A few questions

[WickTown]

Hello, I'm new to these boards and it's nice to see this kind following associated with the best game of the SSB series even 10 years after its release. I played the game when it came out but it was only a few years ago that a few friends and I began playing it all the time. We maxed out the data on one cartridge and bought another. I'm new to playing it on an emulator and very new to playing it online. I just have a couple of questions:

1) Could someone tell me if that PC controller adapter on Ebay works well? The one I ordered is that black one with two ports thats costs $20ish that claims no plug-in or driver is needed (I'm not sure of a brand name). I'm wondering if it works well with emulator play. I know that it's supposed to be good for other PC games and I'm hoping that's not all it does.

2) Using this adapter, would I be able to play say a team-battle on project64k with a friend? Is that something project64k can do using only one computer?

3) Is is worth learning to use the keyboard for certain aplications like perfecting DI (as much as you can at least)? - I'm sure I'll get some mixed responses with that one.

4) My character is Ness and I'm quite good with him. After playing on P64k a little, I've noticed the down kick people do with Ness where they seem to repetitively half jump and down kick. Now of course I know you can half jump and I can do a version of it but the way it's pulled off just seems to be impossible to me. It's much harder to roll out of. Is this just someone taking advantage of the abilities of using a keyboard or is someone in some way altering the timing of the emulator or ROM? I wish I could give a better example of exactly what the move looks like.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I apologize in advance for any questions of mine that may be frequently asked by new members.

Anyway, thank-you for your help and I look forward to your responses.

 

[DMoogle]

1) Got mine on eBay (ours might be different; mine's a clear blue and supports N64 controllers and PS2 controllers, although only one will work at a time). Never had any problems with it, works like a charm with practically every game, and Windows recognizes it as a generic controller so it is likely you won't need any drivers.

2) Offline, sure. You'll need two adapters for two controllers though, unless someone wants to use keyboard or a different USB controller. Online with other people, I don't know if it will work correctly.

3) I hate keyboard. That being said, I suspect that certain techniques are easier with it, most notably DI and pivoting. Might be wrong though, I've never used it myself.

4) Not entirely sure what you're referring to, although I don't think there's anything like that that a keyboard would do better than a controller. Are you talking about double-jump canceling (DJC)?

I'm "A$" on Emularena. If you see me on, feel free to ask me anything.

 

[Daedatheus]

Hi! Good to have you here.

A lot of your questions can be answered in the stickies. I recommend reading them first. They cover advanced techniques, online play, etc. With that said...

1) Could someone tell me if that PC controller adapter on Ebay works well? The one I ordered is that black one with two ports thats costs $20ish that claims no plug-in or driver is needed

I bought that same type of adapter. While there seem to be several manufacturers they are all pretty similar. I started using that thing for online play but I found that the way it reads the N64 joystick is REALLY sketchy, and I found it unplayable. I now use an Xbox360 controller. While it's not perfectly the same as an N64 controller, I seem to have little problem switching back and forth between the two. I'm more comfortable on console, but have the controller set up like an N64 one and the joystick responds beautifully.

2) Using this adapter, would I be able to play say a team-battle on project64k with a friend? Is that something project64k can do using only one computer?

Project64k can play team battles through servers.
If you want to have you and your teammate plugged into the same computer, arguably it should work. I'm not 100% sure if there are some exceptions though. You can configure controls separately for Players 1 - 4 so multiple inputs should not be an issue.

3) Is is worth learning to use the keyboard for certain aplications like perfecting DI (as much as you can at least)? - I'm sure I'll get some mixed responses with that one.

If you can get a controller of some kind working fine for online play and that's what you're more comfortable with, it is pointless to learn to use keyboard. You may have heard things about crazy DI on keyboard, but why bother? Controller is better for pretty much EVERYTHING else. There is no degree of tilt on a keyboard button, it's either pressed or unpressed. Joysticks FTW.

4) My character is Ness and I'm quite good with him.

I hate to say this, but someone will have to tell you at some point to ensure you keep humble :

No, you're not "quite good."
Not yet. (Based on what you say in your post). If you stick with it, learn the ATs, learn to combo and play online against good players, you will be, though. Anyway...

4) My character is Ness and I'm quite good with him. After playing on P64k a little, I've noticed the down kick people do with Ness where they seem to repetitively half jump and down kick. Now of course I know you can half jump and I can do a version of it but the way it's pulled off just seems to be impossible to me.

This is called "Double Jump Cancelling", or DJC. More info can be found in the stickies, but essentially, Ness's second jump's upward momentum is always cancelled if you perform an aerial or a special of some kind. This can be used into making Ness shoot out aerials at high speeds low to the ground by jumping twice quickly and doing an aerial, such as the dair you mentioned.

An easy way to perform this on N64 controller is slide your thumb from right C, through down C, and finally to A. If done in one swift motion, it will be a very fast DJC. You can do this with any aerial, and his uair and dair don't even need to be z-canceled.

