Firestorm Dual Power Gamepad

Smack0007 · October 19th, 2001

I just bought a Thrustmaster Firestrom Dual Power Gamepad and it is almost identical to a Psx Dual Shock, only has 2 more buttons. The only bad part is that nothing but the Right and Down directions are being picked up in Epsxe. Anyone have any suggestions, such as another emulator or perhaps someone has had this same problem?

**fivefeet8** · October 20th, 2001

I have the exact same controller... Works perfect for me in epsxe and all of my other emus.. Are you using another gamepad? Make sure they aren't interferring with each other.. REinstall directx... It seems the thrustmaster installation program has problems installing some generic Microsoft drivers from the win98se cd.. After installing the gamepad, reinstall directx.. Use the directx uninstallers.. Is the thrustmaster rumbling for you? Mines wouldn't until I reinstalled directx.. Now it rumbles and works fine.. The thrustmaster 3 taskbar utility has to always be on or the controller won't work properly..

Fou-lu · October 20th, 2001

fivefeet, does that directx uninstaller you mentioned, is it from the dx8.1? cause i've never seen a way to uninstall dx...
Well, do you think it's worth buying this gamepad? I would like a real dual shock, but I can't find a adapter for usb anywhere around, and I've seen this joystick (Thrustmaster Firestrom Dual Power Gamepad) in a shop with a good price.

**fivefeet8** · October 20th, 2001

I use the directx uninstaller from Ebrink.. Do a search for it on the search engines.. It uninstalls pretty good.. Be sure to read the documentation.. It even uninstalled directx 8.1 on my system.. Win98se..

The thrustmaster is a good gamepad.. I was looking for a rumble featured controller with analog sticks and has a good d-pad for Cps2 fighting games.. This one fit the bill.. I gotta tell you though that thrustmaster has horrible customer support.. They don't answer emails or answer people on their own boards!! Well, probably because even they aren't sure how to fix problems.. I emailed them about the rumble feature not working and they emailed me back saying that it could be broken and offered me a new gamepad... Then I just fixed it myself by reinstalling directx.. I know more about fixing their controller problems than they do.. imagine that.. So, if you are tech savy and know how to figure and fix things, then its a good gampad... If not, then get logitech gamepads as they have way better customer support..

The thrustmaster works pretty good for me though.. Rumbles great in pc games.. Rumbles pretty good in epsxe too.. The d-pad is the best I have seen on this type of gamepad.. I need a good d-pad to play 2d fighting games..

Smack0007 · October 20th, 2001

Well, being as I had only had this controler for one day, it took me a little while to realize the utility actually had some purpose. I used the utility to map some of the buttons and now it works perfectly in Epsxe. What do you have your motors set on, Sine or Constant? I haven't got the rumble feature to work in Epsxe yet but I have NFS5 and it works perfectly.

**fivefeet8** · October 20th, 2001

Big motor set to "constant" and small motor set to "sine".. Choose "directx" for the type of rumble.. I noticed that it rumbles for most games but for some it doesn't.. Must be a bug in the rumble feature..

Smack0007 · October 20th, 2001

I get slight reactions in Tekken3, nothing to go crazy about but still it is vibrating. Tekken3 runs slow though so it's not really worth playing.

Smack0007 · October 23rd, 2001

Now that I have played with this controller for a while, I have found some annoyances and would like to know if anyone could tell me how to fix them.
First off, I have every button on the controller mapped to a keyboard command, even the 8 direction digital pad. This is the only way I could get ePSXe to recognize that I was using the controller. The downside to that is, sometimes when I am playing FF9 i get a double tap from only pressing the button once. This can be very annoying when you heal the wrong person or attack the wrong enemy. Also, when I was playing Megaman X5, I noticed that it's rather hard to press the buttons quickly and repeatedly, like early in the game when you have to jump on the walls that close in on you.
So if someone could tell me how they set their controller up for ePSXe, I would appreciate it.

**fivefeet8** · October 24th, 2001

I think you are doing it all wrong.. You aren't suppost to map your thrustmaster buttons to your keyboard.. That is where the delay is coming from and why sometimes it does a double tap instead of just one.. I do that for emulators that don't have direct input yet.. ei.. Xega.. For epsxe, I just configure the epsxe controller to my thrustmaster buttons and it works flawlessly.. Are you using another controller on your computer.. USb? Gameport? It may be causing some conflicts with the Thrustmaster..

