Atari 2600 Joystick on the Dreamcast (5200 HSC Club Related)

[doctorclu]

I *LOVE* Atari800DC on the Dreamcast, and use the 5200 mode for the 5200 High Score Thread contests.

 

Always thought it would be cool to have a regular Atari 2600 on the Dreamcast for this though, so I started looking around. I opened up the typical Dreamcast joystick...

 

 

And just looked at that. Like a good game system, the Dreamcast joystick is really minimal. And strangely, one of the most responsive Dreamcast sticks I have found yet. But this was not useable to me (readily) for hacking. At least not as readily as this one...

 

 

A Performance "Astropad". I was not impressed with this as a controller, but opening it up was a wealth of wires, basic pads, etc. Eventually I got to looking the D-Pad on this controller and realized that it was just a midget version of the circuit board in the 2600 controller:

 

 

So I worked on this, connecting the Atari 2600 stick to this D-Pad was almost wire for wire. And then I put the Dreamcast Astropad controller and the Atari 2600 controller together...

 

 

... it was a fun thing to do. Though I think I will take another Astropad, or with this one, just add a nine pin port to connect Atari 2600 joysticks up directly to the controller itself, or put the Astropad into a base and let the controller connect to that.

 

But it is nice to know one way to connect an Atari 2600 joystick to a Dreamcast.

[doctorclu]

Here are the updates of my tinkering... a more sterdy Atari 2600/Dreamcast controller combo, and one where I made where I can plug up a 2600 stick to the Dreamcast controller... mostly. I had to had an additional ground wire for the fire, but in the end it worked.

[midnight8]

I *LOVE* Atari800DC on the Dreamcast, and use the 5200 mode for the 5200 High Score Thread contests.

 

Always thought it would be cool to have a regular Atari 2600 on the Dreamcast for this though, so I started looking around. I opened up the typical Dreamcast joystick...

 

 

And just looked at that. Like a good game system, the Dreamcast joystick is really minimal. And strangely, one of the most responsive Dreamcast sticks I have found yet. But this was not useable to me (readily) for hacking. At least not as readily as this one...

 

 

A Performance "Astropad". I was not impressed with this as a controller, but opening it up was a wealth of wires, basic pads, etc. Eventually I got to looking the D-Pad on this controller and realized that it was just a midget version of the circuit board in the 2600 controller:

 

 

So I worked on this, connecting the Atari 2600 stick to this D-Pad was almost wire for wire. And then I put the Dreamcast Astropad controller and the Atari 2600 controller together...

 

 

... it was a fun thing to do. Though I think I will take another Astropad, or with this one, just add a nine pin port to connect Atari 2600 joysticks up directly to the controller itself, or put the Astropad into a base and let the controller connect to that.

 

But it is nice to know one way to connect an Atari 2600 joystick to a Dreamcast.

 

 

A little different different from what you have done, but thanks to bigo for help with it I am using a interact 3rd party dreamcast controller on my atari 5200 now. It woks pretty well on most games I have played except popeye which it won't go up or down. I will be woking on that.

[doctorclu]

A little different different from what you have done, but thanks to bigo for help with it I am using a interact 3rd party dreamcast controller on my atari 5200 now. It woks pretty well on most games I have played except popeye which it won't go up or down. I will be woking on that.

 

This whole project started because I wanted a good controller with the 5200. So how do you have to do the conversion process for the interact controller and which one specifically was it? I got a few of those.

[midnight8]

A little different different from what you have done, but thanks to bigo for help with it I am using a interact 3rd party dreamcast controller on my atari 5200 now. It woks pretty well on most games I have played except popeye which it won't go up or down. I will be woking on that.

 

This whole project started because I wanted a good controller with the 5200. So how do you have to do the conversion process for the interact controller and which one specifically was it? I got a few of those.

 

well to start with it is wired with a 15 pin connector thru my pc joystick adapter. the interact dc controllers use pots in the thumbstick instead on the hall effect on the origional dc controller mine is called a quantum fighter u can pick them up on ebay for a few bucks. right now I have it wired to use the thumbstick which is 100k pots but only about 80k range actually works. I don't have my exact wiring scheme with me now but I can get it for you tomorrow. right now I only have the b button wired up as primary fire and a button as 2nd fire button, but As soon as I get some 15 conductor wire I am going to wire up the buttons in the center as start pause reset and see if I can use the auto fire in the x y and z buttons. If you need me to give detailed instructs on it let me know and I will get it to you tomorrow. BTW I don't have the digital pad working just the thumbstick and I have only tried it on about 10 games

[doctorclu]

...If you need me to give detailed instructs on it let me know and I will get it to you tomorrow. BTW I don't have the digital pad working just the thumbstick and I have only tried it on about 10 games

 

Sweet!! I like that! Yeh share those details here when you get the chance.

