X-Arcade Tankstick purchase advice

[wahoo]

I need some advice before purchasing an X-Arcade Tankstick

Current config:

No cabinet, using a home theater PC

Not using Windows Media Center

Wireless Keyboard with built in mouse plugged into a single USB port

2 Logitech wireless game pads plugged in to 2 USB ports

MAME and other emulators are configured to use the two game pads

I use GameEx for picture slideshows and jukebox and launching the following emulators

Mame32

WinUAE

Stella

Jum52

Emu7800

Virtual Jaguar

Virtual Colecovision

Nostalgia

Project64

Fceultra

Gens

Mekaw

Psx

zSNES

MagicEngine

For a more arcade like gaming experience I am thinking about purchasing an X-Arcade Tankstick. Although my kids and I love it, my wife doesnâ??t appreciate gaming as much. So the rather large Tankstick will not be sitting out on the coffee table, hooked up all the time. There will be times we use the less conspicuous wireless keyboard and wireless game pads without having the Tankstick connected. When ready for serious gaming we will connect the Tankstick! I want to be able to seamlessly switch between Tankstick or game pads without having to reconfigure anything every time we want to use the Tankstick or have multiple configs (this would mess up the GameEx favorites.) Before I purchase it, I want to make sure that I can use the Tankstick as I described.

I believe that xpadder program will solve this for me. Here is what I plan to do:

The wireless keyboard mouse unit and wireless gamepads will always be plugged in whether using the Tankstick or not.

Change all of the emulators to assign player 1 and player 2 controllers to the keyboard.

Assign all the same functions in each emulator to the same keyboard key press (Some emulators have more controller buttons to assign than others). For example player 1 up= keyboard numpad 8, button 1 = keyboard left ctrl, etc..

Configure Xpadder to change the Logitech gamepad buttons to the same keyboard assignments as the emulators. Example game pad 1 UP=keyboard numpad 8, button 1= keyboard left ctrl, etc..

Make sure xpadder starts before GameEx.

The X-Arcade website says that if you use a USB wireless keyboard and mouse, you should connect the TankStick via USB. So I plan on connecting the TankStick using the USB connection easily accessible in the front of the computer when ready to use it.

I have read other posts and it seems like most of the issues with the TankStick are around the mouse and trackball because the trackball is considered another mouse. I believe this can be addressed in the configuration in MAME32 and this is the only place I would use the trackball. If I can make the trackball always show up as Mouse2 I should be able to tell MAME32 to use that mouse. If the Tankstick is not connected we would not be able to play any Mame32 games that use the trackball. I would still use the mouse on the wireless keyboard with the OS and Internet Explorer etc. whether the TankStick is connected or not.

Have I missed anything? Will it work as I expected?

[Brian Hoffman]

Yes it will... Enjoy your purchase...

Tho it will take some configuring... Id also suggest auto hot key...

Configure all your emus to use key strokes and use xpadder to assign your joypads to those keystrokes..

Also configure your xarcade's key mapping to be the same... You may want to opt to use AHK to remap those controls...

All in all it will work...

Happy Gaming