I have a sidewinder connected to the gameport and the thrustmaster to the usb.. Sometimes there are conflicts between the two in the controller settings but not to the extent of not having buttons not work.. Did you upgrade the thrustmaster toolbar utility to the newest version? 2.33? Goto the site and do so if you haven't..

That is weird because epsxe recognizes the thrustmaster just fine on my computer.. Try another usb port..

Smack0007 · October 24th, 2001

Nope, tried it in all 4 usb ports. All that is recognizes is J1_LEFT and J1_DOWN and for some odd reason J2_DOWN??? I don't have any other joysticks plugged in, though I own 2 sidewinders for the gameport(coincidence or not - you decide).
Perhaps its something to do with DirectX? I only have 8.0a, can you tell me where to get 8.1?

I take that back, I only have 8.0. So I'm going to download 8.0a right now.

**fivefeet8** · October 24th, 2001

The controller works fine for PC games right?

Smack0007 · October 24th, 2001

Yeah, the force feedback and everything.

**fivefeet8** · October 24th, 2001

Have you tried pressing F4 ingame? Can you configure the epsxe gamepad config to your thrustmaster buttons? Set the controller type in epsxe to Analog\digital.. Enable sio irq..

Smack0007 · October 25th, 2001

Nope, tried all that and it still doesn't work

Smack0007 · October 25th, 2001

Ok, so the thing works now...

I don't know why, and I don't care why...
I'm just happy that it works now for some odd reason...
I feel like I'm in an episode of the twilight zone...:eyes:
I also for like a moron...

October 19th, 2001	#1 (permalink)
Smack0007 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: USA Posts: 18	Firestorm Dual Power Gamepad I just bought a Thrustmaster Firestrom Dual Power Gamepad and it is almost identical to a Psx Dual Shock, only has 2 more buttons. The only bad part is that nothing but the Right and Down directions are being picked up in Epsxe. Anyone have any suggestions, such as another emulator or perhaps someone has had this same problem? __________________ You're running away from the facts of oppinions... -OLP

October 20th, 2001	#2 (permalink)
fivefeet8 &-)---\|--< Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Smallville Posts: 7,582	I have the exact same controller... Works perfect for me in epsxe and all of my other emus.. Are you using another gamepad? Make sure they aren't interferring with each other.. REinstall directx... It seems the thrustmaster installation program has problems installing some generic Microsoft drivers from the win98se cd.. After installing the gamepad, reinstall directx.. Use the directx uninstallers.. Is the thrustmaster rumbling for you? Mines wouldn't until I reinstalled directx.. Now it rumbles and works fine.. The thrustmaster 3 taskbar utility has to always be on or the controller won't work properly.. __________________ Play emulated games online Main Rig\|\|Intel Q6600@3.2 ghertz\|4x1gb DDR2 1066\|Asrock 1600sli 110db LGA 775\|EVGA 8800gtx@620/1450/975\|2x Seagate 160gb SATA150 Raid0\|250 gb Samsung SATA2 HD\|Seagate 7000.10 500gb HD\|NEC 3520 4x/8x DVD+R/RW DL burner\|Antec TP 650 watt\|40" Sony Bravia 1080p\|20.1" 5ms LCD 1680x1050 Native\|Logitec 5.1 Speaker System w/15" Sub\|Dual Boot Winows XP Pro/Vista 64bit\|\| 2nd Rig\|\|Athlon64 x2 3800+\|2x1 gig PC3200\|BFG Geforce 6800 Ultra OC @450/1250 agp\|60 gig Maxtor IDE HD 7200 RPM\|40 gig Maxtor IDE HD\|Asrock Dual SATA2\|Silver Aluminum ATX\|17" LCD\|\| 3rd Rig\|\|Athlon Xp 2800+\|1.5 gig PC2700\|BFG GeforceFx 5900 Ultra OC agp\|100 gig Maxtor SATA HD\|NF7-s rev2.0\|Nvidia Soundstorm MCP\|19" CRT\|\| Last edited by fivefeet8; October 20th, 2001 at 05:17.

