orion1052003

That was a cool story. Thanks.

Good news on the controllers. As of Stella 4.1.1, they work. I also tried the old cable the controllers came with that had problems mentioned previously, and the new USB cable I bought. The controllers still worked in mac with both cables. I haven't tried it in Windows, on the box that the joystick icon kept flashing or mounting and unmounting on, when I had the old cable plugged in. Or Linux. I will try to test those and let you know. Anyway, I will leave good feedack, even if the controllers no longer work in the next release. I can still save this version and use it if that happened. I tried Pac-man, Space Invaders, H.E.R.O., and a few others. When using the old cable in Pac-man, control was noticeably worse. Pac-man seems like a bad ROM to test with, because the pac seems to slip corners and not control all that good in the first place. I don't remember it being like that on the real thing, but in Stella the control does not seem as good whenever you try to turn a corner. Sometimes he slips in the wrong direction and travels pretty far fast. In the other ROMS, the controls seemed normal. Except I noticed there is a difference between the two controllers, and so I am glad to have both. The old one is much more stiff and stable, and precise. I could play H.E.R.O. with it fine, but not with the new revision 2 which is way too loose and jittery for precise control. People that use the new revision 2 have said it feels much better too use, and feels less likely for the top to snap off. Maybe each controller is better suited to certain kinds of games, and it might be better to have both to choose from. Overall, I like the revision 1 better, at least the one I have. The look of them is great, and is great for retrogaming. Maybe a company could pick them up for mass production. I tried the revision one on Atari 800 MacX, and this time it worked! I tried H.E.R.O. again and it worked fine. This game seems slightly easier on the Atari 800 than on the 2600. I assume the Atari Astroblast on AA is harder than the Astrosmash on Intellivision, from trying Astrosmash a few times recently. Anyway, I am glad to be able to use the Syzygy controllers and play some games with them.

Well, when I have been playing the last couple of days I used a 7800 with the Harmony Cart and started out at difficulty A A. To me it looks like a static black screen throughout. When I tried the same thing on emulation at the same difficulties, the screen was noticeably grey. Compare the two screenshots. I wonder if I used a real 2600 with a real cartridge, how would it turn out. Perhaps since 50,000 is the last score range mentioned in the manual, perhaps there are no more color changes after that point. So that could be why I never saw any color changes, making it seem not there, by most of the time playing on difficulty A A. Maybe emulator 'grey' is not the same as 2600 grey and the shade is off? I dunno.

Right, but this happened when I pressed the buttons and began to play from the beginning. On the screenshots the scores are very low. On a real Atari 2600 I don't think I got a screen change yet, and haven't reached 20,000. I believe I got close or over 5,000, but only noticed a blacks screen so far. On the emulation I can start from reset, change the diffculties from B B to A A, and get the screen change.

I was in such a hurry last time, I forgot to say thank you for the ROMS. Thanks! I actually did have the paddle fixed ROM, but didn't realize what it was. The long file names don't always show up on screen unless you click into it. The Astroblast fixed rom works fine with the paddles, when connected to the 2600daptor using Stella 4.0. I may have found a strange bug when I changed both Difficulty settings to A. The normally black screen turned grey. There are some screenshots here. One is the normal screen from another Astroblast rom. The others are the fixed rom version after changing the settings from B to A. The screen changes from black to grey in Stella. I still have to figure out the STELLA.pro file.

The games I tested the USB controllers with were Pac-man, Space Invaders, and a few random games. I will try some more and list them here. I will check the Stella.pro file. Thanks for all the feedback, no net at home, will get back to you.

