Joystick with 2 button support

[Kirben]

Which joysticks offer support for two separate buttons on the Amiga? I noticed many Nintendo and Sega models around, but not sure if they are Amiga compatible.

I'm looking for a classic style (i.e. Quickshot II Turbo) joystick, not Competition Pro style or gamepad.

[liviux76]

You can always modify your joystick in order to have two separated fire buttons but in order to do that you need a cable with 9 wires (actually even 7 would be enough but it is difficult to find a cable with exactly the 7 wires you need). 7 wires are for directions, ground, fire1 an fire2. The remaining 2 wires are for +5v (useful for autofire circuits) and fire3 (unused). On the Internet there are lot of schematics like this one:

[Kirben]

Unfortunately I'm not able to modify the hardware myself.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by liviux76

You can always modify your joystick in order to have two separated fire buttons but in order to do that you need a cable with 9 wires (actually even 7 would be enough but it is difficult to find a cable with exactly the 7 wires you need). 7 wires are for directions, ground, fire1 an fire2. The remaining 2 wires are for +5v (useful for autofire circuits) and fire3 (unused). On the Internet there are lot of schematics like this one:

Think you will find pin 6 is Button 1 and 9 is Button 2.
Pin 5 wont be 5v, thats pin 7.

[Amiga1992]

Get any joystick that would work on a Sega Master System. Quickshot used to make models that with the flick of a switch would support two buttons. They might not be of the form factor you want though.

[liviux76]

Originally Posted by FOL

Think you will find pin 6 is Button 1 and 9 is Button 2.
Pin 5 wont be 5v, thats pin 7.

You are right, mate, I just took the first image I've found on the Internet but that's not 100% exact. This one is correct:

[Kirben]

I'm actually connecting to a PC system, using the Retronic USB joystick adapter, and they just added an Amstrad CPC firmware. So the CPC464 mode of the QuickShot II Turbo joystick offers two independent buttons now, when using the Amstrad CPC firmware.

I didn't need to look for new joystick after all

[Sandro]

the standard Amiga 2nd button not works in all games ie Aladdin, BCkid etc
some games needs a 1k resistor connected to pin 9 and pin 7 (+5v)

[Sandro]

Originally Posted by liviux76

this is wrong

correct amiga joystick pinouts here
http://www.allpinouts.org/index.php/...ck_Amiga_9_pin

[Daedalus]

Yep, that looks like the Sega pinout - though it does mean that Mastersystem controllers work as if they were Amiga controllers...

[Swevicus]

The only joysticks I can think of that have 2-button support are the QuickShot Maverick 1 (both standard and microswitch versions), which supports multiple home computers (including the MSX and Sharp X68000, which never made it out of Japan) and features dual leads (one for each joystick port) and a switch to select which port is active (similar to the NES Advantage), and the Competition Pro Star (blue shell, silver/chrome stick and buttons with two additional smaller, triangular sub-buttons on the top, in front of the stick).

The CP Star comes in two versions: One for home computers with an auto-detect feature (the controls depend on which system it is plugged into), slow motion and rapid fire (the former particularly is superfluous), and one for the Sega Master System (the CP Star was originally built and released for the SMS), with the larger circular buttons acting as Button 1/Start and the smaller triangular sub-buttons being Button 2.

Both models feature a switch at the rear for rapid fire (the home computer version allows you to use it in conjunction with the rapid fire button, while the Sega version simply enables/disables it for BOTH buttons simultaneously) and slow motion (home computer version only)

Get the Sega version of the CP Star if you can find it - it's a much more practical model and can easily be used on other computers (just don't press the smaller buttons if you can help it, as not all machines support 2 buttons, and the MSX/Sharp X68000 has a slightly different pinout compared to the Atari/Commodore/Sega standard).

[SquawkBox]

Since I too can't mod and since I really wanted to play the full gamut of OCS / ECS games that support 2nd fire button as intended, I got myself a Sega SJ-300 joystick. The plastic smells funny, but anyway, a few observations :

• Don't use it with an adapter, it sends conflicting signals behind one (tried to use it with my adapter to assign 2nd button to up)
• No autofire implemented, means you're going to build yourself a strong wrist if you plan to use it with shooters
• No QuickShot II, but allows a good grip
• Sandro is right, B.C. Kid doesn't work in 2-button mode with that stick plugged in (or any other SMS stick / pad, in all logic), whereas it works as intended with Mega Drive joypads, I only have an A500 to test it with, but I guess it would be the same with Aladdin, will let you know if some more titles fall into that category

Unlike MD joypads / joysticks, plugging in one of these SMS joypads / joysticks is 100% safe. Well, it's even older than the classic SMS controllers we're all familiar with. In fact, it was released in 1983 (nearly 40 year old plastic shell, no wonder the musty smell doesn't dissipate so quickly) and was made to compliment the SG-1000. As the SegaRetro entry mentions, the arcade stick that was supposed to compliment the SMS was the god-awful Control Stick.

Btw, who is this John Sands dude ? I too want my name written on a joystick box .

[idrougge]

Originally Posted by SquawkBox

Btw, who is this John Sands dude ? I too want my name written on a joystick box .

John Sands is a retailer of hardware and electronics in New Zealand, I think. They imported Sega computers, amongst others.

[Solo Kazuki]

Originally Posted by Sandro

this is wrong

correct amiga joystick pinouts here
http://www.allpinouts.org/index.php/...ck_Amiga_9_pin

I'll just correct that it's not correct pinout. Correct one is here, with ALL pins connection shown.
*What's this n/c button?
Amiga can use all pins, and all are possible to use with existing software. This n/c (sucks ) is 3rd button which is used even in some games originally (without any patch), so it (what above) even more.

I'm recommending to look on this list of games with 2+ buttons support anyone who didn't see it before.

*I know it's not connected (just in case).

[SquawkBox]

Just Amiga can use 3rd button, or all Commodore computers ? Just curious .

[Solo Kazuki]

Anyone interested in joystick with even three independent buttons should observe this topic about UniThor joystick.

[Solo Kazuki]

Originally Posted by SquawkBox

Just Amiga can use 3rd button, or all Commodore computers ? Just curious .

All Commodore computers can use 3rd button, but in 8bit ones (Vic20/C64/C128/etc) it's made slightly different.

[DanyPPC]

Yes, the +5V is needed instead of the gnd.

[Solo Kazuki]

Originally Posted by DanyPPC

Yes, the +5V is needed instead of the gnd.

But only for 2nd and 3rd button, 1st one is linked to the GND.