[The Knight Rider 2600 project]

Happy New Year Folks!!!

[Joystick splitter question]

On 9/1/2023 at 10:47 AM, Zonie said:

I do hardware

Same here, lol!

As we are today the SNES controller was the winner, let alone that it's interface intentionally leaves alone the pins used by the Savekey to bitbang I2C to the eeprom chip. 

 

[Joystick splitter question]

There are more things to consider, though:
 
The static nature of the shift registers of the SNES controllers allows the button reading cycles to be spread along the code. You can do that on a Genesis controller but you must take care for the internal 3ms timeout that resets the sequential logic of the button multiplexer.

The cross layout of the SNES action buttons provides the ability to emulate two controllers at the same time, and that is a winner for games like Robotron and Petscii Robots. 

One advantage of the Genesis controller over the SNES controller is the capacity to work on existing games (with the adaptor plugged in of course) (edit: that will require adding a switch on the adapter)

[Joystick splitter question]

I've been down that road already:

• SNES 533 cycles or ~447us 
• Genesis (6 button) 306 cycles or ~257us 
   

[Joystick splitter question]

6 hours ago, Zonie said:

I have proposed a control scheme that uses a controller with both pots and the joystick inputs like steering and gearshift or joystick for direction controls and a pot for throttle perhaps.🤔

Joystick, two buttons and a pot can be done too...

Just need games to be written for it.

Knight Rider? 🤣

[List of 2600 Hardware Projects]

AT-26 Chuck

Adapter for playing Atari 2600 with Wii Nunchuck, with or without the accelerometers:

 https://hackaday.io/project/7944-at26-chuck

 

 

 

 

[Custom Atari controllers]

For sake of completeness here's the last custom controller I have built - A Driving Controller.

The case was upcycled from a remote control unit for RC car that have been laying for years on my parts bin (only the remote, not the toy cars, lol)

 

[Custom Atari controllers]

22 hours ago, doubledown said:

Is there a reason to create a new/different Paddle controller design? 

I can think of:

• Availability of Off-the-shelf boxes and Knobs;
• aesthetics (built-in button cutout on some plastic cases);
• ergonomics (left/right handed usage) 

[Custom Atari controllers]

9 hours ago, LatchKeyKid said:

Is it possible to use the paddle controller pins to create a three button joystick for the 2600?  I read that controllers like the Genesis and Booster Grip use the a paddle pin for a second action button but I was curious if the two paddle pins can be used for a three button 2600 controller.  Obviously no game would support it (at least to my limited knowledge) but maybe future homebrew and retrohacks of official games could utilize it.

The CBS Booster Grip joystick add-on adds two extra buttons over the paddle lines.

 

[best 2600 USB controller?]

The DIY Control Freak is an USB adapter that can handle Atari Joysticks, Paddles and Driving controllers using the same firmware.

 

 

 

 

[Custom Atari controllers]

And here's a DIY Keypad Controller 

 

 

 

[Custom Atari controllers]

4 hours ago, overgrouth said:

My driving controller died. The driving controllers from my experence never ever had issues and were always spot on with reliability and never became noisy or jittery and simply worked with out any issues ever. Just as I am starting this new controller project one of my driving controllers bites the dust. It is time for an upgrade. Expect these to  be future made by me as well.

 

Any sujustions are welcome or any of this? I will take it into consideration.

You can use the readily available rotary encoders to build a new driving controller, but there is an issue with sensitivity because original encoders provides 16 steps per turn while most modern encoders provide 20 or 24 steps. 

[Custom Atari controllers]

And here's a DIY  Track & Field controller

 

 

[Custom Atari controllers]

My DIY approach:

[Quiz Game]

On 1/18/2023 at 3:00 AM, Jamtex said:

More a nice utility for a game night than a game.

Precisely !!

On 1/18/2023 at 3:00 AM, Jamtex said:

As a suggestion, as players may give the wrong answer maybe you could add a function which would allow the quiz master to allow the other players to come back in, say usiing the Select key which would lock out the last player(s) that gave the wrong answer?

Nice suggestion, thanks!!

[Quiz Game]

2 hours ago, KevKelley said:

Cool. I love the question mark shrinking while waiting for an answer. I had made a similar program a while back designed to be a substitute for the buzzer systems used in College Quiz Bowl tournaments called Quiztari Buzzer Program.

Thanks! Your game looks amazing. I am sure that the time you may spend to figure out what went wrong and fix the game will pay off!

 

2 hours ago, KevKelley said:

What made you decide to make this? Did you play quiz bowl or are just a fan of trivia?

It was just an idea on how to use a 2600 to bring joy to parties and retro meetings, and at the same time make an unconventional game. It is more a quiz bowl, the first to press have the right to answer the question.

 

It was also an exercise on Batari Basic Programming.

 

 

 

[The Knight Rider 2600 project]

Hoff New Year!!!

 

[Counting bits in a byte]

Full solution:

lda byte1

eor byte2

sta temp

lda #0

ldy #8

loop: rol temp

adc #0 ; a = a + 0 + carry 

dey

bne loop

 

at the end a holds bit count.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[My homemade 5200 controller]

You can take out the MCP42100 from its socket and insert a 100k resistor between pins 9 and 10 and check the X axis reading (pins 5 and 6 for Y axis)

 

If the reading reaches the maximum value then you either have a problem with your digipots or with the code driving it. On the other hand, if the value remains low, triple check the capacitors (measure them if possible). Check also the voltage value at pin 9 of the db-15 connector (potC).

 

[My homemade 5200 controller]

Check the timing capacitor values.

[“Attack of the PETSCII robots” for 7800]

Finally assembled the DIY keyboard controller I have proposed some posts ago (link). I would like to rectify the schematics as the membrane keyboard that I have acquired have a different wiring than the one I have planned to use.

[DIY Atari Keypad Controller]

DIY Atari Keypad Controller built with off the shelf components (link)

 

Schematics

[The Wolf]

Cut the box to fit the board. It demanded a lot of handiwork, which is OK for a DIY project, but may render a serialization unworkable. In that case two options should b considered

• Machine a COTS box on a CNC.
• Custom 3D print (that nowadays can be ordered online)

[How was Kool-Aid Man advertised?]

Q-Suco (and later Ki-Suco), was a very popular drink in Brasil. The translated brand name can be interpreted as "What a Juice".

Do not remember a video game related campaign, though.

[7800 Keyboard]