Why does Master System Pads work on 2600?

[ussexplorer]

I'm sorry, I just had to ask. The few things I could come up with.

 

1. Sega needed a fast controller design

2. Atari helped Sega design a controller (I doubt this)

3. They was planning to build a 2600 add-on.

4. Former Atari workers went to Sega

5. This could go on for a while.

 

Thanks,

 

Josh

[IBP]

For the simple reason that almost all 9-pin joysticks from that era until the late 1990's worked in exactly the same way, and had exactly the same pin-outs.

 

Joysticks were pretty standard until PCs started getting joypads - PC joypads are analogue devices and have different connectors to the old standard digital (i.e. normal) joysticks.

 

Proprietory systems now (i.e. playstation, gamecube) have a multitude of functions built into their joyads and so are system-unique.

 

I use a master system pad on my 2600, and a gamepad-pro from an amiga. The only difference in this was that it had 8 fire buttons which I disconnected and wired one in on it's own.

[EricBall]

The console controllers also gained intelligence; they have chips in them, rather than just being passive switches and potentiometers. This was for three reasons:

 

1. number of wires - instead of requiring one wire for each button (or four or more for joysticks/pads), a modified UART (parallel to serial converter) could allow a single wire to handle all of the buttons.

2. analog to digital conversion - the Atari uses a simple resistor/capacitor/time circuit to perform analog to digital conversion for paddles. Unfortunately, this requires significant overhead in the game since it must continually poll the result. The POKEY chip automated this, but it became more efficient and effective to have this done in the controller (also allowing for the digital signal to be sent over the same wire as the buttons)

3. bi-directional functions - the N64 had the rumble and memory packs, the Dreamcast had the VMU

[ussexplorer]

People back then didn't care much about copyrights. Instead of going after every little thing they just went after big stuff. Like Apple against Franklin. Even though I have read a few smaller claims later on by Atari. For instance the insertion of a game cart into the system. Would have been interesting if they would have won that one.

 

Laters,

 

Josh