Suncom's Party Quiz - How did the controllers work?

[tschak909]

I saw a few Party Quiz disks in my collection ,and remembered the game, and its unique 4 button controllers. I'm wondering though, how did those controllers work? Simply using joysticks in their place doesn't seem to work, so am wondering if it is using some sort of scanning technique similar to the Atari Keypad controllers?

 

Anyone know? I don't have the controllers anymore, so I can't verify.

 

-Thom

[adam242]

If I remember correctly, they were read as paddles, each button registering a fixed resistance.

 

I'll see if I can dig mine out later... If I still have them...

[devwebcl]

Nice, I did not know them... it has a proxy/multiplexor connector:

http://atariage.com/forums/gallery/image/8264-suncom-party-quiz-game-controllers/

[adam242]

I knew they were here somewhere...

 

There are only two wires going to each controller. Inside is a PC board with a simple resistance strip tapped in four spots, and a piece of foam rubber (!) to provide spring action:

 

Here are the measured resistances, and PADDLE(0) values returned for each button:

 

1 610Ω 1

2 18.4KΩ 8

3 40.7KΩ 17

4 65.4KΩ 27

(none) 88.8KΩ 37

 

[tschak909]

I wonder, why paddle? Was it possible to have 8 players?

 

-Thom

[adam242]

The game was four players max, I think..

 

Probably just easier and/or cheaper than multiplexing 16 buttons onto an 8-bit port. Certainly easier to repurpose them yourself in BASIC.