And about rolling... if you do it fast enough against someone's shield, it's impossible to roll out of and can break their shield. Ness is crazy like that.

Hope this all helps.

For online play I recommend finding people in the player's compendium thread and playing P2P rather than playing through servers. You'll find the best players that way and you'll get much better connections (IE less lag) as well.

Cheers!

 

[Fireblaster]

1) Could someone tell me if that PC controller adapter on Ebay works well? The one I ordered is that black one with two ports thats costs $20ish that claims no plug-in or driver is needed (I'm not sure of a brand name). I'm wondering if it works well with emulator play. I know that it's supposed to be good for other PC games and I'm hoping that's not all it does.

What adapter are you talking about?

2) Using this adapter, would I be able to play say a team-battle on project64k with a friend? Is that something project64k can do using only one computer?

I do not get this question, but I will specify what you can do:

- Two people on different computers can team battle through the internet.

- If your computer can handle it, you can run two pj64k's at the same time and have each one with a different control scheme logged on to kaillera

- both of you on the same computer playing offline against computers

3) Is is worth learning to use the keyboard for certain aplications like perfecting DI (as much as you can at least)? - I'm sure I'll get some mixed responses with that one.

Keyboard is not worth it. Go for controller.

4) My character is Ness and I'm quite good with him.

I highly doubt it.

After playing on P64k a little, I've noticed the down kick people do with Ness where they seem to repetitively half jump and down kick. Now of course I know you can half jump and I can do a version of it but the way it's pulled off just seems to be impossible to me. It's much harder to roll out of. Is this just someone taking advantage of the abilities of using a keyboard or is someone in some way altering the timing of the emulator or ROM? I wish I could give a better example of exactly what the move looks like.

Sounds like you don't even know how to tech or double jump cancel. You don't even know the terminology; using terms like "down kick" are very vague and don't really explain things well.

Go read the sticky.

 

[DMoogle]

I bought that same type of adapter. While there seem to be several manufacturers they are all pretty similar. I started using that thing for online play but I found that the way it reads the N64 joystick is REALLY sketchy, and I found it unplayable. I now use an Xbox360 controller. While it's not perfectly the same as an N64 controller, I seem to have little problem switching back and forth between the two. I'm more comfortable on console, but have the controller set up like an N64 one and the joystick responds beautifully.

Yeah be sure to calibrate your joystick by going into the Windows Control Panel > Game Controllers, and set the deadzone/range in the PJ64K settings. SuperBoomFan (probably one of the best SSB players in the world) recommends a range of 80% and I think a deadzone of 5% for good sticks.

I hate to say this, but someone will have to tell you at some point to ensure you keep humble :

No, you're not "quite good."
Not yet. (Based on what you say in your post). If you stick with it, learn the ATs, learn to combo and play online against good players, you will be, though. Anyway...

+1. However good you may think you are, you probably aren't. Wait until you've played most of the regulars online, then you'll have a better idea of where you stand (although admittedly the average online reg is WAY BETTER than the average SSB player). Good luck!

 

[Daedatheus]

Yeah be sure to calibrate your joystick by going into the Windows Control Panel > Game Controllers, and set the deadzone/range in the PJ64K settings. SuperBoomFan (probably one of the best SSB players in the world) recommends a range of 80% and I think a deadzone of 5% for good sticks.

I did that, and I know what Boom says about it (I p2p him regularly). but the problem was that using that adapter with my N64 controller, whenever I would hold up or down, rather than reading it as "holding up" or "holding down," it would register repeated inputs in that direction.

This manifested like this:
Holding down made my character DUCK. Stand up. DUCK. Stand up. Repeat.
And when holding up, DOUBLEJUMP. DOUBLEJUMP. DOUBLEJUMP. Repeat.

It made it very hard to do anything right. Lots of SDs occurred. I don't have this issue with my xbox360 controller, it registers the joystick properly. Some flaw in the N64 adapter I guess. Maybe I just need to try it with more controllers.

 

[DMoogle]

Yikes that's terrible.

 

[Lawrencelot]

3) Don't use keyboard just for DI. Only use keyboard if you are not used to playing with a controller.

 

[KoRoBeNiKi]

I find keyboard just more relaxing for my hands...and I never found the n64 controller to be good...I never "held" it correctly. I could only use the n64 controller right for the adventure/shooter/racing/puzzle games.

If anything...I would get a gamecube controller adapter.

 

[Daedatheus]

the problem was that using that adapter with my N64 controller, whenever I would hold up or down, rather than reading it as "holding up" or "holding down," it would register repeated inputs in that direction.

Yikes that's terrible.

Somehow, with random tweaking and trying many N64 controllers, I managed to fix this problem.

I CAN FINALLY PLAY P2P WITH AN N64 CONTROLLER!! WOOH

 

[Dylan_Tnga]

3) Don't use keyboard just for DI. Only use keyboard if you are not used to playing with a controller.

You don't need a keyboard to DI lol it's easy with the controller. DI is all about prediction and reaction!