I might be in the minority here, but the Arcade version was played using dualthrusting (controling each engine individually with a slider). this mode could be activated on the N64 version using a cheat and two controllers, although it wasn't quite as immersive as the Arcade version.

But the PC version seems to have omitted it outhright, which is a shame, considering I have a Thrustmaster Hotas Warthog Replica USAF 10-c Thruster... which is a flight-simulator accessorie offering, guess what, dualthrusting. (although I would need customizable buttons, because there's no way to do this two-handed and still getting to all the conveniently placed elements.)

The arcade game was a completely different game than this and made by SEGA; the N64 version is the only version that had that cheat but JayFoxRox did find different control schemes and one was labelled "Dual." I don't believe it's been found how to use this or if it's even possible on the PC version.

I actually did find out how to enable it (I think), but I did not look into how to supply the different inputs for the different analog sticks.
So we can turn it on, but we can't use it.
More work is necessary, but it's such a niche feature that I currently don't focus on it. If anybody else wants to look into this, join the OpenSWE1R project.


An easier solution would be to simply configure a virtual gamepad. I'm not sure about solutions on Windows, but I've heard of vjoy before: http://vjoystick.sourceforge.net/site/ . On Linux you'd use uinput.
With such software, you can construct a virtual gamepad from inputs of other gamepads.

That would certainly make more sense than hacking it into the game, because the menu won't give you any useful options to configure the dual-thruster mode. If the existing tools are not suitable for this, a new one should be written (based on something like vjoy).


I don't think there's a user-ready solution for this yet, and in any case, a developer and/or reverse engineer will have to look into it.

Technically, they work the same.
An analog axis (2 [x,y] of which make an analog stick) provide an absolute analog value. A slider is also an analog axis.

To my knowledge, the N64, dual-gamepad control scheme only uses 2 axis (y on the P1 port, and y on the P3 port) for steering and accelerating. The x axis on both sticks is only used for rolling your pod, a feature which is not only quite pointless, but can easily mapped to buttons as it doesn't need analog input.

So you probably only need 2 analog axis to use this mode; and 2 sliders are enough provide those 2 axis.

Even if the game is not happy with that configuration, you can still employ the technique from my previous post: Create a custom virtual gamepad with 2 analog sticks, which are mostly controlled by the 2 sliders (mapping each to an y axis).
The x axis of the virtual gamepads analog sticks could be controlled by other buttons.

And as the game is still not happy with this, you have to map the difference of the 2 sliders to the steering axis, and the shared amount to the games acceleration axis (to map everything back to the games non-dual control scheme).

I would be interested in how to enable the dual mode since I have the physical joysticks to go with that and the current control scheme is nearly unplayable.
Edit to clarify: I'm trying to get the game to work in an arcade with 2 joysticks and 2 pedals (think Star Wars Battle Pod)

Yeah, no... they don't. The point here is, that any joystick, big or small, is a two-axis coordinate system (x,y) with a absolute point (0,0). If you let go of it, it will always go back there.

A Slider, such as a thruster slider of a plane only has one axis (z) and has no absolute point. if you put it at 32 and let go of it, it stays at 32.

correct, however, even when using an emulator like project 64, it's absolutely impossible to map those to a device such as the Thrustmaster hotas warthog replica usaf 10-c throttle... I also wish the damn thing had a shorter name.
But even so... as I mentioned, it's not the same as the Arcade version in terms of function and feeling. (although it gets acceptably close)

JayFoxRox is pointing out how both work exactly the same when it comes to computer inputs, you're talking about the mechanics of the physical controller itself. Mechanically, yes, they're different because joysticks return to origin but the inputs they send to the computer are the same.

no, they are really not the same.

I am a programmer, I know that for certain.

heck, even controllers don't send the same Input! (X-BOX and PS4 controllers for example.)

trust me, it's not the same... you will get into big trouble if you try to use the same inputhandler.