Alright guys. This was THE MOST confusing thing I've ever ran into at first...but it took me atleast 5 hours to figure out how to do this but here it goes...first an explanation on why this has to be done.

NullDC is the newest emulator out there and it's even better than Chankast! It emulates almost all games flawlessly! There's one downside, it doesn't support joypads!! >.< Well this tutorial here will make that possible for this emulator and ANY emulator that doesn't accept joypads and only limits you to the keyboard as a controller. This is EXACTLY how it's done:

First go to:
Then go find the files called dc_bios.bin and dc_flash.bin *use Google...type in the words dc_bios download and you'll find it I swear to God...*

THEN at the same site..it'll tell you to download a file called Joy2Key...because as stated and explained above, NullDC is NOT programed to use a joypad...so you have to map your joypad into tricking the PC that it's a keyboard...but Joy2Key is ONLY for experienced users....I'd recommend Xpadder for people who doesn't know how to map a joypad to a keyboard...here's links to the following:

Joy2Key *again, for the ppl who knows how to do it*
Xpadder *recommended*
For the people using Joy2Key...your on your own because I could never figure that program out..it confused the hell out of me...

Now for the people using Xpadder, stay tuned because here's something else that'll be VERY useful...
Where ever you extracted Xpadder, extract that in the same folder and tell Xpadder to open that profile. If that download ever expires tell me so I can reupload it for you. Thanks goes out to Nologic from 1emulation.com for this link! I don't want him to think I stole the stuff he uploaded...

Open it up and you'll see that your buttons is already set up...so don't mess with ANYTHING there...just click X.

Then you'll see a screen showing you the name of the current profile and under it will say untitled. Click the one saying untitled and you'll see a prompt. Click SAVE!

Then all you do here is look at the lower right hand side and click 1.
It'll highlight some buttons...just ignore that.

The first thing we'll be setting up is the D-pad or the DC analog stick *choose which ever...*

Here is a pic of what I'm talking about:


*beautiful sketch isn't it? *

Alright if anyone has any problems seeing this, give me your e-mail address in PM and I'll send it to you via e-mail...newho back to the tutorial.

As you can see I color coded for easier explanation. Lets start with the D-pad which is in the red circle.

Double click the button that has has WHITE on it. After you do that, you will see a keyboard figure come up. Double click on the key that you wish for it to emulate. I chose the arrow key pointing up. After that exit out of that screen by clicking the X. Then double click the button that has yellow on it. The keyboard figure should come up again. Once again double click on the key you wish for it to emulate. I chose the arrow key pointing right.

As you can see, that's pretty well all there is to it. Just MAKE SURE none of the keys you choose to emulate are the important ones...like ENTER, ESC, F1...for directional pads *D-pad and DC analog which is in the green circle* I chose the arrow keys for D-pad and the numpad keys 8426 for the analog since they also represent arrow keys on the keyboard*. For the buttons A,B,X,Y on the joypad *in the picture...not on your joypad...I'm very sure your joypad is gonna be numbered as in button 1, button 2...so forth* I'd use letter keys. I used these keys in the following order:

A - C
B - F
X - D
Y- R

If you look on your keyboard at those keys, you'll see they make the shape of the buttons similar on a DC controller or on a PSX controller...more importantly it's similar to the shape of the buttons in that picture above which is what you'll be following if you loaded the profile that I suggested you load.

For the trigger buttons *which I pinpointed in the picture above* I used these following keys:

L *meaning left trigger* - Q
R *meaning right trigger* - J

and finally, for the start button in which is displayed in the picture above also. I used the following key for this button:

S *meaning start* - Right Shift

Now after that's all set up, look at the bottom left hand side and click on the Abc button. Your controller on the screen should now look like this:



Now LEAVE THE PROGRAM RUNNING FROM THERE and open up NullDC. I recommend you use a mounting program like Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120% to mount your games because running it them from a backup CD in the CD drive will cause it to lag unless you have good faith in your CD/DVD drive. In Options however, click GDRom. Tell it which drive letter your running the mounted game from *or choose your CD/DVD drive letter if you choose to run it from CD* and then finally go back to Options and click on Maple, Port A, and then Key Conf for Player 1 *this is EXACTLY why I made this tutorial!!!*

Now set up your controller like you would on any other emulator. Remember those buttons we told to emulate as keys? Well now they will show up here and NullDC WILL work for your Joypad now!

After you set that up, just click System, and then Start.

Enjoy your gameplay!!!!!!!

If your game doesn't work, I'd check the NullDC compatibility list here:
Also a tip: If your tired of that thing getting in your way, just click minimize and it'll go into the right hand side of the screen where most of your tasks are usually put....which is VERY useful because as long as you play NullDC, that thing HAS to be running in the background for it to emulate the joypad as a keyboard.

And since I used www.1emulation.com as a bases for this tutorial and used the programs from their forums, I would like to give out a thank you to them and this tutorial could not have been made possible without them.

What a wonderful tutorial! This should help a lot of people to get their joypads or arcade sticks working on the first release of nullDC.

Topic Pinned.

Fixed typo in last link.

Thanks...now I gotta fix it in the original one lol. Newho here's a very helpful update:

Just found out some keys ya can't use as the start button. They go as follows:

Shift
Space
ALT
CTRL
The key with a page on it
Windows key *which is one of those important keys I told ya to stay away from...*
Enter
\
Backspace

The safest thing to do if it's not a directional pad *like D-pad and Analog* is to use Letter Keys. Like the N key. Otherwise your risking your start button not workin and you'll be stuck at the title screen in most games lol. Wouldn't that suck...

