• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

S4 is an absolute beast for USB game controllers

The_Ty

The_Ty

Member
Upgraded from an S2 to an S4 about a week ago and I love it. Wrapped my head round the majority of the new features (multi-window is nice) so now I'm tinkering around, trying stuff out.

One thing that's really impressed me coming from the S2 is how well the phone works for USB game controllers.

This isn't an advice thread, either asking or receiving. Just wanted to share my findings and people with similar interests can know what's possible with this phone. All scientific-like ;)

I had a bunch of accessories for my last phone, spare batteries are no longer useful and the HDMI adaptor doesn't work with this phone, however the USB adaptor for the phone works just fine.

Normally I connect game controllers (iControlPad and PS3 remote) by Bluetooth for emulator-y goodness, but just for shits and giggles I wanted to see if some USB controllers would work on this phone, where the S2 had failed.

Surprisingly yes. I tried a PS3 official pad (by USB not bluetooth), a 3rd party PS3 pad (technically wireless but the dongle receiver plugs into the USB) and a PS2 pad to USB converter I've used for years with my laptop.

Tested them with SuperGNES LITE and SuperN64 and all worked fanastically well.

Then I remembered I have a 4way USB hub. I figured multiple connections at the same time would be too much for a phone but again to my surprise all 3 pads worked at the same time. Tested it with some GoldenEye multiplayer and controls were tight on all pads (some graphical glitches but that's an issue with the emulator not the USB connection).

I've got an S4 HDMI cable currently on the way. Last time I used HDMI at the same time as the USB adaptor it didn't quite go to plan, however this is a promising start so I'll only know for definite when it arrives. Hopefully I'll have a portable emulator I can take round to a mate's house, hook up to their TV nice and simple and enjoy some retro multiplayer games.

Either way, getting all the USB shit to work properly, very well played Samsung/Android
 
The PS3 controller (my favourite BTW) doesn't completely work.

I used to play Modern Combat 3 on my S2 using a PS3 controller connecting over bluetooth. This requires an app called Sixaxis but that didn't initially work on the S4. I tried a PS3 controller wired and it only partly worked. The analogue sticks (or perhaps it was only one) didn't work but the arrow keys and Square, Triangle etc keys did.

Now Sixaxis has been updated and the PS3 controller works well over bluetooth.

If you are just intending to use emulators (like the thoroughly excellent Drastic NDS emulator) then the controller works well.
 
lotus49 said:
The PS3 controller (my favourite BTW) doesn't completely work.

I used to play Modern Combat 3 on my S2 using a PS3 controller connecting over bluetooth. This requires an app called Sixaxis but that didn't initially work on the S4. I tried a PS3 controller wired and it only partly worked. The analogue sticks (or perhaps it was only one) didn't work but the arrow keys and Square, Triangle etc keys did.

Now Sixaxis has been updated and the PS3 controller works well over bluetooth.

If you are just intending to use emulators (like the thoroughly excellent Drastic NDS emulator) then the controller works well.
Click to expand...

Have you tried it with other games? I ran it with a few N64 games using the right analog for the C-buttons and it was fine

I'll try it out some more see if any problems come up. And I 2nd Drastic, runs fantastic ;)
 
The_Ty said:
Have you tried it with other games? I ran it with a few N64 games using the right analog for the C-buttons and it was fine

I'll try it out some more see if any problems come up. And I 2nd Drastic, runs fantastic ;)
Click to expand...
I didn't but I know other people had had the same problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom