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List of all devices that share compatible Atari 9-pin port.


napabar

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Looking for a list of all consoles, computers, or other devices that use the Atari 9-Pin port and are cross compatible.  So this list would exclude devices that have the same port, but need an adapter to be compatible, like the Vectrex and TI-99/4A.  It would also exclude devices that are electrically compatible but have a different port, like the Commodore Plus/4 series.  For now, let's skip the Sega Master System and Genesis from this list.  Also, I'm only looking for devices that were released in North America/NTSC.  Thanks!

 

Here's what I have so far:

 

Atari 2600

Atari Flashback series
Atari 7800
Atari 8-bit computers
Atari ST
Atari Falcon
ColecoVision
VIC-20
C64
C128
Amiga computers
Timex Sinclair 2068

Spectravideo computers

 

 

Edited by napabar
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5 minutes ago, Jstick said:

Just curious, why skip the Sega consoles?  Many folks are using a Genesis pad with the 2600 for example.

Fair question.  The list I'm compiling is for devices that can use a standard Atari joystick, not about 9-pin controllers that work in some Atari 9-pin port devices.  I'm aware of the functionality you're speaking of, it's just not what I need for the list I'm compiling.

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1 hour ago, napabar said:

Fair question.  The list I'm compiling is for devices that can use a standard Atari joystick, not about 9-pin controllers that work in some Atari 9-pin port devices.  I'm aware of the functionality you're speaking of, it's just not what I need for the list I'm compiling.

Then you probably should drop the 7800 as well.

 

Mitch

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While those only marginally entered the American market (e.g. as Yamaha CX5M), the MSX computers also work with Atari joysticks although the pinout is not identical (also different from SMS/Genesis). Otherwise I would think your list is reasonably complete.

 

It leads me to the question if the Atari pinout ever was patented, and in that case if anyone licensed it or simply copied it. I've tried to research that before but didn't reach far.

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1 minute ago, carlsson said:

While those only marginally entered the American market (e.g. as Yamaha CX5M), the MSX computers also work with Atari joysticks although the pinout is not identical (also different from SMS/Genesis). Otherwise I would think your list is reasonably complete.

 

It leads me to the question if the Atari pinout ever was patented, and in that case if anyone licensed it or simply copied it. I've tried to research that before but didn't reach far.

Thanks!  The SpectraVideo line of computers does include some MSX compliant ones.  The early models SV-318 and SV-328 were very similar to what would become the MSX standard, and the later SVI-728 was a MSX complaint computer.  I guess I sorta lumped both formats together under "Spectravideo computers" for simplicity.

 

I believe Atari patented their joystick, but not the port itself.

 

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For a regular four direction, one fire button joystick I haven't noticed anything go zap zap on a MSX computer. It is true that the actual ground line is on a different pin and you're connecting the directions with some other enable pin or something, but it seems to work or perhaps that is how it is supposed to work. I don't remember about the SVI-318 and 328, but I think those share the Atari style.

 

Not released in the US, but the VTech Laser 2001 has joystick ports that to most part seem compatible with Atari if you only need one of the two fire buttons. I can't recall if the second is wired similarly to MSX, Genesis or something else. Actually even if you look at European and Japanese computers, there aren't that many more which have a DE-9 joystick port from factory. Many have 1st or 3rd party interfaces to take an Atari joystick, but since you were looking for factory default solutions those are of lesser importance to mention.

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4 minutes ago, confusedyeti said:

On semi related tangent, I've seem a lot of these cheap Chinese "Nintendo mini" consoles with NES looking controllers that have Atari looking connectors. Does anyone know if those are actually wired compatibly?

Got a link for one of these consoles?

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Those use DE-9 connectors, but are wired with a serial protocol so same as NES/Famicom but different connector. I've got a controller from one of those, a Mebetech which there are pinouts for on the Internet. Since I don't have the console and the value probably is $3 or so, I thought about rewiring it for something else but haven't got to investigate.

 

This one is for a Dendy, but I think they're all the same:

https://nintendocontrollers.wordpress.com/pinouts-and-schematics/

Edited by carlsson
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12 minutes ago, napabar said:

I think he was speaking merely of the connectors...not Atari game compatibility.  

Yep

4 minutes ago, carlsson said:

Those use DE-9 connectors, but are wired with a serial protocol so same as NES/Famicom but different connector. I've got a controller from one of those, a Mebetech which there are pinouts for on the Internet. Since I don't have the console and the value probably is $3 or so, I thought about rewiring it for something else but haven't got to investigate.

Interesting. I've seen those things across Amazon, Aliexpress, etc and thought it weird that they had the DE-9 connectors and I've also seen the controllers alone and thought maybe it might be an option for a d-pad controller for my retro computers that use the port(or have an adapter for the port) with out having to kill an existing controllers to get the actual controller itself and the connector or having mangle on of my Sega controllers to make it safe for the C64(and possibly others?). Though I guess needing a rewire wouldn't be much more work than changing the connector and these controllers at least have the benefit of coming with the parts I need.

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Maybe there are several kinds of those controllers? I know that there are plenty of knockoff Genesis controllers on the market, and those would of course be wired like your average Genesis controller wrt using it on an Atari or Commodore.

 

But yes, many of my friends who are not as technically merited (sorry if this comes out as bragging, not my intention) would assume that as long as the connector fits, the function will too and would think that those Famiclone controllers likely should work on anything Atari or Sega compatible.

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