Coleco Y-adapter Help and other Gemini Help

[tripletopper]

I've got 4 Y (or Wye) adapters. They have the standard 9 pin arrangement, and have the 2 branches are all pins and one end is all holes.

 

If I remember right form owning Colecovision in my youth, there were Colecovision adapters which let you plug in an Atari 2600 controller for the joystick and one button and a Colecovision joystick for the keypad. This let you use any 2600 bat stick (which was better than the short, flat 'shroom top of a standard Coleco stick) with any one button games for Colecovision. (The only reason I never got one was because I have a solution which worked for every game I had and still have EXCEPT QBert's Qubes and The Activision Decathlon, that is the Super Action Controller.)

 

Over the years, I went thrift shopping and found on separate occasions, a Gemini, a Gemini Instruction Book, and 4 different Y adapters of 9 pin arrangements. I read through the Gemini Instruction manual, and found out about the Wye Adapter (this was before I was looking for Y adapters) and that got me thinking, how do I tell the difference in the wild between the 2? Some one told me of pin testing, but I don't have the equipment or knowledge to do it.

 

I've got a couple of theories,but I want to make sure none of them ruin my controllers systems or adapters, because the ow of best-electronics-ca.com the repairers of Atari equipment, says be care not to do anything that will short out my equipment due to the 5 Volt connection.

 

If I can plug 2 joysticks in in either a 2600 or Colecoviison (a little help on which is safer?) and if both joysticks and buttons activate the character, then it's the first type.

 

I can't think of a definitive test for the other except if only 1 joystick moves the character in the above test, then it's. Or maybe it's a paddle game fire test, like Steeplechase or Party Mix, something where you can test 2 independent fire buttons on 1A and 1B, As well as 2A and 2B

 

The things I don't have for my gemini are joysticks, RF switchbox, and power cord. First I know that ANY controller made for the 2600 will work on a Gemini, so that won't be a hard test. Also I know standard pre-NES RF switchbox or an RF to RCA adapter on that useless analog RF plug on a VCR and a standard single RCA cable would do it for any RF system with a Single RCA hole out. But about power, I don't know if a 2600 JR power adapter would work with it, or if I have to get a "regular" 2600 cord, or even a special Gemini Cord.

 

Finally will using Track&Field controller on the Colecovision for The Activision Decathlon ruin your system? I've had temporary problems with it, but got cured when I remove it. Will it work with Carnival? (I assume left button equals left press, and right button equals right press, and there's no up and down and only 1 fire button in Carnival.)

 

Although not technically Y adapters because there's only 2 branches, not 3, does anyone know where I can get a lefty adapter for either the 2600 stick, or the 7800 pad (such an adapter would invert up and down as well as left and right. There might have to be a button swapping adapter for 7800 games where the concept of left and right are important than main and secondary) or an Atari-joystick-to-Astrocade system adapter, or an Astrocade-joystick-to-Atari-system adapter in either Joystick (easy) or Paddle (much harder engineering-wise) mode?,

[alex_79]

If I can plug 2 joysticks in in either a 2600 or Colecoviison (a little help on which is safer?) and if both joysticks and buttons activate the character, then it's the first type.

I don't own a Gemini or a ColecoVision, anyway according to the CV controller schematic in this page, the pinout is compatible with the Atari, so you can connect it to a 2600 console without ill effects. I think that the CV adapter just connect the 2 joystick in parallel, so you are correct, they will both map to the same player.

 

I can't think of a definitive test for the other except if only 1 joystick moves the character in the above test, then it's. Or maybe it's a paddle game fire test, like Steeplechase or Party Mix, something where you can test 2 independent fire buttons on 1A and 1B, As well as 2A and 2B

if the adapter is the one for the Gemini, then the fire buttons on the joysticks will map to:

- the 2 paddle fire buttons, if you are testing a paddle game

- left and right direction, if you are testing a joystick game

I don't think the stick movement would have any effect with the Gemini adapter, only the fire button.

If you connect 2 sets of atari paddles to a Gemini Y-adapter (so you have 4 paddles to one port on the console), then only 2 of the dials will work to move the players in a paddle game, but (I think) none of the buttons will have effect.