2600 in 2006

The intersection of the two sets "people who want this mod" and "people with the technical skill to do it themselves" is probably very small. I'm sure a few would do the mod, but I think it has potential to sell quite a few units if you make it into a pass-through adapter (if this is even possible.) That is, a DB9 male and female with the microcontroller in between in a tiny case. I don't know how much this would cost, but it would be more likely to catch on and it would work with two paddles at once.

The intersection of the two sets "people who want this mod" and "people with the technical skill to do it themselves" is probably very small.  I'm sure a few would do the mod, but I think it has potential to sell quite a few units if you make it into a pass-through adapter (if this is even possible.)  That is, a DB9 male and female with the microcontroller in between in a tiny case.  I don't know how much this would cost, but it would be more likely to catch on and it would work with two paddles at once.

 

Solving the jitter problem would require modifying the paddle assemblies; a pass-through adapter alone would not suffice. Using a pass-through adapter would allow the mod to be made simpler--either a simple wire between the unconnected end of the pot and the ground terminal on the button (which would prevent the paddle from working without the pass-through adapter) or a shotky diode between those points (anode on the switch ground) which would allow the paddles to be used with or without the adapter.

 

Easing the software interface without solving the jitter problem would certainly be possible with an adapter, though I would see that as being more of a chicken-and-egg problem. People aren't going to spend money on an adapter with no software support, and people aren't going to write games for an adapter nobody has. The anti-jitter feature would IMHO be the key to making the microcontrollers useful even without special software support, and I see no way around requiring a paddle mod for that.

 

Though there is another possibility... are there any other cheaply- and commonly-available analog controllers? Perhaps one of those might be adaptable?

Just a note here: If you do come up with something that can be sold cheaply (like a passthrough adaptor) then you could get it into a bunch of peoples hands by bundling it with a homebrew game that uses it.

 

That solves the problem of nobody buying something with no software support and also the problem of no one writing software for something that no one has.

 

It just needs to be cheap enough: < $10 for sure, < $5 preferable.

 

I've been thinking about writing a game that would require, and would come bundled with, the Memcard, as another example. At $10 a pop (perhaps less if bundled with a game) I think people would buy the bundle if the game required it and the game was worth it.

 

Being able to read a paddle in 3 scanlines outside the kernel would certainly make an Arkanoid port much simpler. Actually - since one of my goals is to write a paddle game this year, if you come up with something that can be cheaply bundled with a homebrew game, I almost certainly would write something that would use it. Both of my tentative paddle ideas could use it. No promises, but...

 

On the other hand, emulator support is an issue.

 

EDIT: And speaking of this, have you talked to Al or Richard H. about adding an option to bundle a Memcard or AVox with SOG? I think SOG makes enough use of the Memcard to make that a reasonable idea. Might get more people to buy one of those devices then would otherwise.

I don't know about you, but I find that controllers are not fun to organize. If new paddles could be backwards-compatible, that's great. Otherwise it would be difficult to convince me to acquire another controller with more cables to get tangled.