It's official, Atari Inc did create a Dual 7800 ProLine Joystick Coupler

[gambler172]

Hi Guys

it is just for showing,cause i do not know,what would be a fair price.And the high shipping costs from germany let me decide not to make any of them for offer.And i also have lots of work......

Maybe in the future......but the best way would be a 3D printer,which might be perfect.My coupler is only handmade...and not perfect.

greetings Walter

Edited May 26, 2014 by gambler172

[YANDMAN]

Its still far too light and flimsy to gain real purchase on though for playing Robotron, You really require a proper twin stick arcade set-up. I have been considering building a one off 7800 Robotron controller, but as there was no pal release it would be purely for sale and probably too high a price once finished.

[gambler172]

Hi Guys

i decided to build a 2nd one,which will look near perfect.Will post a pic during the next days

greetings Walter

[gorfcadet]

I'm telling ya' the way to go is mod a Virtual Boy controller into a twin pad with p1 on the left dpad and right buttons and player 2 on the right dpad with the left buttons. It would also be ideal for Indiana Jones for 2600.

[gambler172]

I'm telling ya' the way to go is mod a Virtual Boy controller into a twin pad with p1 on the left dpad and right buttons and player 2 on the right dpad with the left buttons. It would also be ideal for Indiana Jones for 2600.

Hi

But playing with 2 Prosystem joysticks is more fun

for a 7800 User

[gorfcadet]

Maybe, but I quickly switched to a freedom stick even in 86. I blame the prolines for my early onset arthritis.

 

Edited May 27, 2014 by gorfcadet

[AtariChris]

My Redneck Edition of a Robotron Setup

 

 

Edited May 27, 2014 by AtariChris

[Prosystemsearch]

My Redneck Edition of a Robotron Setup

 

 

The wooden board is too big.

[phoenixdownita]

I wonder how hard would be to mod a PS dual shock, use the 2 analogs for the direction sticks and map the 2 buttons of each joystick on the shoulder buttons.

An analog to digital needs to be built based on thresholds for the 2 analog sticks, I've never even checked what's their range, but a couple of operational amplifiers used as comparers per direction should do the trick.

 

Maybe a hunk of 3D printed plastic is not such a bad idea after all

[Hydro Thunder]

I think the coupler for the ProLines would be the ultimate 7800 twinstick set up.

But that said, I can't recommend strongly enough getting two 7800 Europads for Robotron 7800. With the stick on each of them, they really really work well.

I don't like the Europads at all for maze games like Ms Pac Man, but they're terrific as a twin-stick fix with no redneckery or other duct-tapery required.

[galax]

Break out the soldering iron, these things are usually easy enough to hack together that even I can do it...

 

[gambler172]

Hi Guys

made the 2nd coupler.Works fine,but looks better

than my 1st

Photo tomorrow

greetings Walter

[+GoldenWheels]

Hi Guys

made the 2nd coupler.Works fine,but looks better

than my 1st

Photo tomorrow

greetings Walter

Be interested to see it Walter, and also to know what materials you are using.

[Lynxpro]

Break out the soldering iron, these things are usually easy enough to hack together that even I can do it...

 

What the what?

[galax]

Just a couple of recent examples of hacking different controllers together, those are Atari 9-pin DIN joystick ports on an Xbox 360 controller (for Sensible Soccer) and an iCade cabinet (for Llamatron games)

[gambler172]

Hi Guys

this is my 2nd built.Looks better,than the 1st one

Took again 1 hour of working.The material,i use is called EVA,which means ETHYLEN VINYL ACETAT

and called LUNACELL 10 mm black

Material costs are about 8 Euro and for sure the work

But shipping is damn high,which makes a release not reasonable....However i have now one left.Not sure,what to do with it.

 

greetings Walter

[Trebor]

Very cool, Walter.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but how does the controller stay in place when pressed upward? It seems from the picture, if you're having an intense gaming session and press really hard upward on the holder the controller could (would?) pop out.

 

Just curious, thanks!

