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How are you selecting number of players (Select Key?) You can use the option key to choose the controllers. What I did with much of my stuff was create a variable in page 0 called "OPT_CONTROL" / "OPTCTRL" with set values of 0,64,128,192. Use the BIT instruction with BMI, BVS, to branch out to the appropriate section of code to read the controller. Detecting OS is not difficult. But having it play on an Atari without MULTIJOY will be a nice feature.

 

Now are these boats traveling in a direction with the rotation changed by the joystick? One thing I got asked about was creating software that can also use Paddles or the 2600 INDY 500 Controllers. Many people purchased my stuff just because of that. I am not sure if other controllers work through the Multijoy interface.

 

The game does support 2 players without Multijoy, there's no problem with that. It's about 4 joystick option for Atari 800. And that's not possible in this game, because the game uses full 64k of RAM.

Paddles could be somewhat used, at least you have 4 of them, but the game is not designed for them at all. Also Multijoy does not support paddles. Or joysticks which needs +5V.

  • Like 1

Is it possible to port the game over to run from an Atari Max flash cartridge? Or Williams 64K EPROM or XEGS EPROM? Can be set up to move whatever is under the OS to the cartridge banks, assuming you are not using self-modifying code or writing data to those areas. I also did some work with Inflate/Deflate compression. Which saved some memory space.

  • 3 weeks later...

I designed my first ever PCB today. KiCad is a bit of a learning curve isn't it!

 

I made a MultiJoy 8! It's a caseless design to make it easier to build.

 

I've ordered a few boards. Once I've built one and tested that it works I'm happy to let people have the remaining ones.

 

I'll report back with my success or failure :grin:

 

Here's a render of the final board. It's my first ever one, be gentle!

 

 

 

  • Like 11

Holy shit - that is AWESOME! I'll take several. BTW - one is going to be fully populated but made into a wall clock :)

 

Thank you! It'll be a tiny wall clock, the disk is only 96mm (4") across!

Edited by Mr Robot
  • 2 weeks later...

Well it looks nice but it doesnt work. I got the pin numbering wrong on one of the female connectors so track 1 is going to pin 5 etc. Im going to fix that and order some more.

 

Learning curve!

 

 

  • Like 5

Hello Mr. Robot

 

Just a silly idea maybe, but why not replace one diode per Joystick with an LED?

 

 

I'm not sure if the voltage drop across the diode will stop it from working but ill try it and see. Might be nice to have the fire button(s) light an led when pressed.

Hello Steve

 

If you connect both +5V and GND to the PCB, you might be able to use an LED on the select line (=GND IIRC). Not sure how fast the LEDs would blink and if it would be possible to see which joystick is selected. But in some games you can choose the amount of players. In that case, you'd see only those joystick ports being selected. Which might not only look nice, but also make it easier to distinguish which joystick(port)s to use.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

  • Like 3

use low voltage drop low current grain of wheat surface mount LED's shouldn't be an issue... though I like the idea of not wasting a milliamp if possible.

Quick update to the multijoy progress (I'm going to play this game if it's the last thing I do!)

 

After I patched a board with the correct wiring, everything works ok... Except! If I try to use it on my 1088XEL the fire buttons doesn't work on any of the ports. They work fine on my NTSC 800XL. Learning from the experiences of the SDrive Max, I swapped one of the 1N4148 diodes for a 1N5819 Schottky diode and that one port now works... But! The Schottky diode is slightly bigger than the 1n4148 and wont fit the board correctly so I'll have to update all the diode footprints to be a bit bigger.

 

My macbook i currently out of action while I wait for a replacement back-light for the keyboard to arrive from China. Apple _really_ don't want you to replace the keyboard, it's riveted to the frame and the back-light is glued over it, it didn't survive the removal process.

I'm experimenting with Parsec TV. I wanted to organize some Sails of Doom sessions over the internet. But so far I had little luck. First my computer is right out not supported (dual GFX card). Even if I manage everything to work, it will only allow 3 players over the internet, and setting up the controllers won't be easy.

But I haven't give up just yet :-)

  • Like 1
  • 1 month later...

looks great but I worry about such thin traces, you can easily shrink the disc further if it saves some money...

 

This still looks awesome, love it... I was thinking how easy it would be to sandwich it with plastic disks cut from sheets at the local hobby store... but then I want to look at the it... it's so pretty... maybe they have clear plastic sheets, or can get some....

I was trying for the smallest possible size, and I wanted all through hole and simple soldering so people could get one from OSHpark and make thier own easily but I had a cursory glance through the first 14 pages of 9pin dsub connectors and didn't find any without flanges so 'easily' would have to include modding the shells, bending the metal or cutting off if plastic, thats moving away from simple for a lot of people.

 

OSHParks pricing structure is prohibitive for anything but tiny boards, these were going to be $72 for 3 boards and they are not quite 4 inches. I ended up going to allpcb and getting more boards for slightly less money (the cost of shipping now has really upped the allpcb price, it was twice the cost of the first incorrect batch).

 

The traces seem to be fine, I've tested the board and it seems to work great, even on the 1088xel which was refusing to work when I used the 4148 diodes that raster originally specced. The chip needs to be soldered to the board, it sits slightly proud of the connectors if socketed.

 

There is a mistake in the silkscreen, the atari port numbers are round the wrong way it should be 2-fuji-1 not 1-fuji-2. I'm not going to reprint for something so small, I'll just paint out the numbers and write the correct ones back in. I'll fix the layout if I ever need to print more.

 

I deliberately left the centerpoint and between the connectors free from traces in case people wished to try and make a case but there isn't really any need, the connector edges protect the components and any surface the board is put on.

 

Next thing is to try and make a multijoy hub that neatly joins two of these together to get a multijoy 16 :D

 

edit: spelling

Edited by Mr Robot
  • Like 1

Hello Steve

 

IIRC it was krupkaj who developed the Multijoy hub (after I told Fandal about the UltraJoyPro, which is still in development). He's not very active here on AA, but he does check in from time to time.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

Hi Mathy,

Jan sent me the files when he got home this evening.

 

The next step it to experiment with some cardboard shapes to see what will work trying to join two circles together!

  • Like 1

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