funkychimp Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Good morning, I bought a Ti99 off eBay. The Ti came with the original Ti joysticks (two into one port). I am using a FinalGROM 99 with my Ti99. When I load a ROM, any game, the joysticks don not appear to work. Are all games playable via keyboard or do you have to use joysticks? My keyboard appears to be working without issue as I have tested each key in Ti Basic but the keyboard does not appear to work with any game I load. The 'Q' key appears to work for fire in some games but not others. The E,S,D and X keys do not appear to work for direction. The Alpha lock key is in the up position. Any help would be most welcome. Kind regards funkychimp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Good morning, I bought a Ti99 off eBay. The Ti came with the original Ti joysticks (two into one port). I am using a FinalGROM 99 with my Ti99. When I load a ROM, any game, the joysticks don not appear to work. Just to take care of the obvious, the joystick port is on the left side of the console. There is a physically identical port on the back that is for a cassette recorder/player. ...lee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkychimp Posted September 21, 2017 Author Share Posted September 21, 2017 Hi Lee, Thanks for the quick response. Yea the joysticsk are plugged into the left side plug. Maybe they just don't work. If this was the case I was hoping to just use the keyboard but I can't seem to find any keys that respond other than the 'a' key. Mmm. Thanks funkychimp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digdugnate Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 it's pretty common, too, for the standard TI sticks (aka the hand crampers) to not work. I picked up a set on ebay that were DOA. as for the keyboard... i'm not quite for sure on that one. different games have different control schema, but weird that no combination of any works at all on any game but all keys register in like Basic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majestyx Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Here is a joystick testing program you can use to see if it's an issue with the joysticks (or possibly the port itself): http://atariage.com/forums/topic/145666-any-ti-99-4a-basic-programs-you-can-share/?p=1773311 The games would have to be programmed to use the keyboard in order for them to work with the keyboard. Try a game like Hunt the Wumpus or Parsec which definitely map directions to ESDX to see if the keyboard is working with games that should do so. Q is the usual default FIRE button. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 You may have the Mitsumi keyboard, which is problematic and is difficult to impossible to fix. Some information is near the end of post #1 of the pinned thread, “New to the Group? ...“. ...lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 (edited) A very short joystick testing program: 10 CALL JOYST(1,X1,Y1) 20 CALL JOYST(2,X2,Y2) 30 PRINT X1;Y1;X2;Y2 40 GOTO 10 As you move the joystick levers, the values should be all 0 if you have it centered, and then should change to 4 or -4 depending on which way you deflect the lever. To test the fire buttons: 10 CALL KEY(1,K1,S1) 20 CALL KEY(2,K2,S2) 30 PRINT K1;K2 40 GOTO 10 The fire button returns 0 if it isn't pressed, 18 if it is. A lot of times, the period key also works as the fire button if you play from the keyboard. (TI Invaders works this way). Edited September 21, 2017 by Casey 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted September 24, 2017 Share Posted September 24, 2017 Speaking of Mitsumi keyboards... it's amazing how many of them went into service improving the TS-1000. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackbox Posted September 24, 2017 Share Posted September 24, 2017 Good morning, I bought a Ti99 off eBay. The Ti came with the original Ti joysticks (two into one port). I am using a FinalGROM 99 with my Ti99. When I load a ROM, any game, the joysticks don not appear to work. Are all games playable via keyboard or do you have to use joysticks? My keyboard appears to be working without issue as I have tested each key in Ti Basic but the keyboard does not appear to work with any game I load. The 'Q' key appears to work for fire in some games but not others. The E,S,D and X keys do not appear to work for direction. The Alpha lock key is in the up position. Any help would be most welcome. Kind regards funkychimp Different cartridges did different things. Some modules required joysticks and could not use the keyboard- some used either joystick but some were hard coded to only use joystick one or worse, only joystick 2. The alpha lock always had to be up. Use of the keyboard varied greatly and ESDX (lower case usually) were not obligatory. You need to see the manuals or refer to the aid files I did for FG99 in post 912 at http://atariage.com/forums/topic/253095-flashrom-99-finalgrom-99-image-repository-8202017/page-37 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etownandy Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 IIRC, some Atarisoft games (and maybe others) required joysticks, but most TI games allowed for keyboard control. Don't hit the FCTN key as you normally would trying to used ESDX as arrow keys - you just hit the letter key itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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