doug0909 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I put DB9 Ports on the side of my Odyssey 2. When using 2600 or 7800 controllers everything works fine, including diagonals and the button. However, when I stick my one working Genesis controller in, everything works fine (with the "B" fire button) except.... If I am moving in a DIAGONAL and press Button B while holding the diagonal position, instead of registering the button while the diagonal movement is going, it does not register the button at all and the direction is shifted on the horizontal plane (i.e. if I press the button while holding diagonal up/left, the direction will switch to diagonal up/right with no button register; if I am pushing down/right and hit the button, it shifts to down/left with no button register). I'm thinking it must be busted and I should buy more genesis pads on ebay... or is it possible this is an electrical problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800fan Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Genesis controller uses a bit of shifting to emulate 6 button controller, even if you use 3 button controller. It is not 100% perfect Atari-compatible controller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug0909 Posted March 1, 2015 Author Share Posted March 1, 2015 Thanks... someone in videopac forum said it's because there's an additional 5v wire on genesis sticks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 (edited) It was me on the videopac forum. The genesis pad has electronic circuit that needs power to operate, while tha Atari standard joystick is just made of mechanical switches and just needs 5 wires for directions and fire button and a common one (ground on pin 8 ). On genesis console, pin 8 is ground (like in the Atari), pin 5 is power (+5V) and pin 7 is the "select line" (while it's power on the Atari). If pin 7 is set HIGH (+5v) the console can read the directions + button B and C, If pin 7 is set LOW (0V=ground), the console can read up and down directions, plus button A and Start. Because of the way it is internally wired (even if it wasn't designed to do so), the genesis pad is able to be powered also by the select line. When it is connected to an Atari console, pin 7 act both as select line (so directions and B button map to the Atari joystick inputs) and as power source. That's where the compability with Atari consoles come from and if you want to replicate it on the Odyssey2, you need to apply power on pin 7. Edited March 2, 2015 by alex_79 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800fan Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Atari (as well as C64 and many other) has 5v on pin 7 and paddle on pin 5/9 so quite often Genesis controller doesn't work right depending on how the console used pin 5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Yep, for example some homebrews detect if there's a paddle or a joystick plugged in and could detect the genesis pad as a paddle. The Harmony cart menu does that (but you can skip the autodetection by keeping the "C" button pressed while powering the console). Other games might also rely on the state of paddle lines and therefore be incompatible with the genesis pad. Anyway most games that uses joystick just ignore the paddle lines status and works just fine.No isseus in case of the Odyssey2 mod because there aren't paddle lines at all (pin 5 and 9 are unused). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug0909 Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 I just tried to use a wico trackball connected to a stelladaptor in O2EM to play Killer Bees. No luck, I don't know why. Atari joysticks work with that setup though... Maybe I'll try it on real hardware soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug0909 Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 By the way Alex in videopac forum you said the Atari trackball has a switch between joystick and trackball mode. I can only find my wico trackball, but you weren't saying the atari trackball had a physical switch, were you? Because I don't recall that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 According to the service manual, the Atari CX22 trackball (the one with round buttons) came in two versions: the first one only worked in joystick mode and has no switch, while the second has a JS-TB mode switch on the side (you can find pictures in this post). I think that the CX80 model (triangular buttons) always has the switch (here some pictures).Check also this page for more info: http://www.2600connection.com/faq/controllers/faq_controllers.html#trackballs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug0909 Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 Well I guess if it didn't work with the Wico for some reason, which you said is only joystick mode, it won't work with those regardless of mode... Still confused why the Wico doesn't work since Atari joysticks plus stelladaptor work fine with o2em... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug0909 Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 BTW the Wico trackball BUTTON works with killer bees on o2em through the stelladaptor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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