Devvers interested in using DC Fishing Rod in homebrew:

[Falco Girgis]

Good news.

I picked one of this baby up just the other day for a mere $5 at my local game retailer.

BlueCrab and I were talking, and he told me that it got input like a controller. I wanted to start on a new miniproject since DCParticlez is over. I thought a fishing game would be nice.

So I finally got around to testing, and this is what I've found:

A, B, X, Y, Start - function completely like controller
Analog Stick - counts as both Dpad and analog on controller
Reel - R trigger (more intense you reel, the more intense the button down)
Casting - L trigger (this one is wierd. It's always at 255, I'm guessing, and the harder you cast, the lower the numbers go).

I'm going to test it more to get some actual button press numbers later today (reel and casting).

[Falco Girgis]

Very good news for devvers.

I wrote a small program and this is what I've found.

All buttons act like normal buttons. Start, A, X, Y, B.

The analog registers as both the normal analog stick and dpad simultaneously. If I were to push up on the analog, I'd get a detected dpad up as well.

Here's the fun part.

R trigger is how hard you're reeling in. It stays at 0 when you aren't reeling in. The harder you reel, the higher it goes. It can go to 255, though the most anybody can realistically pull would be more like 220-ish (I got to like 240 once, but that's because I kick ass).

The L trigger is the intensity of the cast. By default, it's at 127. That means you aren't casting. It's VERY VERY VERY sensitive. Sitting on my floor it's still bobbing from 127 to 128. It never goes above 127, but moves toward 0 with your cast.

A light cast is more like 90.
Medium is near 70.
Hard/Baseball bat cast is like 20.

The thing that amazed me is that I've found the rod uses the second analog stick. It keeps track of what direction you're casting. Casting up will decrease the joy2y value, and casting down will increase it. Casting right increases the joy2x and left decreases it.

And that's it. There is the fishing rod completely broken down. Every aspect is just begging to be used in a homebrew. /me drools.

[JS Lemming]

I don't get the part about a second analog stick. Controller only has one right?

[Falco Girgis]

Okay, the DC handles 2 analog sticks. Most accessories/peripherals don't utilize the second one, so you'd never know.

Maracas and Fishing rods are the more exotic peripherals that use the second analog stick to function in different ways. It acts just like the first one. Sega just opted to not use the second analog stick with their standard controller. That doesn't mean other accessories can't get input with it.