Sega Master System controllers on an Amiga?

[ChaosLord]

I have played many 2-button games on my real Amiga using Sega-compatible controllers I bought for $10.00 each from Toys R Us and they all worked perfectly.

I used to collect all the 2-button games back in 80s and 90s.

Please note that I was not using WHDload as no WHDload game has ever worked on any of my Amigas.

I was using the games on real floppy disks.

I am not fond of floppy disks or anything.  Just saying that games work reliably when played that way.

You can buy a virtual floppy drive with GBs of storage that way u don't have to muck about with thousands of floppies.  I think it is called HxC Floppy Emulator or something like that.  I don't have one but I would like to get one.  I just have thousands of things to do all at the same time...

[ChaosLord]

I have played many 2-button games on my real Amiga using Sega-compatible controllers I bought for $10.00 each from Toys R Us and they all worked perfectly.

I used to collect all the 2-button games back in 80s and 90s.

Please note that I was not using WHDload as no WHDload game has ever worked on any of my Amigas.

I was using the games on real floppy disks.

I am not fond of floppy disks or anything.  Just saying that games work reliably when played that way.

You can buy a virtual floppy drive with GBs of storage that way u don't have to muck about with thousands of floppies.  I think it is called HxC Floppy Emulator or something like that.  I don't have one but I would like to get one.  I just have thousands of things to do all at the same time...

Oops I need to clarify something:

The controllers I bought and have used all these decades were Sega Genesis compatible controllers.  Kinda flat, have 6 buttons + a dpad.  The Sega Genesis was known as the Sega Megadrive in Europe.  Sega Genesis was the sequel to the "Sega Master System".  I have never used any Sega Master System controllers and I don't know ottomh if they are compatible or not.  I assume they are compatible but I have not actually used them.

[ChaosLord]

I wonder what's so special about your Amiga? Is it SFS? :laugh1:

Seriously though, it's a shame you can't get WHDLoad to work for you as it's so convenient whenever you fancy a retro sesh... over 2000 games ready to run from Workbench or your games launcher. Have you ever thought about giving it another go?

Yes I have.  After years of each WHDLoad game crashing on me after a few mins of play I read a news item where WHDLoad finally noticed "Oh hey, we have a bug that blows up the computer if the user has ever used the internet in their whole entire life (like say 10 years ago but no cable is connected anymore)".  Doh!   So it might work for me now that I know to completely quit, exit and disable Miami.

My only gripe with WHDLoad is some crappy slaves, and slaves that require a 68020 even when the game is originally an A500 game.

And other ones where the original game works on the 060 perfectly and installs to HD perfectly but the WHDLoad version mysterious does not work on 060 at all.  Say what?  (Hired Guns)

 HxC would be better in this respect, and I might just get one one day, although there's no way I'll be removing the floppy drive. An Amiga has to have a floppy drive!

I want an HxC for sure....  its just that...  I want to play some old gamez but don't have the time or energy...  I got gamez to code and monsters to mash and stuff.   Too many gamez and not enuff timez

[ChaosLord]

Master System and Mega Drive controllers are compatible in Amiga, but at the same time they are not. Let me explain...

Amiga power the joysticks with pin 7 and Sega power on pin 5. So why does the Sega pads work on Amiga? The answer is that Amiga also have a +5 voltage on pin 5. This pin is used for steering wheels and such. It's essentially reading an analogue signal like the PC gameport (do you remember those?). You can not draw as much current from pin 5 as you can from pin 7. Maybe this is the reason why some people have blown the CIA?

What happens when a Mega Drive drive controller is connected to an Amiga is that the Amiga power pin 7 is acting as the Select signal for Mega Drive and will output button B and C as Amiga button 1 and 2.

What you should do to do things right is to open the Sega controller and swap the wires so the controller is powered from pin 7 instead.

Please see these pinouts for reference:

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

Master System:
http://www.allpinouts.org/index.php/SegaMaster_System_%28SMS%29_and_MegaDrive_joystick

Mega Drive:
http://pinouts.ru/Game/genesiscontroller_pinout.shtml

Thank you for your explanation.

I hereby award you:
Best Message of the Year Award!