Atari 2600 Joystick to IPAC

[BldnACab]

Question:

Is it possible to connect an original Atari 2600 joystick to an Ultimarc I-PAC?

Thanks

BldnACab

[Jakobud]

I've never taken apart that joystick but I'm 99% sure it's totally doable and most likely very very easy.

[MinerAl]

I've done it.

The 2600 joystick has one switch for each direction and one for a button, and they are all common ground.  It is basically the same as any joystick you'd encounter here except that it already has all the wiring done for you.

Somewhere on the web I found the pin-outs for these.  The plug on the end of the 2600 joystick cord mates to 9-pin sockets that look just like PC 9-pin serial ports.

Go get a Radio Shack 9-pin d-sub connector, run the wires to the I-PAC and you're good to go.

I posted about it here a long time ago.  

Al

[_Iz-]

You can also connect an atari 2600 joystick to a parallel port very easily...

[menace]

I don't know why I didn't think of that    That would so easy to then have a 4 player cab when the odd time came--just plug in the old boss joysticks and you're good to go!  thanks guys!

[BldnACab]

Sounds great.

Thanks for the info, and the link.

BldnACab

[MinerAl]

I don't know why I didn't think of that    That would so easy to then have a 4 player cab when the odd time came--just plug in the old boss joysticks and you're good to go!  thanks guys!

It's really nice on my one-player-to-a-side cocktail cab to let player 2 use the Atari Joystick for things like Joust and 1943.  If you can find an Atari 7800 joystick, it uses the same pinout but has extra pins for more buttons.  

If you wanted to be extra cool, you could go for some of the arcade quality sticks Wico and others made for the 2600/7800 series.  There's a Wico brand 2600  ball top stick with a button at the top that might be really handy...

[Chris]

An Atari 2600 has a common ground line with five signal lines.  I can't imagine why you couldn't hook ths to an IPac.


(9 PIN D-SUB MALE CONNECTOR)

Pin Description
1 - Up
2 -  Down
3 -  Left
4 -  Right
5 - Not connected
6 -  Button
7 - Not connected
8 -  Ground(-)
9 - Not connected

[BLACK KNIGHT]

Ok, I'm curious as to why you would want to use an Atari 2600 joystick instead of just getting a real one?  I mean I used to have an Atari 2600 and we went through some joysticks because they broke fairly easy.

[Chris]

Nostalgia.  

[BldnACab]

Nostalgia.  

Exactly. Even though video games/controllers have improved, I still find myself longing for the old days when a 2600 cartridge and a simple 2600 controller would keep me occupied for hours.

BldnACab

[slycrel]

  When you get the longing you should use a real Atari 2600.    You can spend $75 on ebay and (through various sellers) get an atari 2600 and all the games you used to play.  I did that a couple years ago and still pull it out and play it once in a while.

For all the cash getting tossed around to build a cabinet, I'd think that more people would do this.

[telengard]

I've done this also.  I built a little box using an IPAC/OptiPAC, ps2 connectors
and dsub-9 and 25 connectors.  My hope is to interface all kinds of old controllers to it.  Right now all I've had time to do is the 2600 controllers.  But boy does it work great.  I played some Archon and One on One the other night for the first time w/ a second player and it worked perfectly!    

Combat and Space Invaders are so much more fun with these original controllers.  It's also very easy to use with emulators that do not support key remapping by using the programming utilities for the IPAC.

I started working on the Atari paddles but they use a POT and I wasn't sure how to hook that up to the Optipac.  So what I started doing instead was using a hacked mouse inside of the paddles.  Anyone have any tips on how I might be able to do this without so much custom work being done to the paddle?

If anyone is interested in pictures of this contraption I made I can get some to put up here.

[Chris]

I started working on the Atari paddles but they use a POT and I wasn't sure how to hook that up to the Optipac.

You'll need to hook these up via a gamepad hack.

[Cameronj]

Ohhh cool thanks guys for the info. Especially the pinout!  I have a good Wico bat joystick from my Atari ST that I used to play a ton of great games with. I can't wait to hook it into my IPAC for some Retro Atari fun. Sure my SlikStik has better arcade joysticks, but that wico bat stick was totally awesome!!!!!! I just bought another off of ebay too. yipee.

Cameron

[paigeoliver]

I have one of the Wico bat handled top fire ones, and the quality on it is first rate. Console sticks are usually junk, even console "arcade" sticks, but not this one, it is built better than anything you can buy today.