Announcing new 2600 controller USB adaptor

[radiohead]

6 minutes ago, fdr4prez said:

yeah, you need a keyboard attached to the Pi and you get the same menu as the PC version.

 

A mouse is handy, too, otherwise you are pressing Tab a lot to jump around.

 

I use one of those little/mini wireless keyboard/mouse combo things.

I do have a spare keyboard that I plug into the Retropie for configuration, but I don't keep it plugged in. I have the Retropie as a game console for me and my kids in the den, and I don't want the kids to start pressing keyboard buttons and messing things up.

[+fdr4prez]

5 hours ago, radiohead said:

I do have a spare keyboard that I plug into the Retropie for configuration, but I don't keep it plugged in. I have the Retropie as a game console for me and my kids in the den, and I don't want the kids to start pressing keyboard buttons and messing things up.

Start the desired game that needs to be reconfigured.

 

Press the Tab key to open the menu. 

 

Make you change you need, exit the menu and reload the game to make sure the change remains, and then disconnect the keyboard. 

 

This is saved per game, so do it once and it is done for that game. 

 

No need to keep the keyboard attached. 

 

Again, menu navigation is much easier/quicker if you can also attach a mouse. 

[radiohead]

(Heavy tired sigh)... OK... I think I've got it. Everything is running in the same Stella 6.7 emulator on Retropie and I assume this will work on the PC.

On 2/20/2024 at 12:04 PM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

From the manual:

Swap Stelladaptor/2600-daptor port ordering

Control + 1

Control + 1

 

I swapped the 2600-daptor port to Right controller [Ctrl+1] and the USB joystick stays on the Left. But that would affect the paddles since they must be on the Left. So...

 

18 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

You could change the properties for the paddle games and swap the paddles. Is there way to edit them?

I had to "Swap Ports" in each paddle rom game properties setting.

 

4 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

Start the desired game that needs to be reconfigured.

 

Press the Tab key to open the menu. 

 

Make you change you need, exit the menu and reload the game to make sure the change remains, and then disconnect the keyboard. 

 

This is saved per game, so do it once and it is done for that game. 

 

No need to keep the keyboard attached. 

 

Again, menu navigation is much easier/quicker if you can also attach a mouse. 

After making the 2600-daptor port swtich to the right for the joystick and swapped ports back to make the paddles work on the left, I unplugged the keyboard and it looks like it's all holding steady. To make things even more complicated, I swapped the main paddle on some games to the other just so I can put even wear on the controllers (my last set was brand new and got jittery after 3 weeks).

 

Thanks for everybody's help. I deleted the 2600-daptor from retroarch because while the joystick worked fine, the paddle made the Emulation Station menu carousel screwy.

 

If Stella gets an update, hopefully all these settings will stay.

Edited February 22 by radiohead

[+fdr4prez]

3 hours ago, radiohead said:

If Stella gets an update, hopefully all these settings will stay.

Well don't quote me on this, but I think that's all dependent on your version of Retropie that you have now, and what version of Stella it has.

 

If the Retropie is old enough, then you have a v5 Stella that uses an older setting structure. So if you update then the settings will revert to the default. 

 

If you have somewhat of a current version of Retropie, then you have Stella v6.0.1 (or something like that). And that uses a different database structure for the settings. 

 

If you have updated your Retropie version very recently, then you can update to the latest version of Stella v6.7

 

I believe that so long as you have a v6 of Stella, then the settings will stick during an update, but don't quote me on that as I am not sure if that is true for the Stella update process within Retropie. 

 

I believe if you go back into the Stella menu, I think there is a way to see the version of Stella. 

[radiohead]

9 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

If you have updated your Retropie version very recently, then you can update to the latest version of Stella v6.7

 

I believe that so long as you have a v6 of Stella, then the settings will stick during an update, but don't quote me on that as I am not sure if that is true for the Stella update process within Retropie.

I have Retropie 4.8 and Stella 6.7. These are the latest releases as far as I know.

[+fdr4prez]

2 hours ago, radiohead said:

I have Retropie 4.8 and Stella 6.7. These are the latest releases as far as I know.

That is correct 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

1 hour ago, fdr4prez said:

That is correct 

6.7.1 is the latest one.

[+fdr4prez]

1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

6.7.1 is the latest one.

that is correct

 

but for RetroPie, the current (most recent) version is 6.7 available to it.

