Rubik’s Cube Simulation via Gamepad Inputs

This is not a tutorial on how to solve the Rubik’s Cube. There are thousands of tutorials available online using dozens of methods. Some popular methods for speedsolving are Fridrich, Petrus, Roux, and ZZ. The Waterman Method was also popular previously. My favorite method was the Heise Method, which was completely intuitive. It is a bit harder to grasp conceptually than the other methods and it is slow for speedsolving, but it teaches many important concepts about the cube and it is also very effective for fewest move challenges. Ryan Heise was also the original creator of the typing Rubik’s Cube simulator, but I was not able to access it on his site recently. At my peak back in 2009–2010, I was able to average under 15 seconds per solve on his simulator using the Fridrich method. Kids nowadays can now average under 7 seconds using fancy new cubes with better mechanisms!

A clone of his virtual Rubik’s Cube simulator available at CS Timer. I haven’t touched a cube in years, but after a few tries, I was still able to get a sub-20 second solve.

The virtual cube is a bit tricky to access; I don’t know why the designer of the site tried so hard to hide it. When you first arrive on the site, you only see a stopwatch function, but if you go to OPTION –> timer –> entering times with, select virtual from the drop down menu and the virtual cube should appear.

You can now solve the cube using your keyboard. The controls are a bit tricky at first, but once you get used to it, it will be as fast as any real cube.

Now we can install an input software to bind buttons on the gamepad to keys on the keyboard. I chose Antimicro because it’s free, open source, and works on Windows 10. After installing Antimicro, I assigned the keys the way in the screenshot below so that the buttons on gamepad corresponded to the cube turns in the diagram below.

I saved the Antimicro input file. All you have to do is to download this file and open it in Antimicro to solve the virtual cube using your gamepad. Enjoy!