Paddle Controllers with 2600daptor in Astroblast. Stella 4.0. The guy at Hafner Enterprises i emailed said he had the same problem, and that he was using an earlier version of Stella, in the 3.x variety. Maybe this is just an isolated problem, and I have to try other games to see if the 2600daptor usually doesn't work with Stella 4.0. If so, it could be caused by new additions and changes to the program of course, if not, it could be that the emulator didn't know how to handle the option of joystick or paddle for this one game, Astroblast. As for the Syzygy controllers, no luck in mac or linux, but it does partially work in Windows after those drivers are installed. That was the most progress so far. The thing that seems to be wrong in Windows using this controller, is that it doesn't respond to your directions well. For example, you can go left, but must must move the stick up before moving right. As if it doesn't center. So you can't really play a game normally. If there is a fix for that, the controllers would probably be good to go. I replaced the usb cable, and the intermittent flashing controller icon stabilized when testing in Windows. However, there did not feel like a loose connection from the wire to the unit. I'm guessing the cable was bad, but the joystick mapping or recognizing movement part is probably driving as the same problems described before happened after the new cable was used, except that the controller stayed "recognized" instead of disappearing and reappearing on the computer USB bus. I can't use the controllers yet, but I will still leave good feedback after all these months if anyone can figure out how to make them work.

Also, after Stella 4.0, the 2600-daptor suddenly doesn't work as before also. Anyone else have this problem?

Yes, I replaced the cable, but still have similar problems. When using a new cable, it stopped the problem of the icon flashing on and off, I'm presuming it now has a stable connection. It still will not work in mac and linux, but it did work technically on one Windows system with the additional drivers that were linked to in this thread. So that was very cool, but the joystick had problems working, not centering, and sluggish. However, windows recognized it, and it could finally do something, when you press fire it fires. The directions are right, but after you go a direction, you can't go back the other way without going to the opposite plane first. Left- up-right, rather than left-right, to make it go right in a hurry. Otherwise, two or 3 times back and forth to go right after going left initially. I'm thinking there must be some drivers for mac and linux that would help make the controllers work. As for Windows, I do not know if it will work on other Windows machines or if the directional problems are hardware or software. I can't leave good feedback until they work, although at this point, I'm starting to seriously doubt that will ever happen. Still trying though. Any help appreciated. And needed. Ha.

Tried Linux, mac, doesn't work. Most Windows it doesn't work. Finally got some action when I downloaded those extra Direct X files on one Windows system anyway. But I have a Mac.

Here are screenshots of Ubuntu Linux 12, Windows 7, and Mac OSX 10.7.5. Here is the Linux readout of the USB ports. It lost its text format when traveling to mac. I tried the controllers on a Linux box. "Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS" 32 bit. I tried listing everything connected to the USB ports, with the clear blue controller connected and lit up: [email protected]:~$ lsusbBus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hubBus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hubBus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 005 Device 002: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying ReceiverBus 003 Device 003: ID 146b:0302 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0930:6545 Toshiba Corp. Kingston DataTraveler 102 Flash Drive / HEMA Flash Drive 2 GB / PNY Attache 4GB [email protected]:~$ after unplugging :[email protected]:~$ lsusbBus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hubBus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hubBus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 005 Device 002: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying ReceiverBus 001 Device 003: ID 0930:6545 Toshiba Corp. Kingston DataTraveler 102 Flash Drive / HEMA Flash Drive 2 GB / PNY Attache 4GB [email protected]:~$ and with the black cx-40:[email protected]:~$ lsusbBus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hubBus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hubBus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hubBus 005 Device 002: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying ReceiverBus 001 Device 003: ID 0930:6545 Toshiba Corp. Kingston DataTraveler 102 Flash Drive / HEMA Flash Drive 2 GB / PNY Attache 4GB [email protected]:~$ Ok, I tried it again with the blue USB controller and it worked at first! It showed the controller in the log, all 4 directions and the button worked for about 3 games, then it completely stopped working, but still showwed as connected in the log