 

So it depends on the usage of the word "latest" or "current" in the context of RetroPie, and what's available in the real world.  Retropie is notorious for being years behind the normally available releases of Stella, so I am happy that someone took the time to get 6.7 added to Retrpie.

 

If you install RetroPie 4.8 (the current public version available), then it comes with Stella v6.0.1

 

if you have used the public v4.8 released RetroPie, and then do the RetroPie updates, then Stella 6.7 will be available to you to install.

 

if you use one of the "weekly builds" versions of RetroPie, such as v4.8.4 or v4.8.5, then it comes with Stella v6.7 within that build, so no need to do the "retropie upgrade"

 

You can do some manual manipulation of the RetroPie scripts and it'll download and build 6.7.1, but that's a fair bit of work to do.

 

So if you have retropie v4.8 and stella v6.7, then you are "current" for what's available to that system, but it isn't the latest available.

 

How's that word salad? 

 

For 6.7.1, is there is a big change, big fix, something that really should be used on Retropie compared to v6.7?

[+fdr4prez]

2 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

For 6.7.1, is there is a big change, big fix, something that really should be used on Retropie compared to v6.7?

oh, i just reread the main Stella 6.7 thread, and 6.7.1 is important if you are using DC with the 2600-dapter

 

 

 

So if one was using the 2600-dapter with DC on RetroPie with Stella 6.7 then there may be trouble.

 

I did previously do this upgrade, so I have v6.7 on my Pi, but I don't think I've used the driving controller since that time.

 

but I am using the UFBI adapter (Ultimate Flashback Interface) that @dualcam has made for @Byte Knight for his "ultimate" rebuilds of the Flashback units.  So this adapter is very similar to the 2600-dapter, but not exactly (different firmware), so this bug may not present itself with the UFBI adapter.

 

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

1 hour ago, fdr4prez said:

So this adapter is very similar to the 2600-dapter, but not exactly (different firmware), so this bug may not present itself with the UFBI adapter.

Since I produced and fixed the bug, I am very sure it is present.

Edited February 22 by Thomas Jentzsch

[+fdr4prez]

1 minute ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Since I produced and fixed the bug, I am very sure it is present.

Thanks.

I am not sure what effort it takes to get the RetroPie team to update their builds to use 6.7.1 directly.

 

I will need to find my old notes on how to manually edit the scripts in Retropie, and then it will download and build Stella 6.7.1

 

[+fdr4prez]

7 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

I will need to find my old notes on how to manually edit the scripts in Retropie, and then it will download and build Stella 6.7.1

 

Notes have been found.

If you attempt this and it does not work, then I take no responsibility for your SD card or RetroPie build.  You can make an image of your card, or don't attempt it if you are not comfortable doing this.

 

You can also go to the RetroPie Forums for direct support.

 

I am using WinSCP (but you can do this directly from the terminal - if you are familiar with it).

 

this is what I did:

 

browse to /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/emulators/

   

 

Double-click on the stella.sh so it opens in the Editor, and change the version from 6.7 to 6.7.1

 

  

 

 

Close and save the updated file.

 

 

Now go into the Retropie Setup and select Manage Packages

 

Select Manage Optional Packages

 

Go down to the Stella and select that.

 

Now in the Stella screen, select "Install from Source"

 

This process will take a while to complete.

 

When completed, back out of the menus, and then reboot.

 

 

Now I have Stella v6.7.1 installed in RetroPie

 

 

 

PS: I learned this method from the RetroPie Forums directly, and I did it once a long time ago, so it is not a process I made up.

[willywonka]

I am looking to buy and use both Magnavox Odyssey 2 controllers and Fairchild Channel F controllers on a PC and MiSTer.

 

The 2600 D9 adapter lists compatibility with both of these controllers.

 

Both of these controllers came in two versions, one hard-wired into the console and the other with a 9-pin plug.

 

If I were to buy the wired versions of these controllers and correctly connect the wires to a DB9 breakout connector, does anyone know if it would it be compatible with the 2600 D9 adapter?

 

I haven't found anywhere online to tell me if they just made an external plug for the controllers that had been hard-wired into the console or they made other changes to the controllers.

[+fdr4prez]

If the pin out for the 9-pin is correct, then the adapter will not know if the controller was originally hardwired or not. 

 

I did this for my Channel F controllers