2600 Dapter-II questions

[+xucaen]

I am assuming the 2600-dapter II makes joysticks appear as normal game controllers to Windows. Will the dapter II allow my paddles to work like paddles in Atari800WinPlus? Stella?

 

http://www.2600-daptor.com

 

Thanks

 

I suppose a better question is: does Atari800winplus support real paddles? I find that Stella does, but can't find any info about Atari800winplus.

Edited July 24, 2017 by xucaen

[ClassicGMR]

Not sure about Atari800WinPlus but Stella has no issue with this adapter. I have 2 of them. Paddle games work fine.

 

EDIT: Dualcam is the guy you want to talk to.

 

2600-daptor discussion

Edited July 24, 2017 by ClassicGMR

[mr_me]

The atari paddle is a non centering single axis analog control. Its not unlike one axis of an analog joystick. Most Atari emulators should allow an analog axis from a game controller to be mapped to an emulated Atari paddle. So if the USB adaptor turns the two Atari paddles into an analog game controller in Windows it should work as a paddle in the emulators.

[Swami]

I think MAME is the only place on the 2600-daptor site it mentions that the paddle and the driving controller can't be used for spinning games like Arkanoid or Tempest, although they don't mention Atari800WinPlus, but it seems like chances are good these controller would work for the intended paddle and controller games. I imagine the paddle would never work well for Arkanoid and Tempest if spinning was intended, since it has a limited turning angle. It should work well for typical paddle games. Driving controller does not work in Stella for 2600 tempest prototype rom. I think it only works for Indy 500 and maybe a couple homebrews. I don't think there is an Arkanoid for the 2600 through 8-bit, unless its a homebrew. Paddle worked fine in Superbreakout, but in tempest prototype it just moved non-stop to which ever end you turned the paddle towards, no stopping in between ends. It worked somewhat better with my trakball mouse, so it may have been being designed for the Atari trackball and possibly joystick. Although, oddly, the 2600 Tempest prototype by design only moves from one side of the screen to the other, it does not spin round like the arcade.

[mr_me]

A paddle or any analog control can emulate a spinner but not how you might think or expect. The paddle position would have to be converted to a velocity so that is why it keeps spinning in arcade tempest. Try it with pole position.

 

The Atari driving controller is actually a spinner but its resolution is too coarse to be used in any arcade games that use a spinner.

 

Atari800winplus might emulate an analog control as a paddle but it hasn't been updated since jan 2012. I recommend Altirra for Atari 800 emulation.

Edited July 25, 2017 by mr_me