Apple Macintosh OSX-- I tried USB overdrive and it didn't work. What happens is it seems to conflict when the joystick is plugged in. When you launch Stella, you can't move down to the ROMS folder, or to any folder. Using the arrow keys or cursor, the selection flashes at the top of the list and is stuck there. The configuring part of USB overdrive did seem to work, although it sometimes recognized the controllers and sometimes did not. Also, it seems after you go in a direction, it doesn't center. For example, go left, it registers, go right…. nothing. But go up and then right, and it will register up and next right on the controller config screen. It may even work in Stella, if I could launch it. I tried USB overdrive newest edition with the mac and there finally was movement from the controller. However, there were many strange effects. For example, after configuring the black rev. 2 CX-40, sometimes the joystick would be present in the status window as supported, but many times it would be blank. When I launch stella, there would be some kind of conflict, when you try to navigate starting from the top of the screen down a list of folders to ROMS, the selection will get stuck at the top, or flash at the top but not go down. Can't start Stella. There is a screenshot showing the folder, and the green bar snaps back up to the top when you try to use the arrow keys to move down. Other times, you can start Stella, and I got the ship to move left and right and shoot in Space Invaders, only sometimes it did not move, did not fire, or start going automatically left on its own. I tried Pac-man as well, and during some test games it seemed to work, but after reseting or restarting stella, the pac-man would only move by pressing the keys. It's definitely not working right. However, this must be progress. I have included some activity logs and screenshots from USB overdrive. I tried the USB classic clear blue stick on the same mac, Stella 4.0, and it was about the same. More conflict with the keys, I couldn't get to the ROMS folder to launch Stella, so I had to plug it in after launching, and of course that is improper. The log said no joystick present, but I suspect it would have been detected if I could start Stella with the controller plugged in. Pac-man was stuck on going left all the time. In USB overdrive, the proper direction shows up when I move the stick and press the button, except if you are say, down, and go back up, it still says down. Like it's not centering, it will show up when you move the stick up first or after fiddling with it. PC Windows 7--Downloaded the drivers you mentioned, and a controller icon did pop up on the screen. The test was such that the icon kept disappearing and re-appearing if you touched the cable slightly. Tried a different cable and both controllers seemed to work. Seemed to lag and be pretty sluggish, getting you killed in Pac-man. But it did move at least! Linux 12--Tried a Linux box, and the black revision 2 did not work, whereas the older blue one did work testing Space Invaders. However, it stopped working after trying a third game. It was with the old cable, and that could have caused that. overdrive_button.tiff overdrive_classic.tiff

Thanks for the suggestions. Will try out USB overdrive, downloaded it. So far, I've tried these 2 syzygy controllers on 2 macs and 2 PCs, (no go) leading to me to think they might be as universally plug and play as intended. For example, they did their tests and everything came out 100%, but they do not work on any computer I have tried so far. Except for one thing. One thing in narrowing down the problem is that the older clear blue works on PC in the release before Stella 4.0, but when I upgraded Stella to 4.0 on that PC it no longer worked. This older clear blue worked in mac before I sent it back, but not after it came back. The black revision 2 has never worked on MAC or PC since I first got it, and after it was tested and sent back it didn't work either. I plan to try that Direct X part again with all the files installed and will let you know if either that makes the controllers work in PC or if Overdrive causes them to work in Mac. I'm no computer engineer, but I speculate that the 2 controllers are on different firmware, and that some type of extra drivers are necessary to make them more widely compatible with a variety of systems. Which might make for a revision 3 firmware or something like that, if they make more controllers in the future. Another strange thing is that the clear blue controller actually worked before I sent it back, and id not when it returned! However, they said the firmware was exactly the same as before! So it is a strange and complicated thing perhaps, maybe even a bug? The reason I returned it was the handle snapped off, and I later read this was a common problem of revision one, and so revision 2 has been made more durable. I returned the black revision 2 at the same time, as it did not work at all. They came back, a new clear blue and either a new or tested cx-40 rev. 2. So far, haven't got them working, although they should be plug and play.

Direct X 11 ( a lot newer than 7) with Mantle API is the system I tried it on, so it is up to date. Perhaps that means there is another cause to the problem? Maybe troubleshooting in windows can narrow down the problem. And then figure out for mac from there. If so, that would be great. I don't have a PC, I'm just asking people to let me use theirs when they are available. However, I'm using mac. What can I do for that? Any other tests I could run that would show more useful information for you?

