Keypad Controllers on 80s game consoles

General
#1

I’m just wondering what solutions people have come up with on playing emulated games for systems with originally keypad controllers. Specifically, Colecovision, Intellivision, and Atari 5200.

I’m thinking of getting a wireless USB 12-button keypad and setting up the buttons in RA to handle each console.

Has anyone done this and can recommend a keypad, or are there other options?

I have an arcade style furniture piece with an arcade board with a two player layout. I could setup each button on the board to correspond with the keypad buttons, then try to remember what each button is set to, or I could pull out a keypad just for those games.

I welcome any thoughts and ideas.

#2

I haven’t spent a lot of time with these systems, but the throw-away method I have them setup with at the moment is this:

Left Stick:

  • Up - 1
  • Down - 2
  • Left - 3
  • Right - 4
  • LSB - 9

Right Stick:

  • Up - 5
  • Down - 6
  • Left - 7
  • Right - 8
  • RSB - 0

Then the 2 bumpers to * and #

It’s not the most intuitive setup in the world, but it will get the job done.

#3

I’ve done something similar when I played around with these systems a few years ago with an Xbox controller. Typically it will get you past the game selection screen, but when you’re in a game that uses a lot of the buttons on the keypad (the one from my youth I played a bit is Colecovision’s “Wargames”) it becomes a bit more difficult to play. There are only a few games like that with that console though.

I found a programmable USB keypad that might work. I could have gone with a more standard (and cheaper) numerical keypad, but this way I have more freedom to program each button to whatever key I want and it won’t interfere with my arcade board which has buttons that are not programmable. This might not be a great solution if one typical plays sitting on their couch with an Xbox controller, but for my arcade it’s just a matter of bringing out the keypad when playing certain games.

I would still appreciate hearing about any other solutions out there. This is a fully customizable hobby, and it’s nice to hear how others handle certain obsticles.

1 Like
#4

Yeah I approach everything from a couch-console perspective. I absolutely love the idea of having one in the arcade control board though. That just sounds cool af.