October 20th, 2001	#4 (permalink)
fivefeet8 &-)---\|--< Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Smallville Posts: 7,582	I use the directx uninstaller from Ebrink.. Do a search for it on the search engines.. It uninstalls pretty good.. Be sure to read the documentation.. It even uninstalled directx 8.1 on my system.. Win98se.. The thrustmaster is a good gamepad.. I was looking for a rumble featured controller with analog sticks and has a good d-pad for Cps2 fighting games.. This one fit the bill.. I gotta tell you though that thrustmaster has horrible customer support.. They don't answer emails or answer people on their own boards!! Well, probably because even they aren't sure how to fix problems.. I emailed them about the rumble feature not working and they emailed me back saying that it could be broken and offered me a new gamepad... Then I just fixed it myself by reinstalling directx.. I know more about fixing their controller problems than they do.. imagine that.. So, if you are tech savy and know how to figure and fix things, then its a good gampad... If not, then get logitech gamepads as they have way better customer support.. The thrustmaster works pretty good for me though.. Rumbles great in pc games.. Rumbles pretty good in epsxe too.. The d-pad is the best I have seen on this type of gamepad.. I need a good d-pad to play 2d fighting games.. __________________ Play emulated games online Main Rig\|\|Intel Q6600@3.2 ghertz\|4x1gb DDR2 1066\|Asrock 1600sli 110db LGA 775\|EVGA 8800gtx@620/1450/975\|2x Seagate 160gb SATA150 Raid0\|250 gb Samsung SATA2 HD\|Seagate 7000.10 500gb HD\|NEC 3520 4x/8x DVD+R/RW DL burner\|Antec TP 650 watt\|40" Sony Bravia 1080p\|20.1" 5ms LCD 1680x1050 Native\|Logitec 5.1 Speaker System w/15" Sub\|Dual Boot Winows XP Pro/Vista 64bit\|\| 2nd Rig\|\|Athlon64 x2 3800+\|2x1 gig PC3200\|BFG Geforce 6800 Ultra OC @450/1250 agp\|60 gig Maxtor IDE HD 7200 RPM\|40 gig Maxtor IDE HD\|Asrock Dual SATA2\|Silver Aluminum ATX\|17" LCD\|\| 3rd Rig\|\|Athlon Xp 2800+\|1.5 gig PC2700\|BFG GeforceFx 5900 Ultra OC agp\|100 gig Maxtor SATA HD\|NF7-s rev2.0\|Nvidia Soundstorm MCP\|19" CRT\|\|

October 20th, 2001	#5 (permalink)
Smack0007 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: USA Posts: 18	Well, being as I had only had this controler for one day, it took me a little while to realize the utility actually had some purpose. I used the utility to map some of the buttons and now it works perfectly in Epsxe. What do you have your motors set on, Sine or Constant? I haven't got the rumble feature to work in Epsxe yet but I have NFS5 and it works perfectly. __________________ You're running away from the facts of oppinions... -OLP

October 20th, 2001	#6 (permalink)
fivefeet8 &-)---\|--< Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Smallville Posts: 7,582	Big motor set to "constant" and small motor set to "sine".. Choose "directx" for the type of rumble.. I noticed that it rumbles for most games but for some it doesn't.. Must be a bug in the rumble feature.. __________________ Play emulated games online Main Rig\|\|Intel Q6600@3.2 ghertz\|4x1gb DDR2 1066\|Asrock 1600sli 110db LGA 775\|EVGA 8800gtx@620/1450/975\|2x Seagate 160gb SATA150 Raid0\|250 gb Samsung SATA2 HD\|Seagate 7000.10 500gb HD\|NEC 3520 4x/8x DVD+R/RW DL burner\|Antec TP 650 watt\|40" Sony Bravia 1080p\|20.1" 5ms LCD 1680x1050 Native\|Logitec 5.1 Speaker System w/15" Sub\|Dual Boot Winows XP Pro/Vista 64bit\|\| 2nd Rig\|\|Athlon64 x2 3800+\|2x1 gig PC3200\|BFG Geforce 6800 Ultra OC @450/1250 agp\|60 gig Maxtor IDE HD 7200 RPM\|40 gig Maxtor IDE HD\|Asrock Dual SATA2\|Silver Aluminum ATX\|17" LCD\|\| 3rd Rig\|\|Athlon Xp 2800+\|1.5 gig PC2700\|BFG GeforceFx 5900 Ultra OC agp\|100 gig Maxtor SATA HD\|NF7-s rev2.0\|Nvidia Soundstorm MCP\|19" CRT\|\|

