Trak-Ball Atari 2600 Trak-Ball Games

[ledzep]

On 11/26/2019 at 9:47 PM, Swami said:

I drew up a schematic for something that might work as a paddle for joystick games, but not certain if it would work. It's based on autofire, with two 555 timer chips, except with directions rather than button speed.BTW, diodes need to be closer to the 7 pins. Also, left and right should be shorted, not buttons.

 

A bit off-topic, I know, but this just occurred to me.  I suck at electronics so I would like to ask, is it possible to draw out a schematic for an all-buttons controller for the 5200?  Meaning "left" button would output whatever value the joystick would output for full left, same for "right", "thrust" (up), "hyperspace" (down).  Or if one already exists, where could I find that?

[Stechmann]

On 10/25/2023 at 11:55 PM, TrekMD said:

Sadly, true.  It seems the game would have to be entirely rewritten in order to make it Trak-Ball compatible. 

that does not seem plausible. its only the input and character movement code that needs a rewrite. 

[fluxit]

On 11/19/2015 at 6:22 AM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I only had a very brief look at Crystal Castles and found no free time in the kernel. So I would expect a major rewrite. And as soon as DPC/ARM is required, a complete rewrite would be most likely much more effective.

 

Thomas isn't saying that it's impossible to add TB support to 2600 Crystal Castles.  He's saying that it isn't just a quick, simple hack.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

14 hours ago, Stechmann said:

that does not seem plausible. its only the input and character movement code that needs a rewrite. 

Nope, in case of the 2600 and a trackball it requires a kernel change too. If there is not enough free CPU time inside the kernel (at it is the case for CC), you would have to rewrite the kernel to gain that extra time required. The latter is not always possible. And, since 2600 games revolve around the kernel, you would have to rewrite larger other parts of the code too.

[Lynxpro]

On 10/30/2023 at 2:11 AM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Nope, in case of the 2600 and a trackball it requires a kernel change too. If there is not enough free CPU time inside the kernel (at it is the case for CC), you would have to rewrite the kernel to gain that extra time required. The latter is not always possible. And, since 2600 games revolve around the kernel, you would have to rewrite larger other parts of the code too.

 

Sounds like a job for the DPC+ ARM chip to do the heavy lifting of tracking the Trak-Ball controller. Obviously, that would need a revised or rewritten kernel. it also means that a 2600 version - and a hypothetical 7800 home-brew version - could be achieved via a cart-based DPC+ chip but an A8/5200 solution would probably require internal expansion [like a socket CPU board] and/or a 65816 to do the heavy lifting. And all of the above would not be simple coding.

[BigO]

On 10/26/2023 at 2:46 PM, ledzep said:

 

A bit off-topic, I know, but this just occurred to me.  I suck at electronics so I would like to ask, is it possible to draw out a schematic for an all-buttons controller for the 5200?  Meaning "left" button would output whatever value the joystick would output for full left, same for "right", "thrust" (up), "hyperspace" (down).  Or if one already exists, where could I find that?

There is/was a thing called a "Redemption Adapter". That may start you down the appropriate rabbit hole.

[+Atari_Warlord]

All the talk about Trackballs in the 2600+ forum has my mind wondering if there are other games that would play better in true trackball mode?

 

Crystal Castles, although I see from this thread it would take a major rewrite.

 

I just played Tigervisions Threshold in the HSC and it seems like it would benefit as it plays a lot like Centipede.