Peripherals advice
 

Hello!

I'll hopefully be soon getting my hands on an Amiga and would appreciate some guidance re peripherals.

Firstly, are there any retro hardware manufacturers producing replicas of the tank mouse, or is that just really wishful thinking? Secondly and similarly, anyone producing recreations of Zipsticks, Cruisers, Competition Pros etc? If so, are they any good? And if not, what's the best option?

Thirdly, I understand you can use official Mega Drive controllers without issues (apparently these will damage C64s for sure and in theory Amigas too, but people have used them long term on Amiga without issues) but what about third party Mega Drive controllers? Presumably they should be equally safe?

I've equipped my A500 with such peripherals during the last two years, so I think I can provide you with a reasoned opinion. But before I continue, you should know I am not a purist. For me, it's "give me convenience, or give me death" (the title of a punk album incidentally). That's the reason why I am not a competition pro / tank mouse / 8bitdo stuff fanboi, and never will be.

If you're comfortable with that, here are my recommendations :

• Tank mouse ? Get an adapter instead in order to plug in a supported optical mouse
• Joystick replica ? Bleh, Get a second hand period one, such as the Quickjoy Megastar SV-135, which bears microswitches, supports autofire and will allow you to grab the stick with your better hand, whether your right or left handed (a bit stiff if you don't have a firm grip, admittedly)
• Mega Drive joystick / joypad ? If you want to stay on the safe side, get the OpenC64MegaDrivePadAdapter. Now, don't raise your hopes too high, the second button method to circumvent up for jump used with this device is not perfect. In a schematic manner, it seems there is an undocumented second button method. For some games, typically platform arcade games, the adapter does the job perfectly, for others, typically shooters e.q. launching the module in R-Type, it doesn't, so yeah it's back to hitting space bar or return in order to activate the option :guru .

For the record, this screwbreaker guy doesn't sell such adapters fully assembled, he relies on resellers to assemble the kit. The seller from ebay I bought it from doesn't have a definitive answer on the matter. I tried with two different Mega Drive controllers to no avail, so IMHO it's down to how the developers coded the second button support, I would argue there is a "Mega" method and another "undocumented" one (msx ?). This said, I encourage you to acquaint yourself with the description provided by screwbreaker as it's a great little C64 & Amiga device, despite its limitations.

I think we have different priorities (after all, if I was only interested in convenience then I'd stick with WinUAE, which I'm actually very fond of).

But really good to know about OpenC64MegaDrivePadAdapter! From the readme it does sound like the Amiga can safely use the Mega Drive controller regardless though?

I actually don't mind UP for jump so much, so I'm more just concerned with safety, especially if third party options (e.g. Quickshot pads) might be slightly different electrically to the official Sega pads.

Here's Jope take on that issue, it's a... nope, kinda :
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=907587&postcount=8

Personally, I would get the adapter especially with a pimped up and customized miggy. Overall, the risk seems minimal though.

Buying a second hand ~30 year old joystick is a risky business. I've done it several times, and despite being described as "working", "fine", etc they all ended up on a pile in my drawer. "Working" for a joystick is not good enough, when you have to wrestle with the thing to register an input or it does only 9/10 times. And even if it's indeed "fine" now, it might not be in a few days.

Arcader is probably your best for a modern replica https://zxrenew.co.uk/ArcadeR-c58672270
It has a good rep and is built on Sanwa parts. Problem is they're usually on back order and you need to wait weeks for them to be dropshipped from China. Monster Joysticks also has good stuff (I mean the cheaper ~35 quid range) though they don't have the Comp Pro shape, look more boxy.

SquawkBox, agreed - the guy clearly knows what he's talking about and I will not be responsible for the murder of an innocent Amiga, pimped or otherwise!

dreadnought, yeah I've seen a lot of talk to that effect re old second hand joysticks (many not even reliable 30 years ago when new). Arcader and Monster Joysticks are the two main options I'm looking at (those plywood ones are certainly interesting / different!).

You can you a replacement board for a tank mouse.

https://amigastore.eu/en/559-laser-u...ga-mice.html#/

For joystick, I think that only option to get new is Amigakit's Arcade Evolution http://amigakit.amiga.store/arcade-e...l?currency=GBP

For me, I started to buy TAC-2 joysticks and some other Suncom joysticks long time ago. They are virtually unbreakable. Most importand, I like to play with them https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAC-2

Well, if you enjoy cleaning up fluff inside the mouse shell every other month, by all means get a tank mouse. When I mentioned convenience, it's the peripheral itself and the way it evolves over time that I have in mind. In the late 90's, tank mouse (mouses bearing a ball coated in rubber if that's what it is supposed to comprise) were still in use on PC's, I was glad it all ended up (or close) when laser guided mouses (and trackballs) became a thing. Needless to say, I am not questioning your priorities.

@dreadnought
Well, maybe I've got a knack for buying period joysticks, who knows ? Yet, I don't consider myself having been extremely lucky in every circumstances. During my years of scouring eBay and French Craiglist equivalents, I had my share of vintage devices that were worn out, that I couldn't get / didn't bother obtaining a refund for, for some reason. Having said that, all four period joysticks / joypad I bought are perfectly functional. Until now, my collection consists in :

• A Honey Bee Competition Pro Mega Drive joypad
• A Wico joystick (seller mentioned in the ad buy at your own risk = not tested, usually not a healthy sign)
• My most recent acquisition, a Quickshot Maverick III, seasoned retro-gamers favorite controller, if that rings any bell :p
• The Quickjoy Megastar SV-135, not indestructible but close, admittedly

So, you're telling me you're having a great time playing games on a 35 year old computer but feel compelled to use replica joysticks :blased ? Just by the look of it, I have my doubts about the authenticity of the design of such devices, why did they make them lighter, smaller than the original they were inspired from ? To attract a younger audience ? Also, the curves are less pronounced for no apparent reason. Of course, I am not including top notch replicas such as the Arcade Evolution in this comparison. Though... have you seen the sheer size of that thing ? For those who wonder, in my book, the ultimate reference in terms of joypad is the Saturn Pad / MS SideWinder Game Pad. A substantial one, I assume :cool .

Anyway, if you're interested in deepening the subject, the above mentioned adapter can handle my Competition Pro joypad (these are way more common and cheaper, as you may know) which means that, by using it on your soon-to-be miggy, you won't have to bother whether it's an original Mega Drive pad or not. Also, it can do passthrough if you'd rather maintain original behavior, as far as button presses are concerned.

I actually already clean the ball mouse on my Windows 98 setup (seems like more than every other month) but I don't mind - it's a <1 minute job. It's amazing actually how little difference I notice swapping between that and my optical mouse on my modern PC (they are both on very smooth mouse mats).

Amiga laser tank mouse conversion :


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qtTUSufP34

Modding the original Amiga mouse with microswitches :


http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1096738