Arcade Joystick Controller (Edladdin?)

[ZillaRUSH]

I just purchased Edladdin's Super 78 for the Atari 2600/7800. WOW! This is the best way to play the Atari. This controller rocks!!

 

While playing I thought...how about Edladdin be kind enough to develop an arcade joystick controller like this for the INTV!! Just add a key pad and 4 buttons (= side buttons). Now that would be awesome!!

 

One can only dream.

[+grips03]

I've made this for a few years

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/213043-intv2-arcade-controller-pre-order-interest-list

 

I also make a kit if you want to make your own Intellivision arcade controller

 

Later this year I'll release Sega Genesis to Intellivision adapter

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/264012-sega-to-intellivision-controller-adapter

[BenG76]

I just purchased Edladdin's Super 78 for the Atari 2600/7800. WOW! This is the best way to play the Atari. This controller rocks!!

 

While playing I thought...how about Edladdin be kind enough to develop an arcade joystick controller like this for the INTV!! Just add a key pad and 4 buttons (= side buttons). Now that would be awesome!!

 

One can only dream.

 

 

I asked him quite a while back after I backed the Kickstarter for his Colecovision one. I just received it last week. He did not think he would any time soon. Maybe he will change his mind.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Primary issue is the 16-way Intellivision disk. How many mass-manufactured 16-way joysticks are available? Last I checked, it's 8-way, 4-way, or bust...

[Intymike]

Primary issue is the 16-way Intellivision disk. How many mass-manufactured 16-way joysticks are available? Last I checked, it's 8-way, 4-way, or bust...

 

 

grisp03's stick works fine with most of the games. Either it's the 8 or 4 way variant.

[mr_me]

There's a bunch of games that use sixteen directions. And there's another bunch that use four or two direction. There's a handfull that use eight directons. And then there's Turbo.

 

These things should be fine for 2/4/8 direction games. You should be able to rewire the edladden (passive adapter) for games upto eight directions. Not sure about having two seperate action buttons; two buttons might need some diodes.

Edited May 29, 2017 by mr_me

[Andromeda Stardust]

There's a bunch of games that use sixteen directions. And there's another bunch that use four or two direction. There's a handfull that use eight directons. And then there's Turbo.

 

These things should be fine for 2/4/8 direction games. You should be able to rewire the edladden (passive adapter) for games upto eight directions. Not sure about having two seperate action buttons; two buttons might need some diodes.

Granted, but denying usage of the full range circle gives up some fine motor control. With the Intellivision disk, you have a large circular deadzone and 16 cardinal directions, presumably 8 discrete directional contacts with contact zones that overlap. These contacts then get matrixed into some diode network to derive 16 discrete inputs. A traditional thumbstick on a dedicated gamepad with active conversion logic would perhaps be the best way to emulate the disk control.

 

However, unless Eladdin can produce a usable analog joystick (for 5200) or a 16-way (Intelli) then running the 8-way joystick will result in a loss of fine motor control for those games that require it, causing gameplay to range from being less smooth to completely broken depending upon the game.

 

If these joysticks are going to have all the ranges of actuations necessary to replicate a period controller, then they need to be analog capable or custom made. Analog joysticks are not cheap.

https://na.suzohapp.com/products/joysticks/95-0393-00

https://na.suzohapp.com/products/joysticks/95-0701-00

 

The "S-taper" pots by themselves are over $30:

https://na.suzohapp.com/products/joysticks/50-2032-00

https://na.suzohapp.com/products/joysticks/50-2064-00

 

The exotic resistance curve I assume is what makes these pots so expensive.

 

I am not trying to put anybody off, and Eladdin may have a source for cheaper analog joysticks, but any joystick with an actuation range beyond a traditional 8-way will go way up in price.

[mr_me]

I 'm not sure what you mean by fine motor control for 8/4/2-way games. The Intellivision disc works great for 16/4/2-way games. But is not that great for 8-way games. Snafu with diagonals is a good example; Snafu is better with an 8-way dpad than the Intellivision disc for diagonal game modes. Other 8-way games, eg. Ad&d; mazeatron, utopia, doesnt matter as much.

