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Moonbeam

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Posts posted by Moonbeam

  1. Posted · Edited by Moonbeam

    Hi,

     

    PkK, thanks for your libs. I would like to use them. I use a Windows OS environment only and I installed SDCC and Code::Blocks.

     

    I created a project and the following stuff were imported in the projetct:

    - libcv .h and .c files;

    - libcvu .h and.c files;

    - cursor .c files.

     

    Compilation errors indicate that information included in .s files are missing, but if I include them in the project, "error 119: don't know what to do with file 'libcv\src\XXXXX.s'. file extension unsupported" is written for every .s file. I spent some time to try to understand what shall be done, but I did not find what is wrong…

     

    Does someone would know what I have missed?

     

    Thanks in advance for any help!

  5. Posted

    Why isn't RevEng's post #6

    http://atariage.com/forums/topic/228835-atari-7800-and-2600-joystick-port-question/?p=3055063

    the end of this topic?

     

    He shows with an abundantly available 3 button Genesis pad, 2 swapped pins, and a 10K resistor, the Atari 7800 and 2600 can read a joystick, including diagonals, with 4 buttons (button A, B, C, and Select).

    Then you don't need a matrix and all the processor time to read it.

     

    Perhaps it was not the end of the topic because even if it is an excellent solution, depending on what you want to do, another one may be preferred :-)

    I'm very glad I've had all your posts, ideas and help. I have learnt some very interesting stuff. Thanks to all of you !

  6. Posted

    But your 2x3 matrix only gives 6 switches, right? So wouldn't that be the same as a Genesis controller stick and reading its 2 buttons? Up, down, left & right and diagonals and two buttons already there in the Genesis pad, or can your 2x3 matrix do joystick and 4 buttons like the original post requests?

     

    Right, this enables no more than 4 directions and 2 buttons to be managed. Nothing more than the 4 directions and 2 buttons that some other solutions can supply (like the Genesis pad, for instance). For 2 more buttons, the 2 original Atari 7800 buttons can be used (with the corresponding circuitry).

  7. Posted · Edited by Moonbeam

    With diodes, the ghosting problem can be reduced / eliminated : http://pcbheaven.com/wikipages/How_Key_Matrices_Works/

     

    Oh sure ! I didn't know the matrix with diodes... Actually I knew it... in the Colecovision controller! But untill now I did not know why these diodes were there... :-)

     

    Thanks a lot for the link!

     

    So, let's say I can now manage 6 digital inputs with 5 wires. So that the code would know what to do, all the combinations would have to be tested, that is to say 2^5 = 32. Would not that represent quite a long time to be processed (with "if... then conditions"), even for the Atari 7800?

  8. Posted · Edited by Moonbeam

    A better alternative might be to use a variation of the keypad matrix (see http://atariage.com/2600/archives/schematics/Schematic_2600_Accessories_Low.html ). This uses the 4 RIOT pins in a row & column matrix. The big advantage of going this route is keypad support is already built into emulators. You might want / need to add some diodes (along with an intelligent mapping) like they do for a keyboard matrix to limit ghosting.

     

    Or, if it's a one player game, use both joystick ports and just the RIOT pins.

     

    Thanks for your post. As I wrote before, the matrix is smart... if there is no need to press 2 or more buttons /directions simultaneously. So I can't plan the use of a matrix...

  9. Posted · Edited by Moonbeam

    I think I answered your first post quite clearly. I even showed a way to get 5 buttons.

     

     

    Oh sorry... I had to take some time to make an understanding effort. I looked at paddles pinout and Atari 2600 motherboard schematics. And I found out you already talked about this here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/226294-analog-stick-4-buttons/.
    So, that's clearer for me now. What I understand is that the joystick port pins 5 and 9 were in fact originally planned for an analogue purpose. So what you say is that getting the information from the TIA analogue inputs (to convert it into a digital information) takes a lot of time, right? And I guess this would need the use of resistors inside the joystick, right?
    But I don't see exatly how to convert the analogue information into 3 digital information (for instance: right, left, neither left nor right).
    The matrix could be a good idea, if considering the buttons are not pressed simultaneously...

  10. Posted · Edited by Moonbeam

    Is your program really, really, really long? When I'm working with a program that has a lot of code, I have to turn off syntax checking.

     

    Also, what happens when you copy and paste this into your program:

     

       /* comment #1 */


   /* comment #2
   */


   /*
   comment #3
   and some more of #3
   */

    Well my code is not that long. Maybe 600 lines, I don't know... But I started thinking that this could be the cause of the problem... Thanks for telling me to deactivate syntax checking with quite a long program :)

    When I copy and paste the 3 comments you indicated, nothing special happens, whether syntax checking is turned off or on.

     

    I still notice problems with the color of some comments. I guess it's probably because they include some special keywords, but it's disturbing.

    For instance, the following comment appears in 4 colors, exactly like this: /* Byte{0}: is set to 1 when..., in order to indicate to... */

     

  11. Posted · Edited by Moonbeam

    Actually what makes VbB bug (it freezes) is: when I hit "return" key, after I write "*/" at the end of a C-style comment AND "Enable Syntax Checking" is checked.

     

    I use:

    - VbB 1.0 build 566 with its corresponding sound lib, installed in C:\Atari2600\VisualBatariBASIC

    - batari BASIC 1.1 from batari_basic_1.1beta.zip, installed in C:\Atari2600\batariBASIC

     

    The problem does not occur with Build 554, but the syntax checking became extremely slow (it was not the case a few days ago).

  12. Posted

    With one Atari port, the 2 paddles could be an analog joystick, and up down left and right can be four buttons, just like the Vectrex controller. With using the fire button that would be five buttons.

    A 2600 game would spend a lot of time reading both paddles for joystick coordinates (that's why the Vectrex only uses analog stick control on a few games).

    You would have to have a very good game to sell a custom stick, even a game with an adapter to use the Vectrex stick, the Vectrex stick is quite uncommon and expensive.

     

    I don't really understand... My question is about digital directions and buttons.

  18. Posted

    Hi,

     

    Let's imagine a game which for some reason would need a joystick with 4 directions and 4 fire buttons.

     

    I'm not sure but I think I understand that only 4 directions and only 2 fire buttons could be managed by one joystick port with an Atari 2600. Not 3 and not 4 buttons, right?

    I know I did not try to get some information with Atari 7800 hardware features yet, but would it be possible with the Atari 7800?

     

    Thanks in advance for your replies.

  19. Posted

    I'm using build 568 and don't seem to have that problem. Various changes have been made since his blog post in 2012, but you may be having a problem for another reason. When I download a new version of VbB an its accompanying sound library (you can't mix and match), I keep it in a new folder. I don't replace anything. The only thing I do is copy the bookmarks file (visualvb.mdb) from the previous VbB folder and paste it into the new VbB folder so I won't lose my bookmarks.

     

    In case you're interested, I name my VbB folders using the date and military time, just like I do with versions of my programs. Example: Visual_bB_2014y_06m_21d_1037t

     

    Thanks a lot for your help! I had also got the reliant sound library.

     

    For me, the installation of bB & VbB is such a mess... Is it possible to find the build 568 somewhere? Or is build 566 the more recent one available?

    I think I'm going to try to install bB & VdB from scratch again :-/

  20. Posted · Edited by Moonbeam

    I copied the files from the build 566 in my VisualBatariBASIC directory and then replaced the older files.

     

    The comments are maybe ok now but the IDE is not stable anymore and buggs when I hit "return" key, after I write "*/" at the end of a C-style comment. Am I the only one with this problem or must the new files be installed in another way?

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