MiSTer FPGA Forum

I was wondering if there is a way to map turbo buttons on the TG-16 core. I noticed there aren’t any options when I map the buttons to my controller. Is there possibly an edit in the .ini file to do, or is there a turbo feature possibly on the way? For some games on the TG-16, the turbo function is practically required, so I was wondering if there was an option available.

It does not work exactly as the turbo switches on the original turbografx controller, but you can get the same functionality with the auto fire feature.

I have two buttons mapped to each of I and II. Then I enable auto fire on one of the two buttons which allows me to easily switch between turbo and normal mode.

On the TG16, the controller's turbo buttons weren't separate buttons entirely, but just turbo versions of the I and II buttons where the turbo function was built into the controller itself. The original Japanese controllers didn't even have the turbo buttons at all.

12characters wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2020 11:00 pm It does not work exactly as the turbo switches on the original turbografx controller, but you can get the same functionality with the auto fire feature.

I have two buttons mapped to each of I and II. Then I enable auto fire on one of the two buttons which allows me to easily switch between turbo and normal mode.

Here's what the link says:

Auto fire

Any defined button (except d-pad) supports auto fire feature. To activate auto fire, press and keep desired button and then quickly press the button defined as "BUTTON OSD"(for joystick) or "KBD TOGGLE"(for keyboard). To deactivate auto fire, repeat the the same procedure.

Auto fire provides 50ms-1000ms rates. To choose the speed, press and keep one of direction on d-pad and then quickly press the button defined as "BUTTON OSD"(for joystick) or "KBD TOGGLE"(for keyboard).

Can any help me decipher this? What exactly am I supposed to do?

Here's what you do:

1. I assume you have a gamepad with at least 4 face buttons, let's call them A B C D
2. Define your gamepad in central mapping (menu core), and assign a OSD button to it
3. Load the TG16 core
4. Map your gamepad once, using A and B for I and II
5. Select "yes" when asked if you want alternate mapping
6. Skip all buttons except C and D, map them to I and II
7. When done, close the OSD
8. Hold down C then press the OSD button to activate autofire on it
9. Repeat with D
10. To change autofire rate, hold up or down then press OSD button

This will give you 2 normal buttons and 2 corresponding turbo buttons, similar to how it's done for some 8bitdo controllers.

A little late in answering the original question, but if you want to experience the full TurboGrafx experience on the MiSTer it's hard to beat the HORI Turbografx-16 Mini controller. It's sized identically to the original controller and it also features properly working Turbo Switches with two speeds.
When gaming, I like to use wired USB versions of the original console controllers, the Sega retro-bit controller being another good example. When I started exploring the TurboGrafx/PC-Engine software library I picked-up the HORI controller. Couldn't find much written about it, but I've found it to be a great controller with a good D-Pad and button response. You definitely need/want turbo fire for some games and having it onboard the controller is much easier than using it through software, especially if you need to change the rate during various sections of the game. I've also found the turbo feature handy for some NES games.

I liked the controller enough I bought a spare as being a niche product, it's difficult to say how long these will be in production.

Newsdee wrote: ↑Wed Oct 28, 2020 6:49 am Here's what you do:

1. I assume you have a gamepad with at least 4 face buttons, let's call them A B C D
2. Define your gamepad in central mapping (menu core), and assign a OSD button to it
3. Load the TG16 core
4. Map your gamepad once, using A and B for I and II
5. Select "yes" when asked if you want alternate mapping
6. Skip all buttons except C and D, map them to I and II
7. When done, close the OSD
8. Hold down C then press the OSD button to activate autofire on it
9. Repeat with D
10. To change autofire rate, hold up or down then press OSD button

This will give you 2 normal buttons and 2 corresponding turbo buttons, similar to how it's done for some 8bitdo controllers.

I have not been able to get this to work. Have you done is successfully?

Would be useful to have a video showing exactly how to do it correctly.

Krypto wrote: ↑Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:25 pm A little late in answering the original question, but if you want to experience the full TurboGrafx experience on the MiSTer it's hard to beat the HORI Turbografx-16 Mini controller. It's sized identically to the original controller and it also features properly working Turbo Switches with two speeds.

hori_controller_small.jpg

Can you confirm that you have this controller working with the MiSTer TurboGrafx-16 Core? I ordered one on Amazon for use with it, and while I'm able to map the D-Pad, I, II, Select, and Run buttons just fine, I cannot for the life of me get the MiSTer to detect the turbo switches. It does seem to misidentify the controller somewhat, acting as if it has mouse inputs, joystick levers, shoulder buttons, and four face buttons in a diamond configuration, all of which have to be skipped (sans 2 of the face buttons for I and II mappings) in order to map the rest of the controller. Switching the turbo switches up and down is never seen as an input and cannot be mapped to any function.