October 20th, 2001	#3 (permalink)
Fou-lu Junker daughter Join Date: Jun 2001 Posts: 2,289	fivefeet, does that directx uninstaller you mentioned, is it from the dx8.1? cause i've never seen a way to uninstall dx... Well, do you think it's worth buying this gamepad? I would like a real dual shock, but I can't find a adapter for usb anywhere around, and I've seen this joystick (Thrustmaster Firestrom Dual Power Gamepad) in a shop with a good price.

October 20th, 2001	#7 (permalink)
Smack0007 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: USA Posts: 18	I get slight reactions in Tekken3, nothing to go crazy about but still it is vibrating. Tekken3 runs slow though so it's not really worth playing. __________________ You're running away from the facts of oppinions... -OLP

October 23rd, 2001	#8 (permalink)
Smack0007 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: USA Posts: 18	Now that I have played with this controller for a while, I have found some annoyances and would like to know if anyone could tell me how to fix them. First off, I have every button on the controller mapped to a keyboard command, even the 8 direction digital pad. This is the only way I could get ePSXe to recognize that I was using the controller. The downside to that is, sometimes when I am playing FF9 i get a double tap from only pressing the button once. This can be very annoying when you heal the wrong person or attack the wrong enemy. Also, when I was playing Megaman X5, I noticed that it's rather hard to press the buttons quickly and repeatedly, like early in the game when you have to jump on the walls that close in on you. So if someone could tell me how they set their controller up for ePSXe, I would appreciate it. __________________ You're running away from the facts of oppinions... -OLP Last edited by Smack0007; October 23rd, 2001 at 23:59.

October 24th, 2001	#9 (permalink)
fivefeet8 &-)---\|--< Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Smallville Posts: 7,582	I think you are doing it all wrong.. You aren't suppost to map your thrustmaster buttons to your keyboard.. That is where the delay is coming from and why sometimes it does a double tap instead of just one.. I do that for emulators that don't have direct input yet.. ei.. Xega.. For epsxe, I just configure the epsxe controller to my thrustmaster buttons and it works flawlessly.. Are you using another controller on your computer.. USb? Gameport? It may be causing some conflicts with the Thrustmaster.. I have a sidewinder connected to the gameport and the thrustmaster to the usb.. Sometimes there are conflicts between the two in the controller settings but not to the extent of not having buttons not work.. Did you upgrade the thrustmaster toolbar utility to the newest version? 2.33? Goto the site and do so if you haven't.. That is weird because epsxe recognizes the thrustmaster just fine on my computer.. Try another usb port.. __________________ Play emulated games online Main Rig\|\|Intel Q6600@3.2 ghertz\|4x1gb DDR2 1066\|Asrock 1600sli 110db LGA 775\|EVGA 8800gtx@620/1450/975\|2x Seagate 160gb SATA150 Raid0\|250 gb Samsung SATA2 HD\|Seagate 7000.10 500gb HD\|NEC 3520 4x/8x DVD+R/RW DL burner\|Antec TP 650 watt\|40" Sony Bravia 1080p\|20.1" 5ms LCD 1680x1050 Native\|Logitec 5.1 Speaker System w/15" Sub\|Dual Boot Winows XP Pro/Vista 64bit\|\| 2nd Rig\|\|Athlon64 x2 3800+\|2x1 gig PC3200\|BFG Geforce 6800 Ultra OC @450/1250 agp\|60 gig Maxtor IDE HD 7200 RPM\|40 gig Maxtor IDE HD\|Asrock Dual SATA2\|Silver Aluminum ATX\|17" LCD\|\| 3rd Rig\|\|Athlon Xp 2800+\|1.5 gig PC2700\|BFG GeforceFx 5900 Ultra OC agp\|100 gig Maxtor SATA HD\|NF7-s rev2.0\|Nvidia Soundstorm MCP\|19" CRT\|\|

October 24th, 2001	#10 (permalink)
Smack0007 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: USA Posts: 18	Nope, tried it in all 4 usb ports. All that is recognizes is J1_LEFT and J1_DOWN and for some odd reason J2_DOWN??? I don't have any other joysticks plugged in, though I own 2 sidewinders for the gameport(coincidence or not - you decide). Perhaps its something to do with DirectX? I only have 8.0a, can you tell me where to get 8.1? I take that back, I only have 8.0. So I'm going to download 8.0a right now. __________________ You're running away from the facts of oppinions... -OLP Last edited by Smack0007; October 24th, 2001 at 02:48.

