'The Arcade' and 'The Boss' - Availability of NOS or currently produced joysticks?

[Franko]

Best place to track one down would be aBay, just been on their for the past several hours trawling through over 11,000 Commodore items and there were plenty of old joysticks available at some pretty good prices...

(just be careful what you buy and if in doubt email the seller first to confirm it's condition... )

[Franko]

Somewhat related, anyone have some proper 2 button sticks or CD32 pads they'd like to part with?
 
Not just with multiple buttons like the competition pro, but actually wired as distinct buttons for stuff like Turrican or Alien Breed ?
 
Obviously the OP has first dibs

Make yer own...

It's easy to do, all you need is the two button joysticks you already own and an old mouse cable, it just a case of wiring up the new cable to the joystick and instead of having the two fire buttons linked together you just wire them separately to give you two independent fire buttons...

(mice cables usually contain more wires than a joystick cable to give you that one extra wire you need to make a two button joystick...

[Franko]

huh, I'll have to dig around and see if I have a spare mouse lying around.
Is that really all there is to it?

Yup, simple as that...

I'll draw up a wiring diagram and post it here later (and maybe some pics)...

[Franko]

thatd be awesome. Ive looked for a few guides online but I think I need something pretty idiot proof

Don't worry it must be if I can do it...

It only involves one extra wire in the joystick cable and bobs your uncle a two button joystick...

(need to get some sleep now, only woke up to go to the loo...

[Franko]

Ok here's how to make a standard Amiga joystick with 2 fire buttons into one with two separate buttons (ie: one for fire and the other for jump etc...)

Sorry but I'm not very good at making diagrams but it should be clear enough. You'll need of course a suitable cable of at least 7 cores and a female 9 pin D_Sub connector (easily obtained from your nearest electrical supply store) or even an old Amiga mouse cable should do...

NOTE: as there are were no "standards" for the wire colour coding in joysticks or mice the colours used here are simply to distinguish each cable...

All you have to do is make sure you wire the appropriate micro-switch up to the appropriate pin number...

[Franko]

hm. I think I have an old tank mouse where one button physically broke, but the cable is probably fine, so I'll have to try that out.
 
Are the wires soldered inside or ?
 
I guess I'll just have to take it apart
 
So on a stick where all of the buttons are wired the same way, you'd see the 9 pin having nothing wired to it ?
 
 
Bonus question: How would a CD32 pad be wired? Do you happen to know?

Usually the wires inside the joystick are connected with crimped connectors that just slide off the micro switches, but using a mouse cable you'll have to cut and bare the end of the wires and solder them on...

Basically a normal two button joystick has both the fire buttons wired together going to pin 6 on the Amiga, all your doing is separating the two and sending one to pin 6 and the other to pin 9 to give you two separate buttons that most Amiga games that can take advantage of two button joystick will work with...

The CD32 pad is a bit more tricky as it contains a logic chip that handles all the other buttons on it and to be honest there's not much point or use in fiddling around with it for any reason...

[Franko]

Hm, whats the 5 pin do ?

Nosy bugger... :lol:

Here's the full pin assignments...

Pin-----Mouse/-------LightPen-------Digital-------Proportional
--------TrackBall----------------------Joystick---------Joystick
1.........V-Pulse.................N/C...................Up..................Button 3
2.........H-Pulse.................N/C.................Down...................N/C
3.........VQ-Pulse...............N/C..................Left..................Button 1
4.........HQ-Pulse...............N/C................Right.................Button 2
5........Button3 (M)........Pen Press.............N/C....................Pot X
6........Button1 (L).......BeamTriger.........Button1..................N/C
7...........+5v...................+5v................+5V.....................+5V
8...........GND..................GND................GND....................GND
9........Button2 (R)........Button2.............Button2................N/C

[Franko]

Pin 5 is for the button on a lightpen...

http://www.allpinouts.org/index.php/Mouse/Joystick_Amiga_9_pin

--whoops--

Got tied up on an unexpected visit, only to see Franko beat me to it

See... some of us old codgers are still quite nimble...

[Franko]

Thanks for the responds.  I really was hoping there were some NOS joysticks out there, but I guess not.  Well, know I how to activate a second button on a joystick, yeah.

Whats "NOS" mean...

only thing I can come up with so far is New Overpriced Super joystick...

[Franko]

I thought is was short for Nitrous Oxide... but I'm pretty damn sure that a Nitrous Oxide Joystick would not be safe for gaming.

Dunno... a Nitrous Oxide Joystick would put a whole new meaning into "No Lives Left... GAME OVER"...