And one more addition....make sure that you READ the README file that comes with NullDC...because it tells you where to place the BIOS files. Make sure you rename dc_bios to dc_boot or IT WILL NOT WORK.

Well I did a flash based tut a little while ago...thought I had it posted here...guess I didn't.

Any ways for those that might be helped by it here it is. [linky] (for xpadder)

I'm thinking about making a joypad plugin but am not sure how to interface nulldc due to the lack of documentation on the issue. If anyone has some info on coding a nulldc plugin or if there's some source from an existing plugin such as Maple floating around let me know.

I used Xpadder so I could use my PS2 Dualshock2 controller. But one major problem i ran into was that it couldn't fully utilize analog with nullDC.

In Jet Grind Radio, when trying to spray Grafitti, when you have to move the analog in those directions, it won't read it right. So it'll only reads as: up,down,left,right and not as X and Y axis.

Basically with the PS2 Dualshock, using it with Jet Grind Radio is no go, since you cannot write graffiti. Not sure about the actual Dreamcast controller though, might have the same problem.

Hopfully nullDC comes out with a controller plug-in that supports X and Y axis. Or else you can count Jet Grind Radio out except for looking pretty and playing well on the emulator.

True. To my knowledge no keyboard <-> joypad program support full analog axes properly, so trying to set anything to analog stick simply registers either no input or just input.

hey eliminator can you plz reupload that xpadder link? It says file does not exist. Thanks!

You know, you could've just googled it. :/

http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=d11...f2d2b87a01845f2

File is missing. If its on google what do i search it as?

Try "xpadder" and click the first link.

:/

Extensive use of what is called a "brain" is not prohibited in here.

It's not the program that i want but the profile that he had uplpaded for us just to map the keys. and yes i tried to search.

Ah, I see. Apologies, my bad.

On a somewhat related note, is XPadder so hard to use that you need a profile made by someone else before you can even think of using it? Just asking.

Why do something when its already done for ya

I will give it a try anyway

Well this site and the NullDC site don't work for me

http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=d11...f2d2b87a01845f2

That's the 3rd time you've said the same thing. Warned.

I'm guessing thats a link to a profile I made...honestly I've heard reports that it doesn't work out all that well unless you are using the same gamepad I am (logitech dual action) as button location and identification is likely to be off.

I'd highly suggest ether following the tutorial given at the top of this thread or watching the tutorial I did that can be found at the bottom of this page: http://xpadder.com/chat.html

Ether one goes over setting up Xpadder for use with nullDC in good detail.

Needless to say the profile previously linked to is not required, and prone to failing dependent of course on hardware used with it.

Xbox 360 wireless controller doesn't seem to work with this :/

Tried all kinds of button combo's and a few different games and still the same.

I dunno if its just the controller whats not compatible or whether it doesn't like vista.

Oh and use this to make a new profile - http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2007/05/xpa...f-keyboard.html pretty easy to do really.

I reuploaded it. It's an Xpadder profile...you could always make your own though if you don't like the profile..it's rather easy.

Hey,i have a problem.I can't open the MegaUpload website,can,PLEASE,somebody upload the file somewhere else?Thanks anyways

Once again, it's only a link to a premade profile. Xpadder will function without that premade profile. It's very easy to create your own profile. It's useful for the people whom doesn't want to take the time to create a profile *which only takes maybe 30 seconds*. And as stated above as the original uploader of the profile, it's not a promise that the profile will work with your joypad. So in conclusion, the safest thing to do is to create your own profile. All you do is read and follow the program's instructions.

To make that long paragraph short lol, that profile was only used for the tutorial really to show you how to set it all up after creating a profile. All a profile is, is just you telling Xpadder how many buttons you want mapped and you use the tutorial on which keys you want the joypad to emulate. As stated above, extremely easy.

Hey this really helped me thanks, thanks i'm playing shenmue now
anyway to fix the fuzzy sound?

Play with the latency settings but generally speaking, audio problems can't be fixed unless the audio plugin itself is rewritten.

Fuzzy audio is fuzzy.

Been waiting for a decent Dreamcast emulator for years, I used to own the console. But had to sell it at the time. Got very ecxcited when chankast emulator was released. Then dismayed as it seems to have been discontinued. Then learned about NullDC fantastic! really wish it had gamepad support. I still got an original gamepad and a pc magicbox to connect it to my pc (obviously).

Read on one website they rushed out 1.0.3 , I might be wrong. Hope they have gamepad support in next version. And I really hope NullDC doesnt go the same way chankast. And the never released Icarus emulator. A Dreamcast emulator is long overdue, specially when u consider they'r working on ps2 emulator already.

I tried the things you guys have said but I still cannot get my keyboard to function with this emulator. I tried going to options to maple and to plugins for the port and setting it to keyboard winhook but still no way to configutre controls or use controls for my keyboard what so ever.

Setting the plugin to keyboard [Winhook], means that you want nullDC to emulate the Dreamcast keyboard addon, not input via a PC keyboard per se. Set nullDc Controller as active, then go to Options --> Plugins --> maple --> Port A --> Configure keys for Player 1.