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Namco adaptations for disabled gamer
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skallagrigg:
Hi,

Not wanting to take anything away from the superb work being carried out on the "controller for quadriplegic" thread - I was hoping there might be some help out there for another disabled gamer?

I've been asked to adapt a Jakks Namco TV game for a disabled lad with cerebral palsy. He plays games using two head mounted switches, with the help of an enabler when necessary.

I'd like to be able to make some adaptations to this controller so he can play it as independently as possible. One of the first things I would normally do, would be to add 3.5mm mono sockets so that he could connect his head switches to the Namco unit (see diagram below).


Adaptations, presently beyond me, which would really help:

I'd like to add a lockable auto-fire facility, so that he can play Galaxian independently. I tried attaching a hacked out auto-fire circuit from an old Atari VCS controller which runs off the current supplied by the FIRE and GND. pins, but had no luck.

The second thing that would really help would be to create some kind of flip-flop circuit. So for example, everytime he presses a head-switch, it's function toggles between left and right. This would enable him to play Pac-Man with two switches, something that presently eludes him.


Any help or pointers would be really appreciated.

Barrie
www.OneSwitch.org.uk






http://www.jakkstvgames.com/namco.html
tetsujin:
So, I want to see if I've got the requirements understood properly:

So for Galaxian you're looking for one to switch auto-fire on and off (I'm guessing that's what you want) and one to switch between moving left and moving right?

And for Pac-Man, I guess it would be something like this:

(Current State) * (Switch Pressed) -> (New State)
up * vertical -> down
down * vertical -> up
up or down (after previously moving right) * horizontal -> right
up or down (after previously moving left) * horizontal -> left
and so on...

Something like that?

Things like this are very easy to do with simple microcontrollers like PICs.  Much easier than building an equivalent logic circuit out of individual components IMO.  The microcontroller could generate the auto-fire signal, the two-key translations for everything, etc, and there'd be a minimum of external circuitry required.  I could try to whip something up for that.

Of course, the intermediate controller would need to be switched to different modes to match the game being played, I don't think that's something that could be automated.  But maybe that's not a problem.
Jakobud:
Can you just apply a toggle switch to automatically complete the circuit that the fire button normally completes (thus making it think that the firebutton is being held down)?  I dunno if it will fire like this or if you have to keep pressing the firebutton over and over.
moonpatrol 4 lyfe:
I have a t-shirt with a diagram for a flip flop printed on it.  i'll wear it to a gathering, so be sure to take notes!

Bill
skallagrigg:
Hi - thanks for your fast replies - this is an amazing forum!



Galaxian:

Chris (the boy wishing to play the Namco 5 in 1) could play MAME Galaxian with user-defined controls using:

head-switch 1: LEFT and FIRE
head-switch 2: RIGHT and FIRE

This would work very well as he could time his shots. I thought this would be impossible to replicate in hardware, as hardwiring LEFT, RIGHT and FIRE together makes the game unplayable (i.e. as soon as you press LEFT, you're not only operating FIRE, but RIGHT too - your ship locks up).

This is why I thought about an Auto-fire option that could be turned on and off. Chris could then play using left and right whilst his ship fired constantly. Holding down the fire button normally fires one shot and no more. You have to keep pressing it. This would also benefit him when playing Bosconian.


As for Pac-Man, I think you've got what I mean:

head-switch 1: LEFT or RIGHT (alternates between the two on each new press)
head-switch 2: UP or DOWN (as above)


If you could help, Chris and his family would be absolutely delighted.

Barrie




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