In Before Deadline!
But, I need to PM an admin because my post is apparently too spammy for the forum to accept, possibly because it's my first time posting here....
Annnnd, apparently I can't even send a PM to an admin until I have at least 10 posts in the forum....
Sooo, in order for me to not be considered a spammer, I have to spam up the forum with 10 posts....
Ok.... be back in a bit. I have to go +1 some random people in some random topics
[hours later]
Right! I have now leveled up my post count to the grand total of 10!
(That was an ordeal!)
Let's see what my new esteemed position will allow me to post *cracks knuckles*
My entry is Visual Controller Test v0.91 for the Wii, available at WiiBrew:
http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Visual_Controller_Test
It's, uh, exactly what it sounds like? It lets you test your controllers on your Wii to make sure they are working correctly, with a nice visual interface so you can easily see what buttons you are pressing.
You can test all kinds of controllers on multiple ports (like if you have more than one Wiimote connected) -- it will detect what you are using and switch to a graphic of that controller type. You can unplug extension controllers from the Wiimote and plug in different ones freely to test each one. It will test most features including the buttons, analog sticks (all analog values are shown numerically in addition to the interactive graphics), analog shoulder buttons on the Gamecube Controller and the original Classic Controller, and the whammy bar and slide bar on guitar controllers.
I actually started working on this about a month before this competition started, but I just updated it today for the bounty, and added in a Wiimote infrared pointer cursor so you can test your pointing skills too.
Owen (newo, above) tipped me off about this this bounty's existence, so I thought, "why not?"
Wii Homebrew is practically dead, so I'm thankful for a chance to enter the app I just made (after many years of not touching Wii Homebrew development), and to share it with people who may find it useful. So I came over here and signed up.
My Creative Process?
Well, True Story: I was playing Viewtiful Joe on Nintendont on my Wii and was stylishly kicking butt and eating cheeseburgers while striking stunning poses in between (ok, it wasn't ME striking those poses, it was Joe... but I could if I wanted to).
I was in the middle of the battle with Another Joe (Alastor in disguise), and he kept sending those exploding duplicate clones at me (the jerk), with his Henshin-a-bye-bye technique. But I would snap into my awesome Zoom-In pose and perform the sweet, spinning double kick move repeatedly to fend them off... But then sometimes one of them would explode when I kicked him away, causing my controller to vibrate, and then suddenly I would find myself zoomed back out and vulnerable to their onslaught of cloney attacks! Additionally, I kept seeing Joe wanting to take a step to the left, to the left, to the left, when I didn't want him to.
That's just no good! You can't be Viewtiful when you're making sloppy moves!
Now, I KNEW it couldn't possibly be my fault, because, you know, I'm a Gaming Pro like that and I would never mis-press a button. So I knew it had to be my off-brand GameCube controller spazzing out.
I needed a testing program to give it a good checkup. I managed to find one, but I didn't like it very much because it was all text-based. It was simply not Viewtiful....
So I said to myself, "Well, bummer... Why don't I just make my own app for testing GameCube controllers? I mean, I AM a Coding Pro, after all!"
...
Yeah, I talk to myself. So what? Shut up.
So I dusted off my ancient Win XP Netbook that I used back in 2012 to create a couple Wii Homebrew games, and I started making a new app. ... Actually, my ancient Win XP Netbook is the computer I use every day, because I'm a cheapo who uses off-brand GameCube controllers and doesn't buy new stuff. My netbook was just, you know, dusty... so I dusted it off....
So yeah, I made myself a GameCube controller testing app, and confirmed that my off-brand GameCube controller is indeed spazzy. When it vibrates, it likes to make the analog and C-Stick throw out a few values that it shouldn't.... I tried taking it apart and adjusting the wires so they weren't bent too weird, and it may have helped a little bit, but I'm really getting off-topic here in addition to creating a large run-on sentence so I'll just say that the controller still doesn't work very well and is actually possibly getting worse over time because now I'm trying to play Ogre Battle on the SNES emulator on my Wii and the controller is really starting to drift to the left after I play for a while which gets pretty annoying when trying to navigate the menus.
Back on topic!
After that, I was like, "Well, heck, why don't I allow the testing of more than just GameCube controllers?" So I started adding in the ability to test every other peripheral I have for the Wii, because, I don't know, I have too much free time on my hands and I like coding and pressing buttons? Sure, let's go with that.
The point is, now we have a way to test our controllers for spazzyness! It's really helpful when you're trying to convince someone that you only lost because your controller malfunctioned... I mean... assuming your controller did malfunction and you don't just suck at the game you're playing... which you probably do.
But it's useful for someone like me who is a Gaming Pro, because when I lose it's ALWAYS the fault of the controller. ESPECIALLY on Guitar Hero.
And, uh, I guess that's it.
Gee, I guess you could consider this whole post as part of my entry, as it's part of my creative process!