My Colecovision Controller

[Stingray]

I've been thinking of building my own Colecovision controller for quite some time. Finally got around to doing it. It uses real arcade buttons and joystick. I considered using a small keypad from a telephone or similar, but in the end I decided to use the original keypad in it's half of the housing in order to retain the ability to use overlays. An unexpected side effect of doing it that was is that the keypad makes a pretty good wrist rest. So here it is, it works much better than the standard CV controller.

 

 

 

-S

[Stingray]

"doing it that was" should read "doing it that way". Darn absent edit button!

 

-S

[+RangerG]

Nice job! I prefer arcade/table top joysticks. The casing turned out nice. The only negative is the short stock Colecovision cord. Keep us posted on how it works! Again - great work.

[joeybastard]

Nice! I'm actually doing something similar but I'm wiring it up like a Super Action controller to have all four buttons. It won't have the spinner like the SA sticks but I never use it any way.

 

Hmmm... a Jaguar pad might be a good choice to covert to a nice CV controller too...

[Stingray]

The only negative is the short stock Colecovision cord. Keep us posted on how it works!

 

Not pictured is the Sega Genesis extension cord that's between the standard cord & the console. I started to just wire the Gennie extension cord in directly, but I had to retain the curly cord for authentic CV flavor.

 

-S

[GrizzLee]

Hmmm... a Jaguar pad might be a good choice to covert to a nice CV controller too...

 

I already did that.

 

http://home.earthlink.net/~resqsoft/coleco..._jagpad_mod.htm

 

 

John Soper made a special box to accomodate the jag controller as well.

 

-Lee

[Stingray]

Nice! Did you manage to make it all fit into the Jag controller?

 

-S

[Dr. Van Thorp]

You controller design is similar to the controllers from the old Colecovision store display. The display controllers also used arcade sticks and buttons (one red, one white) and the stock number pad, though the layout was different. I had a couple of these display controllers once, but, sadly, they went to the garage sale many years ago.

[joeybastard]

Hmmm... a Jaguar pad might be a good choice to covert to a nice CV controller too...

 

I already did that.

 

 

Cool, does it do the extra 2 buttons of the SA sticks too?

[GrizzLee]

Cool, does it do the extra 2 buttons of the SA sticks too?

 

No.

 

I did fit it all into a standard Jag Pad.

 

Both buttons work as does the keypad. It makes playing the CV much more enjoyable. Mr. Do, Lady Bug and Looping are much, much more responsive than the CV doornob controller.

 

Regards,

-Lee

[Stingray]

Nice!  I'm actually doing something similar but I'm wiring it up like a Super Action controller to have all four buttons.  It won't have the spinner like the SA sticks but I never use it any way.

 

So what games use the extra buttons? I'd like to see pics of the controller you're building.

 

-S

[joeybastard]

 

So what games use the extra buttons? I'd like to see pics of the controller you're building.

 

-S

 

Frontline and Rocky come to mind quickly but there aren't that many more. It's just easy enough to add the 2 buttons so I will. I haven't taken any pics yet, it's still kind of a mess so they wouldn't show much anyway. Usually when I do this kind of stuff, I make a first version that's a mess but it lets me figure out other stuff, like where I really want the fire buttons, etc. I might start all over and just take apart an SA stick to build it from that. I'm terrible with these things, I work crazy on it for a few days and then don't pick it up for 2 months.

[Stingray]

I usually attach the controls to a cardboard box to get a feel for how the layout is going to work, that way I don't waste anything important cutting holes in the wrong place. I know what you mean about making a mess. This one was all over my desk for a month before I finally got it put together.

 

-S