Mega 2 joystick

[mrdweeb]

I can't get my joystick to work on the Mega 2. I've tried both ports, with and without mouse. Any suggestions? Is the joystick driver part of the OS or loaded by an app? Thanks.

[Zogging Hell]

If your mouse is working it's pretty likely the joystick is working in that port. But for most games the joystick usually needs to be in the other port (port 1 iirc) from your mouse (if a second player is playing you will need to plug their joystick into the mouseport). There are no drivers as such, each game usually reads the hardware directly to get the joystick state. Joysticks also don't work in GEM unless you are using one of the more obscure programs that let you control the mouse with the joystick. I take it you have loaded a game with the joystick in port 1 and are getting no response? Occasionally the mechanically not clever design and location of the joystick ports results some solder joints detaching themselves. If you find you can only move in certain directions, or the fire button doesn't work you will possibly need to break out the soldering iron or get someone who can and solder the ports back onto the keyboard. The other thing to check is that often joysticks of the period can run on different home computers, lots of which have different wiring/ pin outs. If the stick is completely unresponsive it may be it is designed for a Spectrum or Commodore or something else (or your joystick is broken). Often there is a switch to change the computer on the joystick (look underneath), or a different coloured additional plug. In the latter case, grey is usually the colour for the other computers and black for the Atari.

 

What joystick are you using BTW, some pads, such as those for the Megadrive/ Genesis are not compatible?

[mrdweeb]

Thank you for the detailed response to my question. Using your information, I was finally able to get the joystick to work on Xenon 2 and a few other games. Apparently my machine is a bit picky about what ports the joystick and mouse are plugged into. I'm using a standard Atari joystick, black, one stick, and red button. It also works with my Commodore 64.

[Zogging Hell]

Yep port 1 for joystick, port 0 for mouse/ joystick Because the hardware is read directly and there is no abstraction layer to decide what is plugged into what, developers always went for the port without the mouse, so people can leave that in and still play a game with a joystick in the other port. That standard Atari one will be fine, although if you are into ST games I would think about getting a nicer microswitched model (or a pad if you prefer).