Trackball for Intellivision

[+BBWW]

Is there anyone who has re-wired a Wico Track Ball or other track ball for use on the Intellivision? Just curious.

[+KylJoy]

I did that as a youth. It was an interesting experiment and was fun with Worm Womper. I did this with an Atari 2600 Wico trackball and seem to remember needing an external power supply for some reason.

[+Steve Jones]

I think all the Wico trackballs have a power supply, my TI99 one does.

[Humblejack]

Can it be done with the Atari Trakball?

[+KylJoy]

I remember having to ADD power to the Wico trackball I used for some reason. I added a pigtail with a female jack for power to connect to. I THINK I used an Atari 2600 power supply. Could I be mistaken? Yup. I do NOT remember what all I did to the unit to make it work but it wasn't much. That was 40 years ago. But it did not have all of the Intellivision controller directions (all 16), of course. BUT... Since it was a trackball, it would work in a way that had sort'a unlimited degrees of movement. Rolling the ball straight up would engage UP. Rolling the ball UP and a little to the LEFT would engage UP 100% and engage LEFT sporadically which resulted in a sort'a "skipping" to the LEFT motion while moving UP 100% which resulted in a (mostly) acceptable motion of an appropriate angle (kind'a).

 

The trackball I used was not particularly sensitive.

[mr_me]

Those wico trackballs emulate an atari 8-way joystick. Wiring them to an intellivision controller input is no different than wiring an Atari 9-pin joystick. Same thing goes for an atari 2600 trakball. Some intellivision games will have diagonals at the wrong angles.

 

Some atari trakballs, eg some atari 800 trakballs, had switches for true trackball mode with quadrature encoding. Those trackballs can be wired to an intellivision controller input however an intellivision program would have to be written to interpret quadrature encoding. A true intellivision trackball with three action buttons should be possible without external power.

Edited December 11, 2018 by mr_me

[Intymike]

Those wico trackballs emulate an atari 8-way joystick. Wiring them to an intellivision controller input is no different than wiring an Atari 9-pin joystick. Same thing goes for an atari 2600 trakball. Some intellivision games will have diagonals at the wrong angles.

 

Some atari trakballs, eg some atari 800 trakballs, had switches for true trackball mode with quadrature encoding. Those trackballs can be wired to an intellivision controller input however an intellivision program would have to be written to interpret quadrature encoding. A true intellivision trackball with three action buttons should be possible without external power.

 

 

So, grisp03s joypad/joystick adapter should do the trick for these trackballs?

[+JasonlikesINTV]

I did that as a youth. It was an interesting experiment and was fun with Worm Womper. I did this with an Atari 2600 Wico trackball and seem to remember needing an external power supply for some reason.

Worm Whomper would be awesome with a trackball.

[atari5200dude82]

ABOUT INTELLIVISION PADDLES AND GUN TOO, SOME SHOOTING games.

 

number jumble for the ecs come to mind

[+KylJoy]

ABOUT INTELLIVISION PADDLES...

 

I'd love paddles in some way.

[+fdr4prez]

 

I'd love paddles in some way.

 

You only need to visit Cmart's dungeon for some heavy paddle play

 

[+KylJoy]

Wow... Just wow.

[+fdr4prez]

Wow... Just wow.

 

You must be stronger than me

 

I don't exclaim "wow"... I am crying out "owww"

 

 

 

 

:rolling:

[+BBWW]

I think I need to change BBWW to BDSM so I can be in the club!

[boxpressed]

 

 

So, grisp03s joypad/joystick adapter should do the trick for these trackballs?

It seems like you could use the grips adapter with a Sega Master System Sports Pad, no?

[mr_me]

Like atari trakballs, some sega sports pad trackballs have a joystick/trackball switch and some don't. The switch makes it sega ms gamepad compatible but is limited to eight directions. In trackball mode, it's not gamepad compatible but can be wired up directly to intellivision as can atari trakballs in trackball mode.

 

True trackballs need a bit more processing and code to interpret compared to directional pads. Some atari 2600 cartridges e.g. missile command have been hacked to support true trakballs, some homebrews support trackball controllers as well. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/243453-atari-2600-trak-ball-games/

 

ABOUT INTELLIVISION PADDLES AND GUN TOO, SOME SHOOTING games.

 

number jumble for the ecs come to mind

I don't think analog controllers like an atari paddle could work with an Intellivision. A spinner can. The disc works like a spinner with Intellivision Turbo. Edited December 13, 2018 by mr_me

[adamchevy]

Your telling me the superior 10bit Intellivision can’t do what the 8bit VCS 6502 processor can pull off? That seems unlikely.

[mr_me]

The intellivision has a 16-bit cpu, 16-bit ram, 16-bit data bus, and 14-bit graphics bus. It lacks the capacitors required to read analog/pot controls; but a digital spinner can work as a nice rotary control for paddle games.

Edited December 23, 2018 by mr_me

[JohnPCAE]

The intellivision has a 16-bit cpu, 16-bit ram, 16-bit data bus, and 14-bit graphics bus. It lacks the capacitors required to read analog/pot controls; but a digital spinner can work as a nice rotary control for paddle games.

Like the Atari 2600 Driving controllers. Inside they work more like mice, but use direct contacts instead of optical sensors.

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

I have an Atari CX22 trackball controller, which I also use with the Vectrex, on some hacks and whatnot, but I will try using it in conjunction with the Grips03 Sega>Inty adapter. It would be cool if it worked!

[mr_me]

The cx22 has a joystick/trakball switch. In joystick mode it emulates an atari 8-way joystick and should work. I wouldn't expect much response in trakball mode with existing intellivision games. And if someone were to write or hack an intellivision game to use a trackball you shouldn't need an adapter to make it work.

Edited December 23, 2018 by mr_me

[+evg2000]

I'm working on a POC paddle controller for the Intellivision Hoping to have the prototype working in a week or two. It's based on one that I did for the colecovision.

 

[First Spear]

ADB controllers are relatively inexpensive. Would they be an option for hacking to work with the Inty? I understand the challenges on the Intellivision side (thanks to the earlier posts on this thread), but I am wondering about the wiring/connectivity.

 

Thanks b

[+evg2000]

So I had some time to work on my paddle controller POC. I haven't hooked it to a real Intellivision yet, as I only have a couple and don't want to damage one. Using a simulator tester I created I can see that it will probably work. I have an issue with the button on the paddle, it doesn't play well with a controller plugged into the paddle. I know what the issue is and have one fix that would work but I want to come up with another solution. Trying to minimize parts and cost. Additionally the paddle works, though I have some wires connected incorrectly. I have a switch to convert the paddle to either go left/right or up/down. Currently the paddle goes up/right or left/down This will be an easy fix when I have time. Hoping to have it working, and maybe do a video this weekend of prototype #1.

 

The goal is to have a paddle that you can also plug a standard controller into. The reason is so you can use the controller to navigate menus etc.

 

Currently my simulator tester can test an atari joystick, an intellivision controller and my paddle. Goal is to add other controllers that are 9 pin connector. Possibilities: Atari paddle, CV JS, maybe CV other controllers, genesis controller, 7800 controller etc. Figure it would be good for testing controllers in the field.

[Swami]

There is a possible issue with Intellivision and Colecovision consoles vs atari when making adapters or fitting atari trackballs, which is that the atari's have a +5V VCC pin to power devices with 50-100mA, while the other consoles do not. There are, apparently, some tricky ways to pull energy from the other pins, but it is not so simple. Usually one ends up using a battery or 5V adapter, but watch out for ESD which can fry your controller chips with an incorrectly added voltage source.