Joystick from scratch: howto

[bbond007]

I ordered the joystick adapter in the picture above so I can report how it works once it arrives.

$9 with free shipping from the distant land of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

[Tenacious]

Sorry about that

Don't worry about it.  

@ SuperFrog

Nice looking controller.  Mass producers always make a stick with one cable to a specific game port (economics, marketing strategy?).  If you want just 1 stick for multiple platforms, you could mount a connector on the box itself (your pin-out design) and then make a separate cable from your connector to each platform.  It might save some space.

[superfrog76]

So far the joystick is working fine, I will order one of these adaptor and try it on the pc too

Now that I know how to make one, I will try with a MarkII, with 6 or 8 buttons probably, so it will be totally compatible also with games like Street Fighter.

Also for the case, I will try to make one from scratch; I've used one of the electronic project box, found in an electronic component store; or go for the acrylic custom made case (which is easier, there is a store that makes them right down the street).

I have found a design for an Xbox controller, but it involves removing the main board of the controller. At this point I will be hunting for a broken arcade joystick, which works with PS3/PC and Xbox; in this way I will just use the circuit board (will be interesting to find out the connections thou).

Altho from what I understand, the Amiga support only 2 buttons (and not all games support it), so the other 4 basically will just be unused.

[bbond007]

The Atari adapter came in and I tried it on a windows 8.1 preview PC and I did not need to load any driver.

it can be identified as "Atari Controller USB1" and  "Atari Controller USB2"

used a Konix Epyx 500XJ

no lag noticed. Tried shadow of the beast. CPU is AMD FX8320

[superfrog76]

Got one too, altho it won't recognize any other button except the first.

I have connected the 2nd and 3rd button to the mouse buttons wires; so I would expect that it would work.

Anyway, it is cool that at least one button works

[bbond007]

Got one too, altho it won't recognize any other button except the first.

I have connected the 2nd and 3rd button to the mouse buttons wires; so I would expect that it would work.

Anyway, it is cool that at least one button works

I don't think its your wiring. I noticed that the secondary button was not working for me either. I suppose I can try a CD32 controller and see which of those four buttons work. I'm guessing that the standard Atari 2600 never had more than one button so buttons in addition to that are probably not supported and may not even be standardized.

The nice feature is that it comes with a long enough cable to reach the back USB ports on a tower case.

[mahen]

The great thing about building your own Amiga arcade stick is that you need 0 electronics at all. Just directly wiring the buttons so 0 lag at all and a rock solid controller that will last until your last breath

[superfrog76]

Yup, it is good because it is simple, but at the same time is a downer if you want to use one controller for your various console and computers

Usually the arcade games has at least 2 or 3 buttons, which means that if the converter does not carry the signals, it is basically not really useful as joystick for mame or other arcade games I wish I knew about the fact that it support only one button, so I would save the money and purchase something else. If you want to play any game that uses more than one button, you are screwed

[mahen]

Oh BTW, when making an Amiga stick, one very handy thing is to use a button that also triggers the "up" direction. It makes a LOT of games easier & more pleasant to play.

[superfrog76]

Oh BTW, when making an Amiga stick, one very handy thing is to use a button that also triggers the "up" direction. It makes a LOT of games easier & more pleasant to play.

I was about to ask....most of the games has the jump set to the up position; while if you route it to a button, you are in fact setting a jump button

Just be careful to not put it as second button otherwise if you play a game that is like Hybris or SWIV, you may accidentally kill yourself hitting something

[Tenacious]

You've probably already seen this discussion (with links) about Amiga joysticks.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=39405&page=3

[Coolhand]

Might be of interest to you guys but I know that someone is designing an 'electronically identical' interface board that will give your sticks full cd32 compatibility (if you have enough buttons!) and I think some other functions - mapping an 'up' button for example.

[Coolhand]

Might be of interest to you guys but I know that someone is designing an 'electronically identical' interface board that will give your sticks full cd32 compatibility (if you have enough buttons!) and I think some other functions - mapping an 'up' button for example.

and here it is, far quicker than I expected.