How to get an old controller working in browser emulators

Playing retro games is great. Especially if you grew up with Mega Drive, Super Nintendo and Capcom and Neo Geo arcades.

Until not so long ago, the normal thing was to install an emulator on your PC, console or phone and start playing. It was not difficult, but it did usually involve several steps:

• Download the emulator.
• Download the ROMs.
• Download the BIOS for some systems (such as PSX).
• Configure the emulator and the controller.

Anyone with a PC and a little interest could have had it running in fifteen minutes, but we humans are creatures of comfort.

And that is why another route is now becoming popular:

Playing emulators in the browser.

Here you do not install anything, you just:

1. Go to a website like https://gam.onl/ with Chrome, Brave or Firefox.
2. Choose the game.
3. And play directly, without installing anything.

The problem appears when you use old or special controllers, like my beloved Mad Catz FightPad Street Fighter IV special edition for Xbox, which Windows does detect but the browser does not.

And yes, I could use my Xbox controller, which works without complications, but for retro 2D games, I want to play with the best possible D-pad, which is the one on that controller.

The solution was not to change controllers. Not even to use a USB adapter to use Xbox controllers on PS3 that I already have at home.

No.

Better to make the browser, in my case Chrome, detect the controller correctly.

And for that, what I did was make Windows show the Mad Catz as if it were an Xbox 360/XInput controller.

I will explain how.

The problem: Windows detects the controller, but the browser does not

The first step was to check whether Windows could see the controller. To do that, you need to open the classic game controller tool: 

1. Press Win + R
2. Type   joy.cpl

There the controller appeared as “Arcade Pad (Mad Catz FightPad)”.

And when entering its properties, the buttons lit up when pressed.

That confirmed one important thing: the controller works and Windows receives its button inputs, which I already knew, since I play the glorious KOF 2002 UM on Steam from time to time.

The problem came afterwards. When opening a website like https://hardwaretester.com/gamepad, the controller was not detected.:

In other words: Windows did see the Mad Catz, but Chrome did not. And if Chrome does not see it, a web emulator will not see it either.

Why this happens (for geeks)

Many browser emulators use the Gamepad API of the browser. That API usually works very well with modern controllers, especially those that behave like an Xbox controller.

The problem is that some old Mad Catz FightPads enter Windows as DirectInput/HID devices, not as XInput.

• In practice, that means:
• Windows: it does detect the controller
• joy.cpl: it does register buttons
• Chrome/Edge: they do not detect it
• EmulatorJS (the technology used to play video games in the browser): it does not detect it

That is why it is pointless to waste time remapping inside the web emulator. The controller is not even reaching the browser.

The solution: x360ce v4

The solution was to use x360ce v4, a tool that can convert a DirectInput controller into a virtual Xbox 360 controller.

The process is this:

Mad Catz FightPad > x360ce v4 > virtual Xbox 360 controller > Chrome > EmulatorJS

The important thing is to use x360ce v4, not the old version that was copied into each game folder. For a browser, we need system-level conversion, not a patch for a specific executable.

Now let us go step by step.

Step 1: check that x360ce sees the Mad Catz

When opening x360ce as administrator, at first you may see something like:

• 0 Mapped Devices
• Direct Input – Offline

That means x360ce is open, but it still has no real controller assigned.

You need to go to the tab Devices.

There you should see something similar to Arcade Pad (Mad Catz FightPad).

In my case it appeared alongside keyboard and mouse.

The controller had an identifier similar to HIDVID_1BAD&PID_F02E.

That detail confirms that x360ce was indeed seeing the physical device.

Step 2: assign the Mad Catz to Controller 1

Then you need to return to the tab Controller 1 and click Add to add our Arcade Pad (Mad Catz FightPad).

When it is added correctly, the top area should change from 0 Mapped Devices to 1 Mapped Device.

Then you need to tick Enable 1 Mapped Device.

That step is important. If it is not enabled, x360ce may see the controller but do nothing useful with it.

Step 3: check that x360ce reads button inputs

At first, even though the controller appeared in x360ce, the buttons did not light up on the main screen. That can be confusing, because it looks as if it still is not working.

The key was to enter the specific device tab: Direct Input – CCEDA520.

There you can check whether x360ce is really receiving the Mad Catz button inputs.