 

Atari 2600 to Proformance Astropad for the Dreamcast

 

1) find a 9 pin serial port male connector cable. Cut in half, strip ends of wires. This is good since you will have have more needed wires than the standard the Atari 2600 joystick normally has. This will give you a plug in for a slightly modified Atari 2600 Joystick to the Dreamcast controller.

2) Take the wires to the D-pad and cut in half, then take the wires that lead to the main board, split apart, strip ends. The middle (normally red) is ground. Then connect to the serial cable (in prefereably the Atari 2600 joystick port pinout) the various wires for up, down, left, right. This is the easiest part of the whole thing. If connected right, the Atari 2600 joystick would have swift moving directional controls.

3) The fire button, A on the Dreamcast controller, is on a seperate D-pad looking board with it's own ground. Combining this ground to the ground on the main Dpad will only confuse the fire button. To get around this, I created another lead (which I wired to lead #9 on the controller, normally unmapped on the Atari 2600 joystick connector). Then I take the usual fire button lead, and wire that to the A button lead on the button pad.

 

4) On the Atari 2600 joystick you want to connect the board to a serial cable with a female connector. Wire up the standard up, down, left, right, ground, and fire on the typical leads.

5) You have to create another ground wire, again to lead #9 in my case. I create a seperate ground circuit, I lifted up the clear coating on the joystick board, severed the fire button ground from the rest of the joystick ground, and ran a wire from the fire button ground to lead #9. Once the wire is in place, I stuck the cover back over the fire button ground wire.

 

Once both controllers were back together, connect the modified Atari stick to the modified Dreamcast, and you now have a Atari 2600 acting on D pad functions and usual select.

 

From now on, if you want to use an Atari 2600 stick on the modified Astropad, all you have to do is add the line #9 ground wire and sever that lead from the rest of the circuit.

 

I guess if you wanted to get fancy you could always create a modified controller, but make a switch so that the fire button uses the standard ground (to work on regular Atari game systems), or switch to the lead #9 wire so that it will work on the Dreamcast and Astropad connection.

 

Astropads as I write this are common, about $2.50 on ebay with $11 shipping, and generally on the ones I'm seeing, you can combine shipping with two of these. General rule, about $15 gets you two Astropads.

 

The nice thing is, with the nine pin arrangement on both controllers, two leads are still left unused. In the future if I find some the two button gem sticks I might try connecting the wire for alternate 5200 button (for games like Dreadnaught), but assigning the wire to the X button for one of those unassigned leads.

 

With the nearly flawless emulation of Atari800DC, and the feel of the standard Atari 2600 joystick talking through the Astropad connection, it is easy to almost forget you are playing on a Dreamcast and not an 8-bit Atari system.

[midnight8]

...If you need me to give detailed instructs on it let me know and I will get it to you tomorrow. BTW I don't have the digital pad working just the thumbstick and I have only tried it on about 10 games

 

Sweet!! I like that! Yeh share those details here when you get the chance.

 

Atari 2600 to Proformance Astropad for the Dreamcast

 

1) find a 9 pin serial port male connector cable. Cut in half, strip ends of wires. This is good since you will have have more needed wires than the standard the Atari 2600 joystick normally has. This will give you a plug in for a slightly modified Atari 2600 Joystick to the Dreamcast controller.

2) Take the wires to the D-pad and cut in half, then take the wires that lead to the main board, split apart, strip ends. The middle (normally red) is ground. Then connect to the serial cable (in prefereably the Atari 2600 joystick port pinout) the various wires for up, down, left, right. This is the easiest part of the whole thing. If connected right, the Atari 2600 joystick would have swift moving directional controls.

3) The fire button, A on the Dreamcast controller, is on a seperate D-pad looking board with it's own ground. Combining this ground to the ground on the main Dpad will only confuse the fire button. To get around this, I created another lead (which I wired to lead #9 on the controller, normally unmapped on the Atari 2600 joystick connector). Then I take the usual fire button lead, and wire that to the A button lead on the button pad.

 

4) On the Atari 2600 joystick you want to connect the board to a serial cable with a female connector. Wire up the standard up, down, left, right, ground, and fire on the typical leads.

