Twenty-two keys, a push button, three flip-switches, and a touch screen all let [Dominic] take his Mech Warrior Online game to the next level. He found that there are so many key bindings in the game it ends up being a huge pain to try to adapt his behavior to a static keyboard layout. Not only does the controller give him a specialized keypad, but he designed the touch screen interface to act as on-the-fly remapping. It even looks like something that would be mounted in a Battle Mech cockpit! What we can’t understand is why he didn’t tell us about this sexy peripheral hack much sooner?
What finally prompted him to tip us off about his project was the Fubarino Contest. Above you can see the easter egg he added to the controller. When the bottom five buttons on the touch screen are mapped to “31337” (aka “elite) the Teensy 3.0 board that drives the controller will automatically load up Hackaday in his browser.
This is an entry in the Fubarino Contest for a chance at one of the 20 Fubarino SD boards which Microchip has put up as prizes!
Nice work on the input device.
Like the previous post, having an “easter egg” that opens this URL is hardly an easter egg at all
I think the other thread is nominated the offical FUBAR contest moaning thread, so prob best keep it there.
It’s nice, it maybe needs a couple more levers, and toggle switches. I know you can’t have toggle switches on a keyboard, but maybe something could send a pulse when they’re toggled. For stuff like the lights and the vision enhance. As well as something for zoom etc. IE stuff that more resembles a Mech’s control panel and makes it more real.
Like the famous Xbox controller for that mech game that cost 200 quid. Steel Batallion, came with a hella controller, 3 panels, 2 sticks and pedals.
Some of the Mechwarrior games are looked after by the fan community now, wonder if a mod for new controls would be possible? An entire Mech cockpit would be something worth dedicating a few years of your life to.
I’d like to see this in a fiberglass housing instead of a flat housing. Loved mechwarrior but not online yet! When I do I’ll def copy this hack but maybe put more buttons in a joystick instead. And foot pedals. A pop out console from a computer desk too.
I don’t think this thing would really help me any.
On a laptop? Most definitely, since the keys on the controller have very generous spacing, unlike the laptop keyboard…
Meanwhile my game of Team Fortress 2 needs only 2 keys: W and left mouse.
Whoa, slow down there Einstein. Just bind run and shoot to the same button like normal people do.
Aha! A fellow Pyro!