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Coleco Gemini Controllers


Polish.Gasoline

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I had some Coleco Gemini Controllers included when I bought some games off a kijiji ad and when I bought a system.

 

My problem:

 

I opened them and cleaned them and there was black gunk all over the connectors. I first ran it through stella with the 2600 daptor 2 and it was funny. The dial moved the ship in defender and the stick when I pushed up would shoot but when I had the case off it would work no problem. I tried ms pac man on a 2600 and it worked the button worked and the joystick worked (with the case on). When I tried it on breakout the dial worked but I had to press up on the joystick to shoot the ball (This was also on a 2600).

 

Now what I think it is I used too much rubbing alcohol and took something out of the board but I just want to fix and remedy it. There was possibly some black gunk that was supposed to be there possibly?

 

HELP!

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The only strange thing from your descritpion is that you should have to move the stick right, not up to shoot the ball. That's because those controllers are not supposed to be plugged directly to the console when used as paddles, but instead the gemini console included an Y-cable that

1 - allowed to plug two controllers per port (like standard atari paddles that are paired)

2 - redirected the buttons to the right pins needed for paddles, so you can use them instead of moving the stick.


If you can solder, I made a schematic for the adapter that you can find here:
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/167800-sears-joystickpaddle-hybrids-and-the-atari-2600jr/?do=findComment&comment=2074924

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The Gemini was my introduction to the 2600 back in the day. Had that before I got a 2600 system. With Warlords, you have to push the stick to fire the ball. The side button does not work for this game. I believe there are others where this happens also. This is how I played 30+ years ago and still play Warlords today. BTW, I prefer these controllers over the 2600 controllers, but this is just me.

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I like the controller, kind of analog feeling. The very cheep pot they used, either is more reliable than Atari ones, or were rarely used, because I always find them fully functional (no jitters)

 

Since they work as is with no mods, I think it would be cool to see a homebrew make use of them to use the paddle in conjunction with the stick properly. Maybe use the paddle to scroll through a menu in an adventure type of game?

 

As for the black gunk, probably just dirty grease from the paddle, and won't hurt anything cleaning it off.

Edited by Video
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The only strange thing from your descritpion is that you should have to move the stick right, not up to shoot the ball. That's because those controllers are not supposed to be plugged directly to the console when used as paddles, but instead the gemini console included an Y-cable that

 

1 - allowed to plug two controllers per port (like standard atari paddles that are paired)

 

2 - redirected the buttons to the right pins needed for paddles, so you can use them instead of moving the stick.

 

 

If you can solder, I made a schematic for the adapter that you can find here:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/167800-sears-joystickpaddle-hybrids-and-the-atari-2600jr/?do=findComment&comment=2074924

 

Do you need the Y cable to play 1 player paddle games, or can you plug the controller directly into port 1?

 

Im guessing that if you want to use the Gemini paddle on a regular 2600, youll need the Y cable?

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Do you need the Y cable to play 1 player paddle games, or can you plug the controller directly into port 1?

If you don't mind to move the stick to the right instead of using the controller button, you can plug directly the controller and play most single player paddle games. There are a few exceptions, though: some games assign the paddles to the two player in inverted order. This is not a problem with a standard paddle set as you have both of them, so you just try to see which one you need to use, but of course such games are not playable with a gemini controller plugged directly into the port, because the other paddle just isn't there.

 

They're playable with the Y-adapter, even if you only have a single gemini controller: if it doesn't respond, it just means you have to plug it into the other port of the Y-adapter.

 

The following games won't work with a gemini controller without the Y-cable:

 

Tac-Scan

Demons to Diamonds

Street Racer

Video Olympics

Canyon Bomber

Star Wars - Jedi Arena

AStroblast

 

Im guessing that if you want to use the Gemini paddle on a regular 2600, youll need the Y cable?

There's no difference in using the controller with a gemini console or a regular Atari. In either case the Y-adapter allows to play 2 player games (or single games with swapped paddle order) and makes the button functional.

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  • 1 month later...

I just ordered the Genesis Controller Extension cable. I got some for my intellivision as well. Judging how slow shipment is for the past few months from China it'll be a good 4 months.

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/9Pin-Gamepad-Extension-Cable-For-Sega-Genesis-Mega-Drive-2-Controller/173563596467?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Edited by Polish.Gasoline
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  • 6 months later...

I made them out of: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F173884715660

 

Atm only my selfie cam works so I did the best I could with shooting a pic.

 

Edit. Could it also be the third hand I'm using. I took it apart twice with the same result. However the first time it worked perfectly. I took it apart because I forgot the heat shrink. I'm absolutely confused.

 

The first one had the same result and was thrown away months ago.

 

I had put heatshrink around the clips but I don't know if that's the problem.

 

Here's the third hand.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.ca%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F272581507611

Edited by Polish.Gasoline
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The length shouldn't make a difference, so long as your soldering is good and so long as you've made the right connections. I can't really tell from your photos, unfortunately.

 

If I were you, I would use a multimeter to confirm that you have continuity from each input pin to each output pin as the schematic shows. Also check that you *don't* have continuity between pins that should *not* be connected.

 

If you don't have a multimeter, you should be able to pick one up for a very low price.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm guessing that the Genesis extension cable does not have BOTH paddle pins wired (such cables usually don't). You might need to make the Gemini Wye out of a common serial cable Wye instead (which usually DO).

 

https://hackaday.io/project/8379-atari-2600-paddle-controller-reloaded

Edited by Nukey Shay
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No it was just the pins 4 and 6 going into the console were giving me trouble. I used the continuity tester (which I should have already known but, I'm new at this), it was player 2s pins that were not working. So that's that. I'm going to get some heat shrink and superglue the right size and shrink it on.

 

Thanks for all the assistance guys. You guys have been nothing less than helpful.

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