem of shared controls is met and weathered, there will be fewer "hard to hit combos" like fire+make a circle, and fewer things like no brake button for racing games or no turning midair for Defender/thrusty games.)

We can agree on one thing though, and that is that if you have an active input device such as a pad or joystick with autofire or LEDs, I wholeheartedly recommend an adapter. This is not because it's impossible, but because multiplexing and serialization, "just a chip" requires more time than it's worth converting it to a straight controller. Because that stick or pad is very likely mechanically unreliable in ways that electronics can't fix.

With our different views on some things though, I think we something in common, or at least I think increased multi-button support is a hell of a lot better than doing combos or reaching for the keyboard for critical triggers.