Old Commodore joystick and Atari paddles...

[Sinner]

Hi,
I was digging around in my old closet at my parent's house and I found the following:
An old Wico joystick, it's like the one below (middle one), but with a balltop and chrome shaft (top and base fire buttons)...
I also have an old set of Atari 2600 paddles...

I still have a Commodore 64 and a Commodore 128 in the closet too.  I'm sure if I dig around I can find more Commie stuff, but I doubt I would ever use them...
Does anyone know if there is a use for these?  Maybe in a MAME cabinet...

[crsdawg]

you could integrate the paddles by using a stelladaptor.

the joysticks could be attatched via a db9 connector wired to your encocder. if mounted properly i would be nice addition.

if you wire the db9 correctly, you could also attatch modded nes and/or genesis controllers as i've done, here.

the paddles and stelladaptor can only be used with z26 as far as i know, but the joys will work as regular 8 ways on just about any emulator.

[Kremmit]

If that stick you've got is a ball-top, somebody you can do this:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,20914.0.html

Or, if you don't want to, sell/trade it to me!

[MajorLag]

Unfortunatly the paddles do not act as spinners (they can't be turned more then, I'm guessing, 270 degrees or so).

[paigeoliver]

The paddles act as PADDLES. Lots of games use those. Super Breakout, Warlords, Avalanche, Clowns, 270 driving games, Bomb Bee, etc.

[MinerAl]

What kind of pots are in those paddles?

Seems like if you used the Andy's new encoder, or some other paddle encoder, you could get the joysticks and paddles to work on your cabinet by adding a couple of male Dsub9 connectors somewhere.

I've used an IPAC VE to make a little project box that lets me use Atari joysticks.  I may have to add paddle-ability.

[JODY]

I bought some 2600 paddles about a week ago to hook up to a cabinet.  Will be better for the paddle games than a Tempest style spinner.  Has anyone done this yet?  I can test with Andy's board, when I get one, and post results but don't expect to be ready to order for a few months.

[Stingray]

Rather than using Atari padles, you'd be better off just buying a suitable pot at Radio Shack and building your own. Those old Atari paddles are notoriously jittery.

-S

[RayB]

Those old Atari paddles are notoriously jittery.

Yes, I was just going to type that!

[MajorLag]

also the atari paddle controlers use a 470ohm pot (IIRC), and computer joysticks (the gameport especially) only use 100ohm.

[JB]

Rather than using Atari padles, you'd be better off just buying a suitable pot at Radio Shack and building your own. Those old Atari paddles are notoriously jittery.

-S

That's because they have 20 years of dirt in them. Clean 'em and they work really well.

[JODY]

Years ago when I used some on my Atari computer they weren't jittery, but yeah, I've read to spray electrical cleaner in them and let them dry and should be good to go.

[daywane]

How about the track ball? I still have one. I loved the track ball , even has a switch for track ball and joystick
I allready have a real track ball but would be neat to see it work again

[MajorLag]

from what I recall, the driving controlers and trackballs worked the same way (except the trackball used 2 axis instead of one obviously). It is a failry odd encoding:

Trackball in trackball mode.
----------------------------


Again, both fire buttons mapped onto the joystick trigger line.


Left/Right information mapped onto joystick L & R lines.
Up/Down information mapped onto joystick U & D lines.

                        LR
Ball moving left        00
                        10<-|
                        00---


                        LR
Ball moving right       01
                        11<-|
                        01---


                        UD
Ball moving up          00
                        10<-|
                        00---


                        UD
Ball moving down        01
                        11<-|
                        01---


Note that the sequence can start with either L/U at 0 or 1, but the direction
indication bit R/D changes as soon as the trackball detects a direction change.

The faster bit L/U toggles, the faster the ball is rolling.  It is a good idea
to check about 8 times during screen display (DLI on 8 bit Atari computers,
part of display loop on VCS), and during vertical blank.  Checking only during
vblank will only allow the controlled item to move at scan rate/2, i.e. one
pixel every two frames, and transitions will be missed, causing the item to
SLOW DOWN when the ball is rotated faster!

If either of you have any questions about this, please ask.  The reason for
doing this now, is because I am in the process of selling all my 8 bit stuff,
having already sold all my VCS collection. :-(

this information brought to you by:
markh AT inmos.co.uk
via some document I had laying around.

[RayB]

Atari paddles would get jittery even after only a year or two of use.

[Sinner]

Thanks guys...I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I'm glad I have some options...