NAWA ASOBIARCADE · 縄遊び

Nawa Asobi is in active licensing discussions with the rights-holders of every title shown. The owner fully expects to pay licensing fees for them; the games appear under their real names as work in progress toward those licences, not in place of them. Until then this is a pre-licensed, private, non-commercial educational exhibit — licences being negotiated.

Works in browsers everywhere, no bridge: the standard 8BitDo Arcade Stick (the non-Xbox edition — Bluetooth / 2.4G, with D-input / X-input / Switch modes) or any standard-mapping Bluetooth gamepad, on iPad Safari, Mac, Windows and Android. Honestly: not yet tested on our own unit.

Does not work in macOS browsers: the 8BitDo Arcade Stick for Xbox (MPN 81JA01D). It speaks Xbox GIP, and no browser on macOS can see it — Apple's driver only matches Microsoft's vendor id, and Chromium's list omits this product id. It does work in Windows browsers as an XInput / standard-mapping pad. On the Mac mini cabinet it works only through our own USB→keyboard bridge (padbridge), verified every button and the lever.

Key map of the Mac-cabinet bridge. In the browser the mapping is simpler: the D-pad or left stick moves, the four face buttons A / B / X / Y are each game's buttons 1–4 in order, MENU is START and VIEW exits the game; the shoulder buttons and triggers are not used in the browser yet.

New: the stick alone now drives the whole cabinet — the Guide/Xbox button is HOME (leave a game, or step back to the floor), and clicking the left / right stick is PLAYER 1 / PLAYER 2 (walk in, insert a coin, start a 1- or 2-player game). No mouse needed.

Plug in or pair, then open the controller check page — it dumps exactly what your browser sees.

Mac users with the Xbox stick — easiest: download the Nawa Asobi Arcade Starter (macOS 13 or newer, Apple Silicon and Intel, about 0.25 MB). It opens the arcade in its own window and drives it straight from the stick — no Accessibility permission and no "which browser is in front" juggling, because the app is the browser. Unzip, move to Applications, open, plug in the stick, play.

Or, to use your own browser: the free menu-bar helper Nawa Asobi Pad Bridge (same sizes). It talks to the stick over USB and types the key map above into whichever browser is in front — the same bridge our cabinet uses, packaged for any Mac. This one needs the Accessibility permission (see steps below).

Install: 1 unzip and move the app to Applications · 2 first launch — macOS 15 and newer: double-click once, then System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway; macOS 13/14: right-click → Open · 3 grant Accessibility when asked (that is what lets it type into the browser) · 4 plug in the stick — the menu-bar icon says "Stick: connected" and you can play.

Honest caveats (both apps): neither is signed with an Apple Developer ID yet, so macOS shows a warning on first launch (notarisation needs the US$99/yr Developer Program, which we have not bought yet — source is in the repo). macOS only; iPad cannot use them. The non-Xbox 8BitDo stick and normal Bluetooth gamepads need none of this. Not yet tested on a stranger's Mac — tell us if it fails.

Want the same stick? We may sell them here — TBC.