Yes, I use the controller shown above in my other post with the TurboGrafx-16 core and sometimes the NES core.

What you describe in pad setup seems normal. When you attach an input device, the Mister expects a certain amount of features in a controller. If the controller doesn't have those features, like analog sticks or shoulder buttons, just press the space bar on the keyboard to skip those features until the controller setup is complete.

The Turbo Switches aren't an input or button that you have to setup in Mister. These switches rapidly fire, at 2 selectable rates, the corresponding button electronically in the controller itself just like the original OEM controller. It should just work.

A good game to try the turbo fire feature is "Bloody Wolf". When you start the game, button 2 fires your Army man's machine gun. On the normal non-turbofire setting, one button press gets one shot. Move the Turbo Switch slider up one click and now he's shooting his machine gun constantly. The final click on the slider gives an even faster rate of fire.

In the game "Bonk", using the Turbo Switch with the head attack during jumping allows the character to slowly drift down to the ground and is probably necessary to defeat some of the level bosses. I'm sure these feature is needed in other games as well. Some games, like "Lords of Thunder", have autofire built into the game so the Turbo Switches aren't needed.

Krypto wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 1:43 pm Yes, I use the controller shown above in my other post with the TurboGrafx-16 core and sometimes the NES core.

What you describe in pad setup seems normal. When you attach an input device, the Mister expects a certain amount of features in a controller. If the controller doesn't have those features, like analog sticks or shoulder buttons, just press the space bar on the keyboard to skip those features until the controller setup is complete.

The Turbo Switches aren't an input or button that you have to setup in Mister. These switches rapidly fire, at 2 selectable rates, the corresponding button electronically in the controller itself just like the original OEM controller. It should just work.

Ahh, my bad! You are 100% correct, the switches simply work without needing to be mapped as discrete inputs. In my rush to get all the inputs mapped I didn't think to check whether they already functioned properly out of the box! Thanks for your help.

Newsdee wrote: ↑Wed Oct 28, 2020 6:49 am Here's what you do:

1. I assume you have a gamepad with at least 4 face buttons, let's call them A B C D
2. Define your gamepad in central mapping (menu core), and assign a OSD button to it
3. Load the TG16 core
4. Map your gamepad once, using A and B for I and II
5. Select "yes" when asked if you want alternate mapping
6. Skip all buttons except C and D, map them to I and II
7. When done, close the OSD
8. Hold down C then press the OSD button to activate autofire on it
9. Repeat with D
10. To change autofire rate, hold up or down then press OSD button

This will give you 2 normal buttons and 2 corresponding turbo buttons, similar to how it's done for some 8bitdo controllers.

After messing around with this for a while, it seems like as long as a 'turbo' option is listed in the OSD menu and you activate it, holding down the desire button and pressing the OSD button will turn on auto-fire/turbo for that button. I'd noticed that the Strider arcade core also had a turbo option, and the same trick worked. No need (as far as I could tell) to remap buttons!

Yes, absoulutely. The above was to replicate a setup from some TG16-style modern gamepads where the top row is basically Turbo A and B, and the bottom row is just regular A and B buttons.

moonscience wrote: ↑Fri Aug 20, 2021 1:00 pm

Newsdee wrote: ↑Wed Oct 28, 2020 6:49 am Here's what you do:

1. I assume you have a gamepad with at least 4 face buttons, let's call them A B C D
2. Define your gamepad in central mapping (menu core), and assign a OSD button to it
3. Load the TG16 core
4. Map your gamepad once, using A and B for I and II
5. Select "yes" when asked if you want alternate mapping
6. Skip all buttons except C and D, map them to I and II
7. When done, close the OSD
8. Hold down C then press the OSD button to activate autofire on it
9. Repeat with D
10. To change autofire rate, hold up or down then press OSD button

This will give you 2 normal buttons and 2 corresponding turbo buttons, similar to how it's done for some 8bitdo controllers.

After messing around with this for a while, it seems like as long as a 'turbo' option is listed in the OSD menu and you activate it, holding down the desire button and pressing the OSD button will turn on auto-fire/turbo for that button. I'd noticed that the Strider arcade core also had a turbo option, and the same trick worked. No need (as far as I could tell) to remap buttons!

I believe the "Turbo" option in Strider means the CPU. Nothing to do with autofire.