Has anybody actually managed to get a 9 pin Amiga joystick to work on WinUAE?

[pickaweapon]

Would love to hear from anybody who has successfully managed to convert a standard Amiga digital 9-pin joystick to use as a PC input device that WinUAE can recognise?

The Zipstick is my digital joystick of choice - I'm operating Win 7 running WinUAE.

I have already got my Xbox controllers working perfectly with WinUAE and it's great! IMO some games (e.g. Turrican) play better with a joypad as using your thumb to jump gives greater control, plus additional weapons, autofire / non-autofire can be mapped to the action and trigger buttons.

But other games are simply better with a digital joystick as they handle corners with greater precision. I have heard there are Competition Pro USB replicas out there but there isn't a Zipstick one and even if there was I doubt it would have the same sturdy quality.

I tried buying a 9-pin to USB cord and have successfully installed the cable, but my Zipstick isn't recognised by the PC and the crappy Engrish manual that comes with the cord bangs on about configuring COM ports which makes my head blow up. I'm no expert and it's probably the wrong cable

I starting to wonder whether this is even possible. Can anybody help?

[clenched]

I built a simple one years ago that uses few parts but it relies on the PC gameport rather than USB. It does work great though. I could have used it a few hours ago when I snapped another imported stick. The schematic at that time was somewhere on Aminet.

[r.cade]

RetroPort costs about $10 and works great with WinUAE. You can get them on Amazon.

[pickaweapon]

Originally Posted by r.cade

RetroPort costs about $10 and works great with WinUAE. You can get them on Amazon.

I've looked for RetroPort on Amazon and other sites but they all appear to be SNES joypad converters rather than Atari / Amiga, although my search for that has led me to discover something called 'RetroLink USB Cable' which is a double 9 pin to usb cable. Sounds ideal but it doesn't sound like it comes with any drivers and there's an added risk it wont be compatible with my Win 7 OS. I've ordering it anyway and will report back if I get it working

[seuden]

http://www.retrousb.com/product_info...5cea453f23afbf should be fine.

[pickaweapon]

Originally Posted by clenched

I built a simple one years ago that uses few parts but it relies on the PC gameport rather than USB. I does work great though. I could have used it a few hours ago when I snapped another imported stick. The schematic at that time was somewhere on Aminet.

Cheers clenched. I may consider resorting to this, but I don't want to take my beloved Zipstick apart without giving cables and connectors best shot

[pickaweapon]

Originally Posted by seuden

http://www.retrousb.com/product_info...5cea453f23afbf should be fine.

Thanks Seuden. If this RetroLink doesn't work, then I'll give that a try

[tero]

I'm using an Amiga 4player adapter plugged to my XP comp.
Needs PPJoy drivers, not sure if it's win7 compatible. This one is old

[Retroplay]

Originally Posted by pickaweapon

I have already got my Xbox controllers working perfectly with WinUAE and it's great!

XBOX1 or 360 controllers ?

If it's an XBOX1 controller you can add a 9 pin connector and use a joystick.
Clicky.

I have done this myself and it works great.

[pickaweapon]

Originally Posted by Retroplay

XBOX1 or 360 controllers ?

If it's an XBOX1 controller you can add a 9 pin connector and use a joystick.
Clicky.

I have done this myself and it works great.

Nope. Got the Xbox controllers running cordlessly! This thing works brilliantly and you can connect two controllers to your PC with no technical knowledge whatsoever:
Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows:
http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/3299...%7Cprd:3299826

My problem is in getting the Zipstick 9-pin Amiga joystick to work on a PC through USB

[pickaweapon]

Originally Posted by tero

I'm using an Amiga 4player adapter plugged to my XP comp.
Needs PPJoy drivers, not sure if it's win7 compatible. This one is old

Cheers tero. I've only got USB inputs on my laptop so it's gotta be USB in my case. I've managed to find a version of PPJoy compatible with Win7 (ver 0.8.4.6) and WinUAE is now seeing a 'virtual joystick' although it just isn't working. Will try reinstalling later and report back.

[1time]

It works perfect with my Catweasel MK4+ on Win7.

[clenched]

Originally Posted by pickaweapon

Cheers clenched. I may consider resorting to this, but I don't want to take my beloved Zipstick apart without giving cables and connectors best shot

I don't blame you a bit. That's why mine was constructed in its own box. Box scavenged from an old radio. Cord scavenged from a busted PC joystick. (Infinite supply of these). The rest were brand new parts. This thing was buried under some junk and has broken the super glue loose holding the left switch. The switches are something I added myself to add auto fire. I didn't open it up because I'm reminded of the cartoons where the character sits on the suitcase to pack clothes. Later when opened, clothes fly all over. I like this one best because it is usable with the old DOS games too. Thanks for the post that caused me to remember I had this thing.

[tero]

Originally Posted by pickaweapon

Cheers tero. I've only got USB inputs on my laptop so it's gotta be USB in my case. I've managed to find a version of PPJoy compatible with Win7 (ver 0.8.4.6) and WinUAE is now seeing a 'virtual joystick' although it just isn't working. Will try reinstalling later and report back.

PPjoy needs a parallelport, or did you try on another Computer
Config prog is in the control-panel, just try some other settings. i had it working in a few seconds.

[pickaweapon]

EUREKA!! I'VE DONE IT!!!!!!!
Many thanks to all you lovely people on this forum for your help! For those getting their kicks via emulation, this is the perfect cable for your Amiga to USB conversion:
"Retro-bit Controller Adapter USB Cable" referred to on Amazon as "Atari to PC USB Cable [RETROLINK]"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007ZS35CU
(Incidentally, a sticker on the box informs that purchase of the item helps the Kids in Need Foundation so it's even more special). It has 3.5 feet of cable and allows for two joysticks to be connected to one USB port (Discovered to my utter joy that I had second Zipstick lurking in a drawer - have a vague recollection of picking one up at a car-boot sale years ago)

Best of all, the cable works out-of-the-box (i.e. The item is not shipped with drivers but Win 7 instantly recognises it as an Atari USB product and automatically finds and installs the drivers - for anyone confused Atari and Amiga use the same joysticks)

WinUAE instantly lists the joysticks as "ATARI Contrr USB [1]" and "ATARI Contrr USB [2]"

Best of all, no need for messing with PPJoy which as much as I admire the programmers for their dedication and hard work, I had absolutely no luck with it even with the Win7 workarounds described in the manual

[ransom1122]

Wow, so this will work with the old (i tihnk its calls) - Starshot amiga joystick the one with the red and yellow button?

[pickaweapon]

Originally Posted by ransom1122

Wow, so this will work with the old (i tihnk its calls) - Starshot amiga joystick the one with the red and yellow button?

Do you mean the Star Cursor? I've never used that one. Although the Zipstick has two buttons, it's really a one button joystick as both buttons act as primary fire only. The Star Cursor appears to have two separately active buttons. The WinUAE Input source has Button 0 listed but no Button 1. Whether it will pick up the separate buttons on your joystick I can't be certain I'm afraid. I'd say it's worth a punt though as the cable isn't too expensive unlike other options I've seen. High chances are, if it worked on an Amiga or Atari then you should have all directions and primary fire intact at the very least, and quite possibly it'll pick up that secondary button as a bonus too! I wish you luck!

[ransom1122]

yeah star cursor

on this page

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=37133&page=3

i have two of those attached to my real amiga

now to get that cable?

[Gimpy]

Got mine from Ebay. No need for drivers of any sort.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_tr...stick&_sacat=0

[krutknut]

I'm using the adaptor from RetroZone. It works fine :-)