Online multiplayer in emulators works by sending the controller inputs, right?

[Fox5]

So why can't someone make an attachment for the actual consoles that plugs into the control port and then into the PC, and works in a similar way? I guess the output one would need a pass through port though.

[FLaRe85]

You got the basic idea down, but there's usually more to it. While your idea would be very possible, it wouldn't produce the results you're expecting. There are many other uncotrollable factors that would cause things to desynch.

For one, console software that wasn't written with multiplayer in mind cannot account for such things as latency or lag. With emulation, we have full control over the virtual system that is being emulated. So, we can pause the emulation while waiting for packets to arrive and resume once we've received the required informaiton, which isn't possible with a console. Then you have to consider what might happen during things such as random number generation. It's very likely that both systems would produce different results on such an operation. So, information such as this needs to be synched as well, something the console would not know to do.

[Fox5]

Oh well....I don't think the random number generator thing would be too much of a problem, as I've seen emulators that mess up on that, so it's not like it's required, but the lag would be a big problem. Hey, how about the software on the PC sends a pause signal when there is lag? That wouldn't pause the program, but at least it would let the controls get back into sync. Bleh, oh well, I'll just have to stick to console games that have real online play.