Wednesday, August 27, 2008

So called "Thrustmaster" gamepad

OK. I have this gamepad. I got two of them at a garage sale probably about four years ago, still have the other one here somewhere too.. It looks almost identical to the original U.S. Sega Saturn controller, which is one of my favorite controllers of all time. Anyway, I've never been able to get it to work. It says "THRUSTMASTER" on the top, so naturally, the first place I looked was Thrustmaster's website. Nothing. Anyway, I forgot about the controller for a few years. Today I decided to take it apart, and see if there were any identifying marks. Nothing, except on the motherboard, where it says "TIGEREX SI-3"

OK. Now we're getting somewhere. I type in TIGEREX SI-3 in Google, and all the sites I come up with are in Japanese. So I use the Google "Translate this page" tool, which is pretty shitty, but it's better than nothing. I also found that there is a company called ELECOM, which makes this controller as well, under the model number JC-U609, with the only difference is that the JC-U609 is USB, and mine is a gameport controller.

The center piece, with the THRUSTMASTER logo on it, snaps off if you take the two center screws out, to reveal a hole for a Start button, which is on the TIGEREX and on the ELECOM, which both also supposedly have a turbo mode, which explains the other one.. On the TIGEREX website, the SI-3 is transparent, and the SI-1 is black like mine.. I'm really fucking confused here.

Hell, I'm even seeing a place on the board inside the controller that looks like it is a start button, all it's missing is the actual plastic button. Basically, what I'm trying to say, is WHAT THE HELL IS THIS CONTROLLER AND WHERE THE HELL CAN I FIND A WORKING WINDOWS XP DRIVER FOR THE GAMEPORT VERSION?
DAMMIT!!

.....Yeah.. sorry..it's just driving me a little insane.. Almost thinking its some weird taiwanese bootleg with the Thrustmaster logo slapped on it... but I don't know...Anybody has any thoughts on this or any knowledge of this gamepad, please let me know, I'm tearing my hair out over this...





1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey there. =)

Don't know if you already found out a solution, but here's what worked out for me.

I have the exact same controller has you. It's doesn't need drivers.

Just insert it in the controller port. Then, go to the control panel of Windows XP. There enter the Game Controllers section. Now click Add. Then Personalize.

Now, select the one directly bellow the Joystick. My Windows is in Portuguese so I don't know what your's will say. Maybe it will say Game Console, or something like that. In the Buttons section, it's 4. And in the left side, it's the number 2. Then, just name the controller in the designated field, and click OK.

Windows will install the controller, and it will show up has OK. Else, it would show up has Not Connected.

OK, now that the controller is OK, just calibrate the joypad. =)

Also, the controller, has 8 buttons, but technically, there are only 4. 4 normal ones and 4 turbo ones.
A, B and the top 2 ones are the normal 4.
The C, X, Y and Z are the turbo ones. You'll find that out when callibrating the controller.

And that's it. =)

Cheers.