Amiga(atari) style joysticks

Hey I have an amiga 500 and many games for it. but as you can probly guess the system is old... and so are the disks so many of the disks dont work and i was hoping to use my controllers from my amiga/atari in the pc/winUAE/winFellow. is there a way to make this work?

p.s. Im sorry if there is already an answer to this i tried to look through old posts but I couldnt easily find any answers.
thanks

[Mr_Modem]

You can use can use the excellent program ppjoy and a amiga 4-player parallell port adapter. Search for "ppjoy" on Google.

4-player parallell port adapter

do i NEED that or is it an extra thing?

I installed PPJoy now how do I use the controller that I jjust installed using the program?

[Marcuz]

yes you need an adapter as the amiga joystick port is different from the pc' one; look here for the adapter; it is not exactly cheap (35 euros) so if you can hack your joystick, look here.

[crocked]

or you could order the parallel port adapter from here

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...tem=5172628503

only 7.20 eur before postage. They will reply in English if you have no German..

I've already got the parallel port adapter and I've ordered the usb one as well (just look at the other items)...

I would hack my joysticks but I still use them with my a1200

[crocked]

forgot to mention that the last item is the same as the amiga 4 player adapter ..(I'm 99% sure of that as I haven't found my old adapter I used for 4 player Gaulntlet 2, I've yet to see if it works on my amiga but I presume it should)

Basically the 4 player adapter only gives two connections but with the two your amiga already has, that gives you 4 hence the name..

Now with usb connections on printers and scanners I don't need the parallel port anymore so I use it as Joystick adapters...

A more expensive option but one which lets you read amiga disks in your pc is the catweasel (now at version 4) but that costs around a 100 eur.. If you're interested in that theres a shop that sells it http://www.kdh-shop.de/.

By the way that PC Competitor website is abandoned as far as far as I know. Sent them an email asking about an order about a year ago and got no response...

[Thalion]

Two other ways. For 14,50€ you can buy an competiton pro USB. Works fine i have two of them.
Or the other way, you can buy an adapter for usb for your old joysticks.Costs ybout 20€
I think USB is way better than parallel.

Thalion

[crocked]

USB is definitely the way thats more future proof. However its a bit more expensive ... I haven't seen a multiple joystick adapter yet for usb though... Parallel is fine for me as I don't use the parallel port at all so it suits me better. Obviiously usb is more flexible..

The link I put on my previous post doesn't work so here is the link to the ebay store where I bought the parallel port adapter. I've also ordered a Usb adpater that is only 9.99 eur and they have usb comp pros as well but personally I prefer the zipstik

Heres the ebay store link RetroUSB

parrallel port adapter is here 2 Amiga Joysticks am PC!!!! Kult pur!!!
7.20 euro

usb adapter is here Einmalig! Amiga Joysticks an PC- USB
9.99 eur

USB comp pros COMPETITION PRO USB * Nagelneu und OVP *
14.90 eur

[Thalion]

Why is USB more expensive? 4 or 5€ Ain't that much more.

Thalion

[crocked]

thats true.. but its still more expensive..

Before Christmas the usb adapter was 20 euro or more. Now its much more reasonable

If you have a joystick already then you can buy a sindle parallel adapeter for 4.20 euro. The equivalent usb is 9.90.

Still usb is a better bet for future support (although I don't see the parallel port disappearing for a while seeing as they've been looking to get rid of legacy ports for years)

Personally as I have joysticks already that I use with my amiga as well I prefer adapters. As I have a spare parallel port I don't use and I don't have a usb hub I bought a parallel port adapter for two joysticks for my pc. For my laptop I'm after buying a usb adapter. Basically buy what is right for your setup.

The only thing I don't like about the comp pros outside of the fact I prefer zipstiks is that whem the joystick breaks then you're going to pay for the adapter twice (as its effectively built in) when you buy a new one. Still it depends how much they will be used. If they're not being heavily used then thats fine. For the casual winuae user they're a fine solution but I've no first hand experience with them

By the way are they brand new joysticks that have been modded or old second hand ones?? I'd imagine they should be new ones (that were warehoused) but don't know if they are or not...

[crocked]

if you know of a usb adapter that allows 2 or 4 joysticks to be connected I'd like to know. I haven't seen one.. I presume it must be technically possible (though I don't know the exact usb spec). I know it can be be done through a usb hub an various adpaters but I'd like a neater solution if possible..

http://www.epanorama.net/documents/j..._circuits.html

Port JOY3 JOY4
----------------------------------
2 1 UP
3 2 DOWN
4 3 LEFT
5 4 RIGHT
6 1 UP
7 2 DOWN
8 3 LEFT
9 4 RIGHT
11 6 FIRE
13 6 FIRE
18 8 GROUND
19 8 GROUND
Circuit Diagram

Note: none of the wires join when crossing each other. They all
~~~~~ go from one pin straight to another pin.
JOY3 6 1o------ o5 9 JOY4
--------o ! o
! o-----!-- ------------o
! o ! ! ! o--------
! o-----!-!-- --!-----------o !
! -----o ! ! ! ! ! o !
! ! o-----!-!-!-- --!-!-----------o !
! ! o ! ! ! ! ! ! ! o---- !
! ! 9 o ! ! ! ! --!-!-!-----------o 6 ! !
! ! 5 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 1 ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ----------------! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! -------- !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! o o o o o o o o o o o o o ! !
! ! 1 DB-25 (Parallel) 13 ! !
! ! o o o o o o o o o o o o ! !
! ! 14 ! ! 25 ! !
! !---------------------!-! ! !
!------------------------!---------------------! !
!------------------------------!

will that work???

[crocked]

Unfortunately not. Its a parallel adapter. I'm looking for a usb one that lets multiple joysticks be connected to a single usb port if such a thing exists.
The parallel adapter works fine but I'd like someone to make a usb adapter that lets you connect two or four amiga joysticks to a pc or mac.

You can make a parallel adapter that lets you connect 7 joysticks ..
parallel adapter

Not sure why you'd need so many. I think on amiga 4 joysticks was max supported by a handful of games (though I'm not sure if Dynablaster / Bomberman which came with a multi player adapter allowed 5 joysticks or if one person was on keyboard)

Thanks for looking though

whether u noticed or not i was asking if that would work for me so that will work then (in general)

[crocked]

Sorry

I didn't notice that you were the thread starter (but you already noticed that)

Yeah that should work fine ... If you can make it yourself its cheaper again or so I'm led to believe...

[Adeptus]

I made one back in the day
(well actually... a friend did the fiddly soldering for me...)

Just buy a 25-pin M connector & shell, and a 9-pin M-M cable, and solder together as per the diagram.

Sold it with my A500 a few years ago... wish I hadn't now

a little update the cord is finished it went decent I burned my self twice and sliced my finger open once lol. I think the total cost came to about $7 yes thats right american for the "English Amiga Boards". It works great thanks for the ppjoy program

some troubleshooting tips
if the controller doesn't respond at all check to make sure you have the wires connected not just in thr right pins on the opposite side of the board .
if t still isnt responding and all the wires appear to be connected check the 8th hole(joystick) and the 18th(first) and 19th (second) to make sure the ground is connected