 

For 4/2-way games I wouldnt say joystick or disc is better than the other. Its a matter of preference I think they both function well for these games.

 

I don't see why you need an analog control unless your trying to do 16 directions. Regular 8-way digital control works for intellivision 8/4/2-way games. That existing edladdin joystick can work with Intellivision with a simple passive cable adapter.

 

The Intellivision controller has no diodes. But redesigning the side buttons with some diodes might help the reliability of button presses. The disc seems to work well without diodes. The Intellivision disc actually uses five contacts/signals to produce 16 directions without diodes.

Edited May 29, 2017 by mr_me

[mr_me]

I've tried Auto Racing with an analog thumbstick; it's not very good. An 8-way d-pad is better but the intellivision disc is best. For other games the analog thumbstick is okay but for Snafu (diagonal game mode) d-pad is best.

[ZillaRUSH]

Talked to Ed at Edladdin....no plans for an INTV controller. He said the 16 direction was the kicker.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Talked to Ed at Edladdin....no plans for an INTV controller. He said the 16 direction was the kicker.

Like I said, there are no commercially available 16-way joysticks. I would imagine the same could be said of 5200 unless cheaper options for analog exist.

[+nurmix]

All of the sports games need 16 directions to adequately move / dodge. Same with games like Space Battle, Deadly Discs, Dreadnaught Factor, Worm Whomper, Dragonfire, Ice Trek, Microsurgeon, Sea Battle, Shark! Shark!, Star Strike - all benefit from / need the ability to move in 16 directions.

 

And Utopia was mentioned as one that doesn't, but it does for fine movements to position your fishing boats, and lining up your cursor to place assets on your island, evading pirates.

 

I'd love to find a way to have a 16 direction joystick as an option, but I'm not sure there is really a cost-effective way to do it.

 

 

 

Sent from my Keyboard Component using Jack's Conversational Intelli-talk cassette

[mr_me]

Everyone already has a good sixteen direction controller. So it wouldn't hurt to have an 8-way controller since the disc isn't great for some 8-way games. There aren't a whole lot of 8-way games but a joystick could also be used for 4/2-way games. Utopia is actually 8-way but the disc is not a problem there. Commando and Bumpnjump are surprisingly 16-way games. I wasn't sure about Dreadnaught Factor and Worm Whomper, it's hard to tell, I thought they could be 8-way. Disc works great for those two games.

 

In emulation you can use any analog joystick as a 16 direction controller.

[+nurmix]

Everyone already has a good sixteen direction controller. So it wouldn't hurt to have an 8-way controller since the disc isn't great for some 8-way games. There aren't a whole lot of 8-way games but a joystick could also be used for 4/2-way games. Utopia is actually 8-way but the disc is not a problem there. Commando and Bumpnjump are surprisingly 16-way games. I wasn't sure about Dreadnaught Factor and Worm Whomper, it's hard to tell, I thought they could be 8-way. Disc works great for those two games.

 

In emulation you can use any analog joystick as a 16 direction controller.

Well you know I am perfectly happy with the disc and original controllers, and always have been. A joystick could be an advantage for things like maze games, and would be a fun alternate control method - people love the arcade style ones Grips03 makes!

 

And Utopia is most definitely 16 directions. Move your cursor around and see how many different angles you can travel. This is vital when you are playing against someone who is just waiting for a hurricane to take out your fort so he can immediately "rebel" you and take out surrounding buildings the second your Fort gets destroyed - unless you've positioned your cursor precisely over that Fort and are poised to create a new one that same split second it gets destroyed. Wouldn't be very likely you'd be able to get it in the right spot easily if you only had 8 directions.

 

 

Sent from my Keyboard Component using Jack's Conversational Intelli-talk cassette

[mr_me]

You're right about Utopia, the instructions are wrong. Utopia is 16 directions. Nobody's going to use a joystick with Utopia anyway.

 

I thing the disc is great for maze games. The only problem I have with the disc is hitting those diagonals in Snafu. Compared with a modern analog thumbstick, the disc is much better.