Once you have confirmed that pressing buttons makes the app read values, you can map the controller using the button Remap All or, better for this controller with no analog sticks, by manually assigning the buttons in the dropdown menus.

Step 4: map the FightPad

It is a bit fiddly because you have to select with the mouse the button you want to map, leave it blank and press the corresponding button on the controller. Basically, a matter of a couple of attempts.

The Mad Catz FightPad makes sense mainly for fighting games and 2D emulation, so the recommended layout is to keep the six front buttons as if it were an arcade/fightpad.

Mad Catz FightPad	Virtual Xbox
D-pad	D-Pad
Upper left button	X
Upper middle button	Y
Upper right button	RB
Lower left button	A
Lower middle button	B
Lower right button	RT
Select / Back	Start
Start	Back

Visually, for fighting games it would look like this:

• Top row: X Y RB (or LB, depending on preference)
• Bottom row: A B RT (or RB, depending on preference)

In x360ce the D-Pad appeared to me as:

• POV 1 Up
• POV 1 Left
• POV 1 Right
• POV 1 Down

That is normal. On this controller the D-pad is detected as POV.

Right, so when you finish, if the mapping is correct, x360ce may show something like Map %: 93.

It is not 100% because there are no analog sticks, vibration or buttons that the FightPad does not have. For 2D emulation and fighting games, the important thing is that D-pad, main buttons, Start and Back are assigned correctly.

Step 5: save the configuration

When the mapping is already correct, you need to press Save All.

But there is an important detail: at the top, the selected game may appear as x360ce.exe – X360 Controller Emulator.

That means the configuration is linked to x360ce itself.

It may work in the browser, but in case it does not, it is worth adding Chrome as a “game”.

To do that, you need to press Add Game…

And add Chrome from its path. Open this directory: C:Program FilesGoogleChromeApplication and select chrome.exe.

Then select the browser in the “Game” dropdown and press Save All.

Step 6: leave x360ce open

This point is easy to forget. To play, x360ce must remain open or minimized. Do not close it.

The recommended order for everything to work when you want to play with this pad or a similar one in the browser is:

1. Connect the Mad Catz FightPad.
2. Open x360ce.
3. Check that it appears as 1 Mapped Device.
4. Check that the mapping is still loaded.
5. Press Save All if anything has changed.
6. Minimize x360ce.
7. Open Chrome or Edge.
8. Enter the web emulator.

If everything is fine, when you go back to https://hardwaretester.com/gamepad and press any button on the controller, the browser should no longer show “None detected” but instead a controller like Xbox 360 or XInput should appear.

Step 7 (optional, but possible): when to use HidHide

In this process, it is not advisable to enable “Hide” from the beginning.

HidHide only makes sense if the system ends up showing two controllers:

1. Arcade Pad (Mad Catz FightPad)
2. Xbox 360 Controller virtual

In that case, some emulators might pick the wrong controller.

The solution would be to hide the real Mad Catz and leave only the virtual Xbox controller visible.

But if the browser does not directly detect the Mad Catz, as happened to me, there is no need to touch HidHide at first, because first you need to get x360ce to convert the controller correctly.

Diagnosis summary

Here is a summary table with possible states:

Test	Result	What it means
joy.cpl	The controller appears	Windows detects it
joy.cpl properties	The buttons light up	The controller works
Hardwaretester	None detected	Chrome does not see it
x360ce > Devices	The Mad Catz appears	x360ce can locate it
x360ce > Controller 1	1 Mapped Device	The controller is assigned
x360ce > Map %	93%	The mapping is almost complete
Hardwaretester after x360ce	It should appear as Xbox	Final goal

Conclusion

Old controllers like this Mad Catz FightPad do not have to be replaced or retired. Especially since, today, there are no “normal” controllers with a better D-pad.

The problem with these pads is that many browsers do not get along with certain old DirectInput/HID controllers.

The solution is to make Windows show it as a virtual Xbox 360 controller using x360ce v4.

If Windows detects the buttons in joy.cpl, there are a good chance you can get it working. The key point in all this is that the browser must see the converted controller as XInput, not as “Arcade Pad”, and that is what we have done step by step in the article.

Right, now you know how to start throwing hadoukens in Chrome without doing three jumps on every attempt.