Allow Nunchuk alone to be mapped as a controller.

[Former user]

Original issue 361 created by vaguerant on 2013-09-17T08:03:28.000Z:

Would it be possible to allow a Nunchuk controller to be mapped to a slot by itself, rather than as a Nunchuk & Wii Remote combo? This is obviously an edge usage case, but would allow multiplayer with just a single Wii Remote/Nunchuk set on most games (Game Gear, SMS, many Mega Drive titles), and would also do wonders for a certain Mega Drive hack:

The first-person shooter Zero Tolerance has a mouse controls hack by Ti. On a real Mega Drive, the player uses a standard controller in slot 1 and a mouse in slot 2, using the d-pad to move and mouse for aiming and buttons. Obviously, this could be done on the Wii with a USB mouse and the player's choice of P1 controller, but another possibility is the use of the Wii Remote's infra-red for slot 2 (mouse) and the associated Nunchuk in slot one (3-button controller).

This would allow Zero Tolerance to be played much like a modern Wii FPS. Obviously, the nunchuk is short two buttons, but controls for the hacked game are replicated on both controller and mouse, so the four buttons the game needs (fire, change weapon, jump, pause) can easily be spread across the Wiimote and nunchuk.

Obviously, this goes beyond replicating any sort of experience that could be had on the Mega Drive itself, so I understand if it's undesirable on that grounds, but hopefully the potential benefit outweighs concerns of potentially stepping outside the explicit aim of the project.

[Former user]

Comment # 1 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2013-09-17T18:08:57.000Z:

The fact nunchuk only has 2 buttons would complicate a lot of things, especially for button mapping (how would the emulator knows which button you want to ignore) but also an important part of the input code would need to be rewritten with that in mind and i don't want to do that, especially when it can easily be bypassed on user side by getting a 2nd wiimote...

[Former user]

Comment # 2 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2013-09-17T18:09:22.000Z:

[Former user]

Comment # 4 originally posted by iceknightmail on 2013-09-23T16:18:35.000Z:

Regarding the controls "issue" with the Zero Tolerance hack, I can think of two solutions that I'm not sure would require way too many changes in the code or not, but will explain in case they're feasable:

-Currently, playing it as described would require two Wiimotes with one Nunchuk connected to each (just so the first Wiimote can be held vertically), so the need for this required yet unused Nunchuk can be solved by adding a new controller option for "Wiimote (Vertical)".

This would be useful for RPGs and menu-based games as well (I think I even opened a feature request for it some time ago), so it wouldn't be just a specific "patch" for this situation, in any case.

-The other solution I can think of would be being able to assign separately each controller and its attached device, as follows:

Imagine you have a Wiimote+Nunchuk and a Wiimote+Classic Controller currently being detected by the console. When clicking on the assigned device for Player 1, the emulator would cycle between the currently detected individual devices and the Wiimote+Nunchuk combination when found:
--None
--Wiimote+Nunchuk (1)
--Wiimote (1)
--Nunchuk (1)
--Wiimote (2)
--Classic Controller (2)

In the case of the opening post, the controls would just have to be assigned as:
PLAYER 1: Wiimote (1)
PLAYER 2: Nunchuk (1)

This would also make 4-player games possible with just two Wiimotes and two Classic Controllers, for example (or even Nunchuks, for games that don't require three buttons like Sonic or Bomberman).

As for how to ignore a button when defining the controls, perhaps there could be a "HOME to skip" notice while it prompts for the button press (after all, it's the only button that's never going to be mapped to anything else).