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While the Mac platform has not been noted for catering to hard-core gamers, there are still many popular gaming titles and gaming accessories available for the Mac OS. If you own a Mac and have a few games you would like to try, then you might also be interested in getting a gaming controller or two up and running with your system. While the Mac's keyboard and mouse ought to be enough for most purposes, having a dedicated gaming controller can give you the feel of playing with a gaming console.
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Of the game controllers available for home computers, only a few are officially supported on the Mac, but you can often get others, like those for the PS3, Wii, or Xbox, working just fine. To use any of these controllers with your system, you will first need to connect it to your system physically, and then install a driver package to make use of the controller's inputs.
For factory-supported devices like the Logitech F310 Gamepad and the Belkin Nostromo SpeedPad, drivers are available from their manufacturers; however, for unsupported devices like Wii Remote, PS3, and Xbox controllers, you will have to use a third-party driver package.
The easiest of these unsupported remotes to configure is likely the Xbox controller, which can be (physically) connected directly via USB or with a relatively cheap receiver for wireless Xbox controllers. If you have a PS3 controller, you'll need to follow a quick procedure to establish a connection to your Mac. First, connect the controller to your Mac, and then open the Bluetooth system preferences and make sure Bluetooth is both on and discoverable. Next, hold the PS button on the controller for a few seconds, then unplug the USB cable, and the controller should appear in the Bluetooth system preferences and be available for use in a number of games and programs. A Wii Remote can also be connected via Bluetooth.
Once the gaming controller is connected, you can use one of several software driver packages to configure its inputs. The first is Joystick Mapper, with which you should be able to configure most gaming controllers. The second is the Tattiebogle driver for Xbox controllers, which should work for both wired and wireless (using the receiver noted above) controllers.
For Wii users, the program DarwiinRemote and the Wjoy driver should allow you to crudely connect and configure the motion-sensitive Wii Remote, but if you have trouble establishing a connection using these drivers in OS X 10.8, then you can try a test build of DarwiinRemote that should work in the latest version of OS X.
A final couple of driver options for these controllers are GamePad Companion, which is available in the Apple App Store, and USB Overdrive, which has been a long-standing option for configuring USB input devices on the Mac platform. These last tools are useful especially if you have a controller that only has driver support for Windows. When connected to the Mac, the button inputs will be registered, and universal drivers like USB Overdrive should be able to recognize them and allow you to assign global or application-specific settings to them.
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Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.
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Controller support is limited on Windows PCs. While the latest generation of console controllers will work out of the box with Windows, even last-generation gamepads like the PlayStation 3’s DualShock 3 require custom drivers.
A previous version of this article detailed the use of MotioninJoy to use your Sony PS3 controller as a joystick on your Windows PC. Unfortunately, MotioninJoy was a proprietary piece of software that turned into malware over the years. Luckily, you don’t have to infect your computer, as there is an open-source alternative in ScpToolkit. Don’t use MotioninJoy.
How to Install ScpToolkit
ScpToolkit has to modify some system drivers to make the controller work, so it’s not the safest install process. Proceed with caution, follow our instructions, and don’t click anything you don’t understand.
Download the latest release of ScpToolkit from the project’s Github page, open up the setup program, and agree to the Terms and Conditions—if you read them, of course. You’ll be shown a dialog with a list of install options:
You probably don’t need the Gamepad Analyzer and Debug Info Collector, but you should install everything else.
The installation process will take a few minutes. You should take this time to find your PS3 controller and plug it in with a USB cable. After the utility is done installing the toolkit, it will ask you to run the driver installer. Click “Run,” and you’ll be shown a list which should now include your controller.
Click the “Initialize All Connected Devices” button (don’t skip through with next button), let it install, and then click “Next.” This will configure the controller to be recognized as a PS3 controller, and install some drivers.
The next screen is for Bluetooth support, which you may not want because it requires a dedicated Bluetooth dongle to be “sacrificed.” Rightly so, there’s a huge “WARNING” label on this screen, because installing it to a wireless mouse dongle on accident will cause you to have a very bad time.
If you really want wireless support, you’ll need to plug in the sacrificial dongle, make sure it’s the ONLY device in the list, and then click “Initialize All Connected Devices.”
Otherwise, feel free to hit “Next” and skip this process.
The next step is installing a virtual Xbox 360 Controller driver, which will trick Windows into thinking your PS3 controller is an Xbox 360 controller. This will make it work for more games.
To install the driver, click “Install virtual Xbox 360 Controller driver” and click “Next.”
After that, ScpToolkit will want to install a Windows Service to handle communication with the controller.
Click “Install Windows Service” and click “Next.” You’re now done, and you should be able to use your PS3 controller in any game that supports Xbox 360 controllers. That’s practically every game that supports a controller, so go nuts. You can also remap the controller’s buttons to make it work in other games.
RELATED:How to Remap any Controller to Keyboard Keys on Windows and MacOS
READ NEXTSnakebyte Ps3 Controller Driver Windows 7
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