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Kangaroo Controls


Romuluz

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Is it just me or is Kangaroo for the Atari 5200 unplayable? I spent the hole afternoon (and some of the evening) trying to figure out how it works.

 

So far i tried playing with Keyboard and Xbox360 Controller on Emulators Kat5200, Altirra and MAME. No matter what i do (which settings i use) the Controls are doing what they want. When pushed to a direction the Roo keeps going, no matter what i do. Sometimes when i push to the right and stop it goes to the left. and so on.

 

Is this behaviour from the original inferior Joysticks?

 

Kind Regards

Rom

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At the beginning of a round,  press every direction up down left right & diagonals before you start to make progress. Then see if the controls seem to work.   Some 5200 games have logic to interpret how far the analog sticks go towards the maximum readable value. I've experienced some weird moments with kangaroo too, but nothing as bad as you described.

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3 hours ago, Romuluz said:

@Cafeman

I tried that, but it didn't work. I really have no clue why my Controlles are so sensible.

 

I think i will go another way. Most of the 5200 Games have also been released on Atari 800/XL/XE. I will play them instead. No Fancy Atari Logo then, but way better Controls. And Donkey Kong :D

This would indicate that your console itself likely needs the pokey adjusted. What about Popeye? I've seen it where Kangaroo has control issues and you find out that Popeye has trouble going up and down ladders. Or with Gyruss you can't easily get the ship to rotate around the screen.

 

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3 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

This would indicate that your console itself likely needs the pokey adjusted. What about Popeye? I've seen it where Kangaroo has control issues and you find out that Popeye has trouble going up and down ladders. Or with Gyruss you can't easily get the ship to rotate around the screen.

 

He said he was playing using emulators,  Last month I played 5200 Kangaroo on Altirra, and experienced sticking joystick controls, solved for me by pressing left right up and  down a moment each - which fixed the problem. It only happened on the first game I played after boot up. 

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Indeed, it's all about Emulation, not a real Console.

 

As with the different electric Voltage here in Germany a real A5200 Console makes almost no sense.

 

I tried again to calibrate the Joysticks but i had no success. Funny thing is not all Games are so sensible. Only some: Kangaroo, Asteroids, Gorf. I have not checked all right now. I will use A800 for these when possible. That's probably the best Solution. Or the simply the one that gives the least Headache.

 

Thanks for the Help

Rom

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Just test the Kangaroo rom from here in Altirra and sure enough at the start mama roo will move to the left right off the bat if you don't touch it. But I'm able to move right and jump and punch without issue, but if I let off the keyboard, she will move left and keep moving left. I got around this by switching over to Keyboard Relative mode and then switching back.

 

So if you are using the keyboard method of Relative vs Direct I think it is called, then that will lead to some oddness in that basically the longer you hold down the key for the direction you want, the more it will register that direction as being pressed. So in relative mode, if I press up and keep it held up, the mama roo will just jump all the time. I have to then press down for a bit to get her to stop etc. So make sure you aren't in relative mode.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Romuluz said:

@-^CrossBow^-

Thanks for the advise. That works somehow and only after some back and forth switching. But when i exit the emulator and start it again i have to do it all over again. I think that Kangaroo is simply a bitchy Bitch! Nuff said! :)

 

That is what I was having to do as well to get it to work more normal. Just had to keep switching between direct and relative go essentially reset or have the game calibrate it properly. Odd part is that you can do this after already starting the game so it seems to be something possibly within Altirra itself with this rom perhaps?

 

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