5) You have to create another ground wire, again to lead #9 in my case. I create a seperate ground circuit, I lifted up the clear coating on the joystick board, severed the fire button ground from the rest of the joystick ground, and ran a wire from the fire button ground to lead #9. Once the wire is in place, I stuck the cover back over the fire button ground wire.

 

Once both controllers were back together, connect the modified Atari stick to the modified Dreamcast, and you now have a Atari 2600 acting on D pad functions and usual select.

 

From now on, if you want to use an Atari 2600 stick on the modified Astropad, all you have to do is add the line #9 ground wire and sever that lead from the rest of the circuit.

 

I guess if you wanted to get fancy you could always create a modified controller, but make a switch so that the fire button uses the standard ground (to work on regular Atari game systems), or switch to the lead #9 wire so that it will work on the Dreamcast and Astropad connection.

 

Astropads as I write this are common, about $2.50 on ebay with $11 shipping, and generally on the ones I'm seeing, you can combine shipping with two of these. General rule, about $15 gets you two Astropads.

 

The nice thing is, with the nine pin arrangement on both controllers, two leads are still left unused. In the future if I find some the two button gem sticks I might try connecting the wire for alternate 5200 button (for games like Dreadnaught), but assigning the wire to the X button for one of those unassigned leads.

 

With the nearly flawless emulation of Atari800DC, and the feel of the standard Atari 2600 joystick talking through the Astropad connection, it is easy to almost forget you are playing on a Dreamcast and not an 8-bit Atari system.

 

I will post instructs here tomorrow after the daytona race I gotta watch that. in the meantime check out this controller I ipicked up. I'm gonna wire the 2 thumbsticks to seperate plugs so I can play robotron w/ one controller

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...A:IT&ih=014

Edited February 17, 2008 by midnight8

[midnight8]

First of all let me say lots of thanks to bigo who gave me the info on which dc stick to buy, and who is always helpful to me.

 

Here what I did on my controller. I started with the pc stick adapter since I already had one and I dont have a 15 pin cable around with enuff wires. The way its done currently you still need your start pause and reset on your stock controller. It can be wired to use start pause reset on the sega dc controller but I have not done it yet. pc stick adapter can be found in section 6.4 of atari 5200 faq here. http://www.atariage.com/5200/faq.html?SystemID=5200.

 

The controller must be an interact controller. The stock sega ones will not work. With the controller face down remove all screws to open controller. After the back is removed remove the original dc cord. Also the first circuit board you see is not needed, You can trash it by removing the screws and clipping the wires that go to it. With the controller face down still the thumbstick is in the upper right corner. the vert pot is on the left side and the horiz pot on the top side. You will need an old 15 port game port cable. I got mine from a broken PC stick. Don't forget to run the cable thru the bottom half of the controller before wiring or you will have to redo it. Clip these wires

 

Pin 1 on your cable needs to be attached to the commons of the pots which will be center connector on verticle pot and the one on the right side of the horiz pot as your looking down on it. You will have to remove the thumbstick to do this. It is held in w/ 3 screws.

 

Pin #6 will be connected to the upper most connector of the vertical pot

pin #3 will be connected to the center pin of the horiz. pot.

 

Next on the left side you bill see a group of 5 wires attached to the board they are yellow, orange, red, brown and black. I clipped these wires and tied into them as follows.

 

The yellow wire is common for the fire buttons. Attach it to pin 4 on your cable.

the orange wire connects ton pin #2

The brown wire attaches to pin # 6.

 

This makes the bottom fire buttons button b and the top fire buttons button a. you reverse if you want.

 

Close the controller back up and plug into your pc stick adapter.

 

This controller is not going to work on every game as it sits. I have only played about 11 different games with it so far. 1 game that does not work for sure is popeye. It will not go up or down but will go left and right for some reason. On some games it takes some getting used to because it is more sensitive than many analog sticks.

Edited February 17, 2008 by midnight8

[midnight8]

here's my latest controller for the 5200. its a 100 k thumb stick fitted into a gensis pad. I have tried it on about 40 games or so and so far only one game has given me problems and that was popeye. it seems thats the game that always gives me problems.

 

 

 

 

A little different different from what you have done, but thanks to bigo for help with it I am using a interact 3rd party dreamcast controller on my atari 5200 now. It woks pretty well on most games I have played except popeye which it won't go up or down. I will be woking on that.

 

This whole project started because I wanted a good controller with the 5200. So how do you have to do the conversion process for the interact controller and which one specifically was it? I got a few of those.