[+nurmix]

You're right about Utopia, the instructions are wrong. Utopia is 16 directions. Nobody's going to use a joystick with Utopia anyway.

 

I thing the disc is great for maze games. The only problem I have with the disc is hitting those diagonals in Snafu. Compared with a modern analog thumbstick, the disc is much better.

Rick has played a lot of Intellivision games on his MAME cab. I haven't setup the Intellivision emulator on mine yet. You're right, SNAFU would be better with only 8 directions in the diagonal variations. Haven't tried that.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my Keyboard Component using Jack's Conversational Intelli-talk cassette

Edited June 6, 2017 by nurmix

[tripletopper]

I believe Vectron is also 16 way game. I don't understand the game but you can put the placement cursor of your aiming directions in many the bottom half of the 16 directions, and directions can be dialed instantly, and it has some tertiary directions.

 

I'm just wondering, If I'm GETTING built an arcade stick, just so I need to know, what games are unplayable with an 8-way stick. I'll see if there's any game worth getting a true 16 way stick. I believe the Colecoviison has 8 actual actuators. I've taken apart the controller, so I've seen it. If it can be modified so in-between directions work, then solution like that might come in handy. maybe At Games can make a Retro Arcade stick for 50 to work with the 5200 (only in digital mode so arcade games would work right), Intellivision 16 digital way stick, Colecovision Super Action Controller, and Atari Jaguar Pro Arcade Stick. One important thing it needs to be is ambidextrous. (P.S. how does one make lower resolution real pictures, or at least more zoomed out. As someone who suffers from bandwidth deficiency, I don't want to over post in terms of picture when a smaller picture will do.)

 

 

 

 

A keypad can be slipped outside the button area, or for Super Action Baseball and American Football, put the keypad INSIDE the Joystick so you can operate the action buttons and the Roller Wheel at the same time, the Super Action Roller Wheel can be placed below the keypads. Also Mouse Trap could be played with a Coleco keypad and arcade stick in 2 different hands. The 5200 kepypad could have start, pause and reset above the main keypad, and the only thing the Jaguar Pro needs is the 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 mapped to L, R, Z, Y, and X respectively. Or At Games could make a PS2-> those system adapters. (2 other ones I'd add. Astrocade, a Genesis controller doesn't map to it well, even in non-paddle games, and a 3DO with Dasiy Chaining so that the player with this joystick can be ANY player along the chain, not just the last, like using the Tototek PS1->3DO adapter.

[mr_me]

I like how your joystick can be used right-handed. I think the coleco vision joysticks use four switches like most digital joysticks/pads. The intellivision pad uses five signals/bits to come up with the 16 directions. You'll have to have extra electronics to get the angles correct with 16-way games. Eight-way games should work well with or without the extra electronics. If you use emulators, the angles should be okay either way. However, you'd lose precision if you play many of the 16-way games with an 8-way joystick. Most should work, and as you said you won't get very far with Vectron, same thing with PGA Golf, and Turbo would be completely unplayable. If you play Vectron in emulation you could reprogram the seven firing directions to make it work. Chip Shot Golf uses four directions. Auto Racing works okay with an 8-way control, Stadium Mud Buggies might be a problem but Motocross looks like it only uses eight directions. BumpNjump, Commando, Diner, Biplanes, Frog Bog, and Novablast all use 16 directions. Most games that use four or two directions are obvious, but Skiing only uses two directions. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Mazeatron only uses eight directions. Centipede and the homebrew Missile Domination only use eight directions (would have been nice if they used 16 directions). The tank games use 16 directions. Space Hawk uses 16 directions but has a 2-way mode.

Edited August 27, 2017 by mr_me

[+BBWW]

Could there be a way to base a Joystick for the Intellivision with a controller at the base. Something like the Skill-Stick but have the "Force of the Throw" restricted by the case so you don't break the actual controller? Maybe even having a drop-in 4 way restricter by unscrewing the ball end and slipping in different jig? 8 way and 4 way is great...but sometimes you want 16.

[adamchevy]

It would be great if Edladdin decided to give the Intellivision a new controller!