[gambler172]

Hi Guys

i checked it out for sure and it works well.But for sue,if you play too brutal.....,it would sure crash the originals plastic

If you are a normal player,it works very well,but if you are unsure,you could use Klett (i do not know the english name for this )

Greetings Walter

[gambler172]

Ps:If my tester wants,he can get it for checking out....,just PM me....T...,,

[Lynxpro]

I wonder how hard would be to mod a PS dual shock, use the 2 analogs for the direction sticks and map the 2 buttons of each joystick on the shoulder buttons.

An analog to digital needs to be built based on thresholds for the 2 analog sticks, I've never even checked what's their range, but a couple of operational amplifiers used as comparers per direction should do the trick.

 

Maybe a hunk of 3D printed plastic is not such a bad idea after all

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8RZWtDAa9w

 

Video series of getting a PS Dual Shock working on an Atari 5200.

 

 

I guess technically we all could've purchased the 2600 Joystick Coupler and used it with 7800 Robotron but it still wouldn't have been the same experience [or planned experienced per what Atari Inc. had envisioned for us].

[Lynxpro]

Just a couple of recent examples of hacking different controllers together, those are Atari 9-pin DIN joystick ports on an Xbox 360 controller (for Sensible Soccer) and an iCade cabinet (for Llamatron games)

 

It would be interesting to see you play a game with the Xbox360 controller with the joystick cable sticking out of it in that location!

[+GoldenWheels]

Hi Guys

this is my 2nd built.Looks better,than the 1st one

Took again 1 hour of working.The material,i use is called EVA,which means ETHYLEN VINYL ACETAT

and called LUNACELL 10 mm black

Material costs are about 8 Euro and for sure the work

But shipping is damn high,which makes a release not reasonable....However i have now one left.Not sure,what to do with it.

HNI_0033.JPG

 

greetings Walter

 

Very nice Walter. I'd be lucky to get anything close to that with many hours put in using wood, let alone trying to bond plastics, or polymers, or whatever the correct name is for that stuff!

[Lynxpro]

Others have mentioned how great it would be to have Smash TV ported to the 7800 for use with the ProLine Joystick Coupler. Aside from Battlezone - and Xybots and Vindicators - we're overlooking another [classic] Atari arcade game that also featured dual joysticks…BLACK WIDOW!

[+GoldenWheels]

Hi Guys

this is my 2nd built.Looks better,than the 1st one

Took again 1 hour of working.The material,i use is called EVA,which means ETHYLEN VINYL ACETAT

and called LUNACELL 10 mm black

Material costs are about 8 Euro and for sure the work

But shipping is damn high,which makes a release not reasonable....However i have now one left.Not sure,what to do with it.

HNI_0033.JPG

 

greetings Walter

Walter, when you get a chance could you do me a favor and measure the distance between the sticks of your design (center to center is easiest I suppose)? I am looking to make a much less fancy (wood) version of the coupler and am interested in how far apart you placed the sticks.

[+GoldenWheels]

Well, inspired by AtariChris' "Redneck Edition" (really a very good idea) and Walter's very nice custom work, I decided to see if I could do something similar, albeit with 3/4 AC plywood. The graphics are from a 30 year old pack of colorforms "rub ons"....a little faded but they still work! I used zip ties like Atari Chris but also used a wide strip of industrial strength Velcro on the bottom of each controller. Neither solution on it's own was enough (I tested both singly) but between the two, the controllers are now basically part of the board. I've put in about 5-6 hours of frantic Robotron on it and they didn't budge a millimeter. It's not like they are easily detachable (though they are detachable) but considering I'd never use these controllers anyway, for me that is no big loss.

 

 

I wish I had use semi-gloss (I think it's too shiny) but gloss enamel was what I had on hand. I'm waiting on some rubber feet (so it will sit solidly on a tabletop, the bottom has the other ends of those zip ties).

 

For other people who won't use their stock 7800 controllers (or have extra) and really want to play Robotron right, this works great--and it's the most fun Ive ever had with this stock controller. And even a simple board (10x6 3/4 ply)+zip ties+velcro gets the same result, without paint or decals. Very easy to make if you want to try one yourself, you only need to cut the board and a drill to makes holes for the zip ties. And what a difference when you actually play!