Hardware Hori Fighting Stick for Wii; its "analog sticks" are stuck to the bottom-left

[Kirby6417]

Just bought the Hori Fighting Stick for the Wii. Excellent condition.

The problem is, its analog sticks are stuck in the bottom-left position. It doesn't actually have analog sticks on it, but the Wii interprets it as a Classic Controller and it interprets the stick positions as being in the bottom-left. Any help? Defective device or normal behavior for it?

Troubleshooting bulletpoints:
*problem occurs with Wii remote & Wii Motion Plus Remote (all first-party)
*problem seems to occur in almost all homebrew software -- but never in official software (and Nintendont is fine too!)
-- stick problems: USB Loader GX (old version), VBA GX, Retroarch, a couple other emulators I think; and finally, as in the attached picture, Visual Controller Test
-- stick is fine with: all official Virtual Console games and any game injected into them even if an analog stick is technically required to play it (e.g. Super Mario 64); Mega Man 10 (WiiWare) which can be played with D-pad only; and Nintendont

Theory:
It might have to do with the data format of the classic controller?
https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Wiimote/Extension_Controllers/Classic_Controller

Also (not an electrical engineer) maybe it has to do with the lack of any potentiometers in the device when the Wii expects at least one, so it is receiving an unusual amount of voltage which official software is designed to interpret as position 0,0 while homebrew software didn't consider this edge case.

Concern:
Should I expect this to be an issue if I use the Hori stick with 8bitdo adapters to use it on my Switch and PC?

Other thoughts:
Is there a simple solution for an end-user like me?
Is there a programming solution if we could just add some (probably simple) code to the homebrew apps?
Is there a hardware solution, if I open it up and add resistors or something?

Thanks!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Just bought the Hori Fighting Stick for the Wii. Excellent condition.

The problem is, its analog sticks are stuck in the bottom-left position. It doesn't actually have analog sticks on it, but the Wii interprets it as a Classic Controller and it interprets the stick positions as being in the bottom-left. Any help? Defective device or normal behavior for it?

Troubleshooting bulletpoints:
*problem occurs with Wii remote & Wii Motion Plus Remote (all first-party)
*problem seems to occur in almost all homebrew software -- but never in official software (and Nintendont is fine too!)
-- stick problems: USB Loader GX (old version), VBA GX, Retroarch, a couple other emulators I think; and finally, as in the attached picture, Visual Controller Test
-- stick is fine with: all official Virtual Console games and any game injected into them even if an analog stick is technically required to play it (e.g. Super Mario 64); Mega Man 10 (WiiWare) which can be played with D-pad only; and Nintendont

Theory:
It might have to do with the data format of the classic controller?
https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Wiimote/Extension_Controllers/Classic_Controller

Also (not an electrical engineer) maybe it has to do with the lack of any potentiometers in the device when the Wii expects at least one, so it is receiving an unusual amount of voltage which official software is designed to interpret as position 0,0 while homebrew software didn't consider this edge case.

Concern:
Should I expect this to be an issue if I use the Hori stick with 8bitdo adapters to use it on my Switch and PC?

Other thoughts:
Is there a simple solution for an end-user like me?
Is there a programming solution if we could just add some (probably simple) code to the homebrew apps?
Is there a hardware solution, if I open it up and add resistors or something?

Thanks!

3rd party classic controllers are famously buggy in homebrew, I don't think there was ever a fix for this. Wrong stick inputs and even crashes are common.

There is a workaround though, if your Wii has GameCube ports you can get a Blueretro dongle (or other bluetooth receiver dongle for GC which supports Wii controllers, if there are any) and use it as if it were a GC controller.

 

[0arsoluto]

Just bought the Hori Fighting Stick for the Wii. Excellent condition.

The problem is, its analog sticks are stuck in the bottom-left position. It doesn't actually have analog sticks on it, but the Wii interprets it as a Classic Controller and it interprets the stick positions as being in the bottom-left. Any help? Defective device or normal behavior for it?

Troubleshooting bulletpoints:
*problem occurs with Wii remote & Wii Motion Plus Remote (all first-party)
*problem seems to occur in almost all homebrew software -- but never in official software (and Nintendont is fine too!)
-- stick problems: USB Loader GX (old version), VBA GX, Retroarch, a couple other emulators I think; and finally, as in the attached picture, Visual Controller Test
-- stick is fine with: all official Virtual Console games and any game injected into them even if an analog stick is technically required to play it (e.g. Super Mario 64); Mega Man 10 (WiiWare) which can be played with D-pad only; and Nintendont

Theory:
It might have to do with the data format of the classic controller?
https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Wiimote/Extension_Controllers/Classic_Controller

Also (not an electrical engineer) maybe it has to do with the lack of any potentiometers in the device when the Wii expects at least one, so it is receiving an unusual amount of voltage which official software is designed to interpret as position 0,0 while homebrew software didn't consider this edge case.

Concern:
Should I expect this to be an issue if I use the Hori stick with 8bitdo adapters to use it on my Switch and PC?

Other thoughts:
Is there a simple solution for an end-user like me?
Is there a programming solution if we could just add some (probably simple) code to the homebrew apps?
Is there a hardware solution, if I open it up and add resistors or something?

Thanks!

I bought a Hori stick for the Wii years ago and have never gotten it to work. My intention was to use it with WiiFlow, and the controller seems to want to work, but when I connect it and open WiiFlow, the source menu or the game covers just keep scrolling uncontrollably to the right. Only the "Y" button works to return to the previous screen; no other action buttons work. The Select button to open the RetroArch menu and the Start button to access WiiFlow's options also work. All the other buttons are unresponsive. I should mention that the quality of the stick's clicks and action buttons is truly superior to the MyFlash and other controllers I use on the Wii. On the other hand, as you can see in the photo, I have a homemade Wii-to-GameCube controller adapter that I think I bought on eBay. It came with instructions for connecting the Hori arcade stick to the Wii directly through the GameCube port, and that's how I tested it and how I can say that the arcade stick "works." I have several PS2 sticks that I use on my Wii via a Yamaha GameCube converter, and they work very well. However, the sticks I use aren't very high quality, and the difference in feel compared to the Hori stick is quite noticeable. Ultimately, the best thing to do on the Wii is to directly mod the GameCube controllers and install a quality arcade stick. That's what I'm going to do in an arcade machine I'm building with the Wii. I should mention that the PS2 arcade sticks I have allow me to switch between digital and analog modes using a switch on the stick itself, which lets me play games or navigate Wiiflow in analog mode.
As you can see, I'm not the only one who's had problems with the Hori arcade stick for the Wii. A while back I saw a video where they were using several controllers from other, more modern consoles on the Wii, and I noticed that to use certain controllers, they were changing the setting in Wiiflow to force the use of cIOS 247. That way, the PS4 or PS5 controller (I can't remember which) worked fine... Well, I tried it, and my Wiiflow stopped working! I removed the wiiflow_ini file from the app, and it still didn't work... Then I remembered I had an app that seemed useless but actually wasn't: Wiiflow Start Configuration. I ran it, and it was set to 247 as the startup cIOS. I changed it back to default or automatic, and voila! Wiiflow is working again. I hope some genius on GBAtemp can create an executable that allows the Hori arcade stick to work on the Wii because it really is an incredible controller. I don't know if you've noticed, but my Hori is Japanese; is yours too? I use a PAL Wii... could that be the problem with this arcade stick?