+davidcalgary29 Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 Has anyone made an adapter like this for the A8? I have a 600XL that would be perfect for my workplace PC. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 Yes, Tynemouth computers (?) In the UK make one, costs a bloody fortune though especially if you want to add joystick ports Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 Just looked and I can't find the Atari 8bit version..Tynemouth software Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted July 22, 2020 Author Share Posted July 22, 2020 There's a link in that Gizmodo article. I just fired off an e-mail; I'll post the response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xrbrevin Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 seems an awful waste to condemn a glorious A8 to a life of riff-raff PC servitude... ? 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted July 22, 2020 Author Share Posted July 22, 2020 13 minutes ago, xrbrevin said: seems an awful waste to condemn a glorious A8 to a life of riff-raff PC servitude... ? Who It'll mean that I can bring my A8 to work and use it for the full day, every day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awch Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 @davidcalgary29 I'm curious what your hear back from them. I'm looking to do the same thing with a dead 800xl, but for emulation purposes. I'm also looking to solder two 2600-dapters in line with the joystick ports to be able to use controllers. The ports and the keyboard would go to an internally mounted hub for connecting it all to a PC. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awch Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 @davidcalgary29 fyi, this person on Reddit is working on the same idea but using an Arduino. He's making pretty good progress. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 Don't think it would work very well on an A8, total lack of keys to map to modern PC keyboards, appreciate you could do most things, but as @xrbrevin said what a waste of a glorious machine. On the other hand, I've got a USB PC keyboard working with my 800 ? just need to complete the software in the A8 to recover on a warm start and a few of the more obscure key codes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 4 hours ago, TGB1718 said: Don't think it would work very well on an A8, total lack of keys to map to modern PC keyboards, appreciate you could do most things, but as @xrbrevin said what a waste of a glorious machine. I agree completely. It would seem like a person trying to get the same work done with a broken arm, which wouldn't be very efficient. Now for using an Atari emulator on the PC it does make sense to have a 'real' A8 keyboard. On the other hand when you reverse the situation (PC keyboard on A8) you get a lot more functionality due to having those extra keys and the numeric keypad. 4 hours ago, TGB1718 said: On the other hand, I've got a USB PC keyboard working with my 800 ? just need to complete the software in the A8 to recover on a warm start and a few of the more obscure key codes. Curious as to what you are using to create the bridge. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted July 23, 2020 Author Share Posted July 23, 2020 4 hours ago, TGB1718 said: Don't think it would work very well on an A8, total lack of keys to map to modern PC keyboards, appreciate you could do most things, but as @xrbrevin said what a waste of a glorious machine. On the other hand, I've got a USB PC keyboard working with my 800 ? just need to complete the software in the A8 to recover on a warm start and a few of the more obscure key codes. Well I certainly can't disagree with that, but the ideal situation would be to have a modded 600XL (this really wouldn't work with any other A8) used as a PC keyboard during the day...and then revert to its intended purpose at night. Why not have the best of both worlds? And many of my mechanical PS/2 keyboards don't have special keys on them in any case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 1 hour ago, mytek said: Curious as to what you are using to create the bridge. Using an Arduino Uno with a USB HAT, I'm connecit the keyboard directly to the HAT and programmed the Arduino to map keystrokes on the USB keyboard to A8 keystrokes. On the A8, I use less than 256 bytes of code to get the keystroke data through joystick port 2 obviously I can't do anything about START,SELECT & OPTION. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.