Ok, I found a file called Stella.log, 902 bytes. Is this what saves to disk? Does the application save a new file each time, or overwrite the old one, or append the previous one? Save to console is the same thing?,.. a log file of what the program has done? You have to open up the command line to view it? Thanks for the beta.

Ran the test, clicked save log to disk and nothing happened, and tried print to console, and it appeared that nothing happened. Here is the black CX-40 revision 2 plugged in to a mighty big Windows 7 64 bit box. Chrome premium. He installed Stella, pac-man was controlled by the arrow keys fine, but the controller did not function. I haven't read about "save log to disk" or "print to console" yet, but I have the manual and will read it.

I bought the 2 controllers, they didn't work, and I sent them back, they tested them and sent them back to me, and they still don't work. They want me to leave them good feedback, which I will If I can actually use them. Stella 4.0 in both mac and PC neither one of them work. They said the controllers passed all tests which I believe to be true, I don't doubt that. I just want to solve the problem and make them work, but they know more than I do about how to do that. If Windows and Mac both say no joystick is present, how should I try to make the OS recognize the device?

Anybody have anything to add to this? Especially the encoders part…..How to resolve a hardware conflict? I'm trying to respond to everybody in one long response, since I don't have the internet. Sorry for the delay, and thanks for the feedback. I posted a video, I should have recorded the screen earlier to record what happened when I attempted to upgrade to OSX 10.6 and then to LION. It appears that I could have upgraded to LION if I had an internet connection, and I don't like how it seems to force you, it should let you update straight from the disc like it always did before. Did you try running ROM audits for both SDLMAME and MAME OS X? Unlike MacMAME, those games won't appear without a ROM audit. Also, ROMs for MAME OS X must be put in the Application Support folder in the Library folder in the account thats running MAME OS X. I'm not 100% certain I did the audits correctly, but I tried to. What I remember doing was getting SDLMAME to run but only 3 games, including Galaga, appeared in my list of available games. When trying MAME OSX I moved my ROMS folder again to the folder or path the program wanted it to be. At least I think I did. I thought the ROMS had to be in the same folder as the application file. I'm not 100% if the ROMS folder was in the path Library-Application Support, but it sounds familiar. I ran the audit both with the ROMS folder and without the ROMS folder. I tried putting an alias to it instead so I wouldn't have to move the folder around. There was a big list of games with MAME OSX, but the "playable" games list came up as zero. I tried the audit a few times, came back in a half hour, and it must have been finished, no games in the list. I think I even tried auditing without the folder in the right place at first, and it seemed like it audited for awhile even though nothing was there. Is that correct? Will MAME OSX attempt a lengthy audit with no folder in the right place? Or an empty folder? Not sure if that happened. The ROMS are from around 2006, so if they must be newer to work, that could explain it. I don't get why the same old ROMS would need to be updated over and over. I thought the software gets updated to better play the unchanging ROM files. I'm sure someone on this board can explain this and understands about this topic. I am wondering how to change the joystick settings from 4-way to 8-way, or even find out if the hardware I have has the option. Often in "Mario"-like games you need the left or right upper diagonal. I notice playing street fighter I can jump straight up, but not towards the opponent. I think I figured out how to "change the buttons" but not the mapping. Meaning I can change the MAME interface to match what the arcade controls are already mapped to, but I can't change the arcade controls to MAME defaults. The keyboard is also changed from MAME defaults to the same odd keys as the arcade controls. In the video it shows that the arcade buttons make certain letters and such in a text editor. A response that probably explains it was this: I looks like you have 4 different encoders connected. Your ipac is one, each spinner has one, and your trackball has one. Your ipac is reported to your o/s as a keyboard and each spinner and mice are reported as separate mice. Your o/s thinks that you have 1 keyboard and 3 mice connected to a single usb port which may be causing a hardware conflict. I am wondering, Is it normal for the computer to think of a trackball and spinners as mice, as if the controls are "emulated" as mice, or should the computer know that it is a trackball and 2 spinners rather than see them as 3 mice? Since my keyboard always comes up as unrecognized, that supports the idea of a hardware conflict. However, I can press buttons and use several of them. If the computer thinks the trackball and spinners are mice that could explain why the controls do not seem quite right when playing Tempest, Quantum, and kind of hard to control in Marble Madness. If I remember correctly, I tried plugging in the USB encoders directly without the hub, or one with the hub, and they were unrecognized. So, I put it back to the previous configuration with the hub. Would the only way to fix this problem be to buy a powered USB hub and see if it is automatically corrected, or do I just need to change some settings? Could the IPacs or whatever is in the control box be at fault? I was pretty excited just to be able to play 2 button games with a joystick now. It seems silly to downgrade back to OSX 10.4, but at least something works. I would like to upgrade to LION and run the latest software, especially if it is better. MacMAME, MESS, and other emulation was about the sole purpose of this old MacMini other than playing a little music. How do you get the coin door to interface with the computer and MACMAME? To do what? Register coins being inserted? In much the same way as arcade controls work, they simply momentarily make an electrical connection that's passed to the computer using an interface like an iPac. The coin mech would do the same. Map it to 5 or 6 in MAME. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I mean how do you connect the coin door to the computer to register coins? I know you need wires, but I have no idea which ones, where to buy them, etc. I'm wondering how these would connect to lights behind the coin slot. And, are LED coin slot lights the best? Usually they are red, correct? Has anyone tried an LED backlight for a marquee? Was it too dim? Do you guys use a metal arcade coin box, or a cheap plastic tupperware for the coins dropping into the machine? f the trackball and spinner controls seem to operate sluggish, is that likely due to poor keyboard mapping or something wrong with the controls? Poor keyboard mapping usually has more obvious consequences like machine freezes or resets.

A friend of mine has a PC and said not to fork out the money for another computer. He had problems getting it to work with controllers as well. My problem with the MacMini seems to be that it does not recognize the keyboard or the "mouse". However, the keyboard and trackball (mouse) still work, leading me to thinkit is some type of driver issue. Are there special drivers for trackballs, spinners, and such that need to be downloaded? When I upgraded the MAC OS from 10.4 to Snow Leopard, the OS said the same message about not recognizing the keyboard, only this time the trackball did not light up or control the cursor. I downgraded back down to 10.4.

Ok, I got Stella 4.0 going on a Windows box, and now both controllers won't work. In Stella 3.9.2, the blue one would work. For some reason, the joysticks are not seen. Suggestions?

I'm sure it's Norton being stupid; I will try to get 4.0 through the "barrier of buffoonery" or windows and norton and get back to you.

I will try to find his email and send it to him. My friend took the video, I think only this one.

Ok, thanks. What do you usually have connected to them?

If you need someone to draw some pictures or some light backup writing, perhaps I could be in the loop. I wrote for 2600 connection and VGT a few times. Not much programming experience, made 3 not finished 'games' for TI-99. Orion

I speculate that this thread would still exist, but it would be easier to find help since PC is more common than Mac. It seems like emulators are always screwy and complicated. What makes you feel like I'd have no trouble in Windows? In your experience, has it been easy and glitch-free in PC? Usually when I do things in PC, in my experience, it seems so much more complicated and tedious than in Mac. I don't see USB prober for 10.4. I downloaded the Snow Leopard USB prober, but I actually downgraded from Snow leopard because the trackball would not light up or automatically run the mouse like in 10.4. Today, an even worse thing happened. While playing Robocop, the screen went blank, and the trackball light went off. The LED TV acting as a monitor read 'no signal'. I turned off the MacMini, turned it on and booted. Everything worked again for about a minute, and the screen went blank again. Overheating? Never had any problems until now. Nothing outwardly has changed but just put in the powered USB 3.0 hub. The old hub was non-powered and probably USB one. I think the MacMini is USB 1 or 2. Could the powered USB hub cause a voltage issue and fry something? It seems like it should be just the opposite.