October 24th, 2001	#11 (permalink)
fivefeet8 &-)---\|--< Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Smallville Posts: 7,582	The controller works fine for PC games right? __________________ Play emulated games online Main Rig\|\|Intel Q6600@3.2 ghertz\|4x1gb DDR2 1066\|Asrock 1600sli 110db LGA 775\|EVGA 8800gtx@620/1450/975\|2x Seagate 160gb SATA150 Raid0\|250 gb Samsung SATA2 HD\|Seagate 7000.10 500gb HD\|NEC 3520 4x/8x DVD+R/RW DL burner\|Antec TP 650 watt\|40" Sony Bravia 1080p\|20.1" 5ms LCD 1680x1050 Native\|Logitec 5.1 Speaker System w/15" Sub\|Dual Boot Winows XP Pro/Vista 64bit\|\| 2nd Rig\|\|Athlon64 x2 3800+\|2x1 gig PC3200\|BFG Geforce 6800 Ultra OC @450/1250 agp\|60 gig Maxtor IDE HD 7200 RPM\|40 gig Maxtor IDE HD\|Asrock Dual SATA2\|Silver Aluminum ATX\|17" LCD\|\| 3rd Rig\|\|Athlon Xp 2800+\|1.5 gig PC2700\|BFG GeforceFx 5900 Ultra OC agp\|100 gig Maxtor SATA HD\|NF7-s rev2.0\|Nvidia Soundstorm MCP\|19" CRT\|\|

October 24th, 2001	#12 (permalink)
Smack0007 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: USA Posts: 18	Yeah, the force feedback and everything. __________________ You're running away from the facts of oppinions... -OLP

October 24th, 2001	#13 (permalink)
fivefeet8 &-)---\|--< Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Smallville Posts: 7,582	Have you tried pressing F4 ingame? Can you configure the epsxe gamepad config to your thrustmaster buttons? Set the controller type in epsxe to Analog\digital.. Enable sio irq.. __________________ Play emulated games online Main Rig\|\|Intel Q6600@3.2 ghertz\|4x1gb DDR2 1066\|Asrock 1600sli 110db LGA 775\|EVGA 8800gtx@620/1450/975\|2x Seagate 160gb SATA150 Raid0\|250 gb Samsung SATA2 HD\|Seagate 7000.10 500gb HD\|NEC 3520 4x/8x DVD+R/RW DL burner\|Antec TP 650 watt\|40" Sony Bravia 1080p\|20.1" 5ms LCD 1680x1050 Native\|Logitec 5.1 Speaker System w/15" Sub\|Dual Boot Winows XP Pro/Vista 64bit\|\| 2nd Rig\|\|Athlon64 x2 3800+\|2x1 gig PC3200\|BFG Geforce 6800 Ultra OC @450/1250 agp\|60 gig Maxtor IDE HD 7200 RPM\|40 gig Maxtor IDE HD\|Asrock Dual SATA2\|Silver Aluminum ATX\|17" LCD\|\| 3rd Rig\|\|Athlon Xp 2800+\|1.5 gig PC2700\|BFG GeforceFx 5900 Ultra OC agp\|100 gig Maxtor SATA HD\|NF7-s rev2.0\|Nvidia Soundstorm MCP\|19" CRT\|\|

October 25th, 2001	#14 (permalink)
Smack0007 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: USA Posts: 18	Nope, tried all that and it still doesn't work __________________ You're running away from the facts of oppinions... -OLP

October 25th, 2001	#15 (permalink)
Smack0007 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: USA Posts: 18	Ok, so the thing works now... I don't know why, and I don't care why... I'm just happy that it works now for some odd reason... I feel like I'm in an episode of the twilight zone...:eyes: I also for like a moron... __________________ You're running away from the facts of oppinions... -OLP

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