Atari 8-Player Multijoy Adaptor - new full color assembly instructions

[8Bitjunkie]

Hello Atarians,

Maybe you already know the Atari 8-Player Multijoy Adaptor to play with eight joysticks on one Atari XL/XE Computer.

The plans were quite old, but the german magazine "RETURN" brought a new full color picture assembly instruction in issue #16 - complete with part list, diagrams and photos.

If you ever wanted to build your own Multijoy, this may be of interest:

https://www.return-magazin.de/ausgaben/return-ausgabe-16/

https://www.facebook.com/RETURN.Magazin

Greetings
Thomas

P.S: Building this for your own is legal - even in Europe

[pps]

That looks awesome

 

I assume you had a lot of fun building and then testing if everything works well.

[8Bitjunkie]

Oh yes! We had a lot of fun! Wanna join us next time?

[powersoft]

Sadly some sentences must be posted as there are some freaks around want to destroy the scene...

 

This looks like mega fun! Even there are a lot games (in my oppinion) available up to 8 players... Just to find eight in total may in an area like mine really hard :-)

 

Cheers

[8Bitjunkie]

We met with 4 people in the town called "Essen" and handcrafted the four multijoys pictured above...

You may find some pictures of building the red one here:

http://www.abbuc.de/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=7873&start=40

 

 

@powersoft: Go to the street, collect 7 people and start playing :-)

There should be no problem on events like NOMAM, Fujiama, DoReCo, [Connected], and so on :-)

 

 

[kenjennings]

Are there plans for MultiJoy in English somewhere?

[powersoft]

@8bitjunkie: Where I live are no seven people on the street, haha :-)

 

@kenjennings: I got an idea - but need to check it with two people to make this available...

[8Bitjunkie]

...Btw: there are pretty cool games available für the Atari MultiJoy:

(Gamma) Hockey - 4 Player
(Gamma) Soccer - 4 Player
(Thorn EMI) Hockey - 4 Player
(Thorn EMI) Soccer - 4 Player
Asteroids - 4 Player
Astro4Road - 4 Player
Astrowarriors M4 - 4 Player
Basketball - 4 Player
Battle Room - 4 Player
Bremspunkt - 4 Player
Card Grabber - 8 Player
Cervi - 8 Player
Cervi2 - 16 Player
Dandy Dungeon - 4 Player
Dynakillers Unchained - 4 Player
Floyd of the Jungle - 4 Player
Fujiama Run - 7 Player
Gem M4 - 4 Player
HeliCops - 5 Player
Ice-Hockey - 4 Player
Impact M4 - 4 Player
Killa Cycle M4 - 4 Player
Killer 'Thello M4 - 4 Player
M.U.L.E. - 4 Player
Major League Hockey M4 - 4 Player
Mashed Turtles - 8 Player
Mazewar - 4 Player
Mouse Party M4 - 4 Player
Multris - 4 Player
Proto Basketball M4+ - 4 Player
Quadrotron M4 - 4 Player
Sheep Race - 8 Player
Shot 'em all - 16 Player
Silicon Warrior by Epyx - 4 Player
Survivor - 4 Player
Table Football M4+ - 4 Player
Tennis - 4 Player
Wingman - 4 Player

And that were not all games available for the Multijoy!


But the best is:

The parts for the logic cost only 1 Euro and 15 cent! (1.57 Dollar / 0.95 Pound)

Part: Qty Price Sum
SCHOTTKY-TTL 1 0,290 € 0,29 €
Elko, axial, 330µF/16Volt 1 0,180 € 0,18 €
Planar Epitaxial Schaltdiode, 40 0,017 € 0,68 €

Add a few bucks für the joystick sockets and a housing and you are done :-)

[pps]

...

M.U.L.E. - 4 Player

...

Oh, missed this one - where to get the patched version?

[8Bitjunkie]

You have an PN :-)

 

just search for

atari <gamename> M4 fandal

[pps]

thanks

[8Bitjunkie]

Here are two pictures of my multijoy...

 

 

It's no rocket science, you can build one on a rainy afternoon :-)

 

Edited April 5, 2014 by 8Bitjunkie

[Lynxpro]

That is some serious sorcery. How does it grant the ability to support 8 players? I mean, getting a non 400/800 to support 4-players is impressive enough.

 

I'm assuming it's all due to the POKEY and thus this couldn't be replicated on a 7800.

[Mathy]

Hello Lynxpro

 

The Atari can handle 16 players using 16 joysticks via a Multijoy Interface. PIA pins can be switched to output. When using a multijoy interface, one joystick port is switched to output, the other to input. "Input" reads the joystick, "output" selects which joystick is read.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[mykgerard]

This Multijoy sounds awesome. I'm bummed because my understanding is that nearly all of this stuff is PAL

[Ray Gillman]

On 9/13/2017 at 1:54 AM, mykgerard said:

This Multijoy sounds awesome. I'm bummed because my understanding is that nearly all of this stuff is PAL

I too would love to know if anyone ever confirmed plans for an NTSC multijoy 4 player for MULE in the Americas? I can play 4 players using an emulator but the timings are never right, so you can't have computer players because only they can perform three plots on a turn and humans are lucky to get two done because of the timing being off. Ruins two and three player games outright

[Ray Gillman]

So adapting this to build a multijoy for four sticks only would pin 8 of Stick4 go to pin 12 or pin 7 of the 74ALS138 chip?
Stick ports 1-2-3-4 all chain pins 1,2,3,4,6 to each other and to 10K resist @ground? Seems almost simple enough for me to try making one - lemme get my staple gun and plank of wood to get started HAH