old joysticks with UAE

Hi!

Have anyone here been able to use the old classic/original joysticks (such as Wico) with UAE. Imagine the almost 100% accurate gaming experience! =)
Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

/mattias

[RCK]

I like the old joysticks for playing retro-games, but keyboard is more precise in general, so I'm using keyboard

[Tim Janssen]

I have to agree with RCK. When it comes to playing (emulated) games on my pc I prefer keyboard. On the other hand, I sometimes wish my keyboard had an automatic firebutton.

I still own my original Amiga with the classic one-button Arcade joystick. But when I play the Amiga games for a few hours I get some painshivers in my right-hand. I think it is a form of RSI. Also, joysticks I use have the tendency to get broken very quickly which isn't the case with keyboard.

A few years ago..

erhm...

Correction.



Quite a bunch of years ago.. .. I bought myself one of these 2 button Arcade joysticks and Analogue/Digital converter for the PC, for $ 20 USD or so. (Those joysticks with those microswitches ala C=64 and Amiga.)

In Emulation perspective, one of the best buys I ever made! I used this joystick with PC games in that time such as Mortal Kombat and One Must Fall 2097 (shows the age of the joystick + converter) but it ended up in my attic among my every growing old hardware collection.

It didn't came out of the attic until I started playing those C64, Amiga and MAME emulators again! Other friends have mine have tried to find such analogue/digital converters but no luck and I must say, I never saw them for sale again anywhere.

Nothing like the sound of 'click click click click' while playing IK+

[Amiga1992]

Oldschool joysticks all the way. The keyboard is way irresponsive, I do not agree that it gives you more precision, at all.

I'd say using teh oldies is the best way. Try making a sneskey interface for a Sega Genesis 6 button joypad. Best thing you can do. Sidewinders are shit, and teh same goes for any other PC joypads, the only PC device of worth is the HotRod

Anyway, Tim, yikes, you have a wrist problem there

In a related matter, I tend to preffer joysticks to joypads. And the joysticks should be of the arcade type, with ball-stick. Whenever I play at teh arcades I avoid the Happ controls which have no ball at the top. At home I have the Competition Pro Star, and a Quickjoy Megastar, both with ball-sticks

The Megastar is MASSIVE, as close as you get to an Amiga arcade joystick.

Oh, I forgot. I hate click-clickey joysticks. I rather have them silent!

Well my favourite was a ZipStick. The old black and yellow - the microswitches were perfect. Unfortunately the way I played SWOS meant for a lot of replacements. I just loved scoring those half-way line goals that required you to pull back on the joystick with vigour.

[Amiga1992]

With my C128, I wrecked a few Quickshot Starfighters, mostly because their switch system sucked (one shitty plate making contact with he PCB... microswitch my arse)... After that, when I got my Amiga, I never again broke a joystick.

Those midfield goals ruled

Who remembers those joysticks that you were supposed to hold in the palm of your left hand, with the fire button on your left index finger. and you used your right hand for the smallish red stick.

The body was black with some red sticky backed plastic on the top and the stick was red. Some models came with an autofire.

An then there was the bug similar to the one I've just mentioned in my previous post. But they were a hell of a lot smaller.

Again you held them in the palm of your hand and the stick on the top was tiny. There were two buttons on the front that were meant to be the bug's eye's. I loved that when my Zip Stick broke shame they were difficult to play SWOS with though. They were originally black but they started being released in different colours.

Talking of those midfiled goals in SWOS.... how many teams in real life can boast that their left and right wingers and the top goal scorers in the country

[Tim Janssen]

Gibby,
I have owned such a joystick which you must hold in your hands. The firebutton(s) are on the left and right side and the stick is on top. I think it was the Atari Joystick that came with those ancient Atari 2600 consoles. -Horrible to use. If you wanted to move the stick in a diagonal direction you really had to clamp the stick in your hand.

The whole area of joystick names is unknown to me but I definitely know the Bug-joystick. With its green colours and strange design it is not a joystick one can easily forget.
I prefer simple joysticks with at most two buttons. The Arcade-Joystick I currently own suits my purposes perfectly.

Akira,
Yes, I have some wrist problems, but only when I use a computer intensively. Finishing games in one go without a pause is history for me but I am glad I can still finish games like Yo! Joe! after all those years.

I never have used a Gamepad nor have tried a PC-joystick but this can change in the near future. There is one device however I will never use in my whole life: a Steering Wheel for PC. This is the most pathetic invention since the Atari joystick.

Does anybody here know how to use an old joystick with UAE on the PC?

/mattias

Yeah. Get an Analogue/Digital converter.

Plug your C= C64/Amiga joysticks into the converter and hook the the joystick cable from the coverter up with your regular sound-card joystick port.

Add a standard joystick in your Windows 9x/2K config (Control Panel -> Game Controllers/Gaming Option).

Make sure you correctly calibrate the joystick using the two axis adjusters on the converter.


And voila, you have a perfectly working C= 64/Amiga joystick for use with ANY Emulation or game.

I'd give my right arm to have a Euromax Competition pro joystick for my Amiga. They were the dogs bollocks.

Quickshot joysticks were a pile of crap by comparison.

I agree with RCK, I use the keyboard for PC games like Strike Force/CounterStrike so you learn precision movement on a keyboard.

[Amiga1992]

Gibby: I think the joystick you are talking about is the Epyx XJ500, or the Konix Speedking, they both look the same. If you remember there was a similar one, but in blue, with red buttons, and a tad more stylish, which was the Logic3 Gamma Ray (or was it teh Sigma Ray? I forgot). I never heard of differently-colored Bugs though! I always thought they were black and only black.

The joystick Tim mentions is the Atari 7800 joystick. I have one, and it's pretty comfortable, I like it a lot. Damn smooth, as well. If you know how to use it it becomes amazing, if you don't know how to use the stick's grip, you are lost, specially with diagonals .Mine lost a button, I should get a new one.

As for connecting an old joystick to the PC, the digital/analog conversor is one way (you will have to build it, I don't think tehy sell them anymore), and the other, best way, IMO, is building a directpad pro/sneskey interface. You can find more info at this url:

http://www.ziplabel.com/dpadpro

Lots of replies here Hey Keph, what's the difference between a normal Competition Pro and an Euromax Competition Pro?

If I remember rightly, it was the big red knob and two red buttons on the Competition Pro (I had a clear plastic one) and the Euromax was all black except the buttons which was yellow.

They lasted me from my Speccy in 83, my C64 and my Amiga till I sold my A500 in 1993 ish. Not one problem with either of them.

[Amiga1992]

I have a Competition Pro STAR Extra. Lasts a lifetime It still works as new, and looks as new.

It's the one with clear blue body and silver stick/buttons, and also has autofire and slowmotion features. Excellent joystick. This one had a MINI variant, which I'd love to own! Sold at some places under the Logic3 brand, with some stupid name like 'Quattro' or something (the mini one was called 'Pinto').