Hey Guys,
I too was frustrated with the lack of nice joysticks available for the Commodores and Amigas on ebay and what not. My All time favorite Joystick for the Commodore was the Slick Stick, a small very well built stick that was/is still quite popular with the Commodore fans. Every time one comes up on ebay they run the bid up to something rediculous for a 20+ year old joystick.
So I too had taken it upon myself to find some suitable replacements, and, just as you did, I found those to be the Sega Genesis pads and sticks.
I had mentioned it to some of the guys in the different channels I hang in on irc and a cat named Golan turned me on to the best info on the subject. it seems back in Issue 5 of Commodore World, the Christmas 1994 issue I believe, there is an article on page 45 about how to build a small little protection circuit in to a sega joystick or pad to proect the Commodore computers while using them.
I actually have that issue online in my little Commodore section because it took me so long to find the information myself I figured there had to be others interested in the same article. Here is a link to the full magazine...
http://www.digirock.net/commodore/Co...d_Issue_05.pdf
It basically uses a resistor inline to prevent the voltage from traveling through the sticks in to the joystick port on the Commodores. I actually modded a couple of Genesis Power Plugs with this mod, hoping I could get the added features of the power plug to work with the Commodores, and making them a nice adapter for the Commodore in the process, plus they have plenty of room inside to add the resistors making them perfect for a novice like me.
http://www.digirock.net/commodore/Ge...wer%20Plug.jpg
Well, that didn't work out so well, not sure if I wired them backwards or if the power plug needs the +5 volts from the Genesis to power its internal logic. 1 of these days I will start screwing with it again and possibly run a small dc power adapter to it to see if I can get it to do it's thing, but for now I just put them on the side.
The Joysticks seem to work just fine on the 128 without it, but I am told a problem can arise if you hit keys on the keyboard while using the joystick. Because of this, I will not recommend using the sticks directly without some type of protection circuit, but they do work.
I picked up 1 of these for 5 bucks and it works great...
http://www.digirock.net/commodore/Genesis_Pad.jpg
and a set of these for like 20 bucks for those arcade games...
http://www.digirock.net/commodore/Ge...ade_Sticks.jpg
All in all, I am pretty happy with them. Also, if you do not want to build anything yourself, there is a really cool cat out of Australia named Nick Coplin, the Author of 64HDD / Pro for the Commodore 8 bits. He makes some nice little parts called the 64JPX, a number of different joystick adapters for different types of console controllers allowing them all to be used on the 64/128 and Amigas.
I have purchased a number of things from him including his 64HDD Pro and can personally tell you he is a great guy, who really stands behind his stuff. He has also answered every question I have ever asked quite promptly. Nothing worse than sitting around with a new part you can not get working waiting on someone to answer your email...
Here is the link to the 64JPX adapters on Nick's Site...
http://www.64hdd.com/64jpx/64jpx.html
I will be picking up 4 of these in the near future, with 2 of the Mouse Pass throughs. Great little parts, and we have to protect the Commodores!
Hope this helps!
Info