The Atari 7800 Driving Control

[RevEng]

A little while ago I put together something that should have existed back in the day... the Atari 7800 Driving Controller.

 

 

The two fire buttons are 7800 style, so in they can operate independently if a game is programmed for it. The select and start buttons aren't functional.

 

The original 2600 driving rotary controller is 16 pulse, vs the 20 pulse one I used here, so this controller is a bit sensitive for Indy 500. I do seem to recall the steering was overly sensitive in this game BITD. Super Circus Atari Age controls nicely with it, and there's no jitters to worry about.

 

There were just a few build issues. The encoder I ordered had position detents despite not advertising them, so I opened the encoder up and removed the small ball bearing responsible for the detent action. The case is from a cheap Chinese USB NES controller clone, so to keep the whole thing sealed up nicely, I drilled a hole through the dpad, and screwed the rotary encoder into it. After that, the rest of the build was pretty pedestrian.

[PacManPlus]

Nice Job!

[RevEng]

Thanks!

[+mksmith]

Nice ?

[+GoldenWheels]

Nice!

 

I always wished there was more than just Indy 500 for the 2600 driving controller as I REALLY liked the experience there (though I'd actually prefer a more Outrun/PPII style game as the straight-on orientation doesn't hurt my brain as much).

[RevEng]

Yeah, I always liked the driving control too. It doesn't have the hard stops a paddle does, no jitter, and it's much less CPU intensive to read. In theory it's more approximate than a paddle for very fast turns - it reports relative movement rather than absolute position, and you can overshoot that relative movement with very fast turns - but I really didn't notice that in any practical way while playing Bob's Super Circus AA.

 

There's a lot of missed opportunity with the 2600 implementation, in addition to only one commercial game supporting it... the joystick left and right wires aren't used at all, so even the original control could have had extra buttons. Heck, I could even wire those same wires up to the select and start buttons on my 7800 driving control, for 4 button support. But I figure two buttons without software support is just as good as four buttons without software support. ?

 

BTW, on the 2600 side, @batari created the excellent homebrew Grandma's Revenge, which supports driving controls. @Thomas Jentzsch created some DC hacks -  Asteroids DC+ and Sprintmaster DC - and his brilliant Thrust Platinum homebrew supports driving controls. So the driving control situation on the 2600 has at least improved a little since the commercial days.

[Synthpopalooza]

Omega Race is an arcade game that would be good with driving controls ... as would Tempest.

[Giles N]

On 3/11/2020 at 1:37 AM, RevEng said:

A little while ago I put together something that should have existed back in the day... the Atari 7800 Driving Controller.

 

 

The two fire buttons are 7800 style, so in they can operate independently if a game is programmed for it. The select and start buttons aren't functional.

 

The original 2600 driving rotary controller is 16 pulse, vs the 20 pulse one I used here, so this controller is a bit sensitive for Indy 500. I do seem to recall the steering was overly sensitive in this game BITD. Super Circus Atari Age controls nicely with it, and there's no jitters to worry about.

 

There were just a few build issues. The encoder I ordered had position detents despite not advertising them, so I opened the encoder up and removed the small ball bearing responsible for the detent action. The case is from a cheap Chinese USB NES controller clone, so to keep the whole thing sealed up nicely, I drilled a hole through the dpad, and screwed the rotary encoder into it. After that, the rest of the build was pretty pedestrian.

So, how does it play with

1) Pole Position 2

2) Motor Psycho

3) Fatal Run...

 

More fun, better control, smoother experience?

[Jinks]

6 hours ago, Giles N said:

So, how does it play with

1) Pole Position 2

2) Motor Psycho

3) Fatal Run...

 

More fun, better control, smoother experience?

No to all. It is a driving controller.. as you might know is those games you listed only work with a 7800 joystick only.. 

Remember reading the box or manual each game will state which type of controller needed.. driving, paddles, joysticks, etc .  

[+Karl G]

Perhaps a hack of one of those games would be possible, but testing would be a bit tricky.

[+evg2000]

not to steal from this cool devices, but in regards to joystick games that either go left/right or up/down my paddle controller that I've created for the CV would work.  I am in the process of simplifying the design and will be open sourcing it for personal use.  Here is a video of it being used for kickman.  The CV version should work on any A2600 compatible joystick games, the INTV one only works for the INTV.  Hoping to get an instructable done in a month or so.  Still redesigning the case, old case took over 24 hours to print.  New one should be about 5 hours to print.  I just received version 3.1 of the PCB so need to build that.  Also the new version is more responsive than the version in the video.   If you make one of these controllers no hack should be needed!

 

 

 

here is CV arkanoid: