A new controller SECOND BATCH AVAILABLE

[8bitwidgets.com]

57 minutes ago, MattelAquarius said:

I'll keep an eye out, and hold off until the new batch is actually available.

yea for sure, this latest batch was held up due to outside variables.  I was part of that variable.  I printed the enclosures for all of them.  As if in some mass revolt, three of my four printers decided to malfunction for different reasons..  so I had to get those fixed to ramp up production again..  not to mention there was a significant hold up for the PCBs to get to me (another reputable contributor to the community, which I'm sure that hold up had had it's reasons) on top of that before I could assemble / glue  / test all of the games before then shipping from the US to France where Cote is based.  

 

As for these controllers, I'm not sure who will be doing the final assembly.  I'll be shipping them to someone.  Just not sure who yet.  

Edited March 19 by 8bitwidgets.com

[larryvgs]

Caleb was on The Intellivision Gamer's channel yesterday explaining his involvement with Cote Gamers.  The video is a great source for Intellivision information if you have the time to watch the full interview with Caleb.  I ordered 2 couplers and a pair of adapters from his Etsy site to play Intellivision Flashback controllers on the Sears model from Caleb awhile back and they all work great and Caleb got them out to me in no time.  I highly recommend buying from him.  (8BitWidgets at Etsy or the same with a .com at the end for his hilarious and unique website.)  As for the Long Play controllers, I would wait until the second batch comes out as it sounds like they will be even better than the first.

Edited March 20 by larryvgs

[JoeM_Intellivision]

A bit off topic but needed to get Pyramid Warp & a Long Play Controller myself. Is Pyramid Warp available I never heard back awhile ago? If not maybe someone has an extra for sale/trade.

[Sinjinhawke]

1 hour ago, JoeM_Intellivision said:

A bit off topic but needed to get Pyramid Warp & a Long Play Controller myself. Is Pyramid Warp available I never heard back awhile ago? If not maybe someone has an extra for sale/trade.

Pyramid Warp still seems to be for sale on their website.  Looks like they have 36 copies.

https://cotegamers.com/shop/en/accueil/173-pyramid-warp-preorder.html

 

Also Norseman 2 is still in stock.

https://cotegamers.com/shop/en/accueil/160-norseman-2-deluxe.html

 

as for the controller their page says they still have a few in stock.

https://cotegamers.com/shop/en/accueil/136-long-play-disc-controller.html

 

 

[+MattelAquarius]

Well I ordered 2 controllers.  I was only going to get one, to see how I like it, but the shipping cost made me go for 2 instead.

 

Hopefully, the delivery process will go smoothly.  🤞

[1980gamer]

3 hours ago, MattelAquarius said:

Well I ordered 2 controllers.  I was only going to get one, to see how I like it, but the shipping cost made me go for 2 instead.

 

Hopefully, the delivery process will go smoothly.  🤞

Good luck!  Please let us know if/when you get them.

[+MattelAquarius]

Update for anyone wondering if they should order from this company at this time:

 

I haven't heard anything from them since ordering over three weeks ago.  Two days ago I made an inquiry via their online "Contact us" link and direct email.  

 

Have not received a response yet. 

 

Hmmm

 

I will post here if/when something changes.

[+MattelAquarius]

Positive news Update!

 

Apparently their first reply went to my spam folder, but they did follow-up with a second email to explain that there is a 20-30 day delay for shipping the controllers.  They explained that there is a disclaimer below the PayPal purchase button.  It may be a new disclaimer, but in fairness, I may have missed that when ordering.

 

It was just a bit concerning, because there was no order confirmation from CoteGames, just the PayPal confirmation.

 

So, things are good!

[tripletopper]

Hello.

 

To modify a quote fromSor Mix a Lot ...

 

I like big sticks and I cannot lie.

 

Does your PCB have 16 individual actuation points, or do you take an XY space and divide it into 16 wedges and a bullseye?

 

If the second, would it be easy to build a PC15->INTV2 controller interface with the 3 action buttons interfaced with a 3.5mm TRS female.  (I got 8bitwidgets.com 's INTVFB->INTV2 adapter, [which I heard is reversible with a double male straight DB9 and double female straight DB9.]  So I can provide my own connection needs as far as flashback pins are concerned ) 

 

I Got my own keyboard needs met with a DB9 straight y splitter and an INTVFB pad and appropriate cables. All I need is the PC15 to INTV2 circuit and the 3.5mm TRS interface with the 3 action buttons.

 

Can that be hired to get done for $100 or less?

[8bitwidgets.com]

3 minutes ago, tripletopper said:

Does your PCB have 16 individual actuation points

I don't know, i'd have to open it up but i think mike does a reasonable deep dive into what's under the hood in this video.. so watch this to find your answer for sure..  if memory serves I feel like it's an 8 way setup.. switch-wise

 

6 minutes ago, tripletopper said:

would it be easy to build a PC15->INTV2

what is this for?  vga?  total ignorance here on this request and very curious

 

8 minutes ago, tripletopper said:

I got 8bitwidgets.com 's INTVFB->INTV2 adapter, [which I heard is reversible with a double male straight DB9 and double female straight DB9.] 

(Thank you).  I should double check this is a thing.  i feel like i did but can't remember for sure.  I will say that it's a bit clunky to try those adapters.   I do have both kinds (female female / male male) but i'm not sure how well they will stay in..   not to shamelessly plug another product but I do now offer a INTV 2 Flashback product as well.. basically the exact opposite product in a nice compact size like the other, but.. different

 

By the time you might buy those other parts then find things falling apart..  this honestly would be the headache free means to go the other direction..  

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1696205785/intellivision-flashback-adapter-sockets

 

14 minutes ago, tripletopper said:

and the 3.5mm TRS interface with the 3 action buttons.

ther's a 3.5mm jack on the intellivision somewhere?  i'm trying to visualize how between this and a PC15 interface ties into the intellivision.  Sounds interesting though

 

 

[YannAros]

It’s 16 way, using 12 switches as original mylard.

[tripletopper]

First of all I looked at the video and found that you have 16 individuals micro switches for the 16 individual directions. 

 

What I want to do if I could fully realize it is have my 14 button joystick base, and my analog flight stick or, if I'm playing at 4-way or 8-way, game, my standard fight stick, 

 

Second, I don't know what the official name of this port is as I've never owned a PC especially a pre Windows PC but there's a 15 pin port that I call a PC 15 part that used to let you put in flight sticks it can be confused with the Atari 5200 port.  And the Bohoki adapter actually converts between the 5200 ports and the pc15 port.   is one of those ports you use for flight sticks in the '80s which are single-handed analog sticks with two buttons on it.

 

The 3.5 mm refers to handicap controls used since the 1990s when I bought a KY enterprises joystick and is the system that Xbox currently uses with its adaptive control system.  

 

Since I'm asking from the community it should be only fair that I give to the community.

 

I can make no money off of my inventions anyway unless it was so astronomical that I could live off the residuals at my lifestyle or better and have my insurance paid for.  So it benefits the most people possible I let anyone use my ideas for free and hope that if it does get to the point where there's astronomical profits (not bloody likely but one can hope) like they'll get some loving in some form.  But if I were to get paid say $5 a unit for my services (just an example, not a real charge) let's just say if it got more than 20 units in a year I would have to worry about my social security balancing for the year because the main reason why I'm on social security is because inability to work.  This one time payments May disqualify me if it's too high or too frequent or whatever.  And the insurance is the largest part of my benefits thanks to my medicines and disability.  So actually do not pay me for these ideas so I give them out freely and you choose where you use them or not and it's worth exactly at least what you paid for them.  

 

I think I could design this pad as well as the retrogameboyz.com Intellistick to be a user- changeable ambidextrous model.   So you could 180 the pad and they can both a lefty and a righty pad simultaneously.  The layout you both happened to choose is perfect for ambidextrization.

 

Just use the symmetry and rotate the joystick 180° to get the perfect flip side mapping.

 

An example of it is on my website sinistersticks.com with my original ambidextrous fight stick.  Also on the website is my observations about the state of the industry about why most controllers are not designed to be ambidextrous.  

 

Feel free to use any of my ideas however you want if you don't want to make separate left-handed and right-handed versions and have a user-serviceable ambidextrous controller.

 

When I'm working with thumbs, I'm usually all thumbs.  The thing that would be perfect is one of these people have a pc-15 intellivision 2 setup for their PC and I was wondering if I could have a direct to a television hardware connector for that type of setup. 

 

I think probably the best solution is to have two different solutions and try not to make a Swiss army knife out of intellivision.  Probably retro gameboys.com would have the perfect four-way and 8-way solution if I could have those controllers outputting to 3.5 mm TRS as opposed to actual physical buttons to press but it should be pretty easy to convert between one and the other.  I can't do it myself but it should be relatively easy.

 

Ask for the Flashback to INTV2 adapter, I don't know whether you sent me the original one or the inverse one but I'll see if I could deal with it myself as I bought two sets of three DB9 double me mail and double female converters one for each joystick.    By the way you could sell it for both is to have both ends be either double the male or double female whichever is less fragile, and you insert the double opposite one to make it a male to female cable one way to make it one way and the other way to make it the other way.

 

By the way I've used VGA pin adapters on my consoleized Virtual Boy to get a stereoscopic inverse picture, where the color is the negative space and the black is the positive space unlike normal Virtual Boy where the color is the positive space and the black is the negative space.

[8bitwidgets.com]

1 minute ago, tripletopper said:

Windows PC but there's a 15 pin port

are you talking about the PC Game Port?  Yea that's the Game Port I believe is the typical name.  VGA just happens to be 15pins also in a different configuration.  

 

3 minutes ago, tripletopper said:

The 3.5 mm refers to handicap controls used since the 1990s

Ah never dealt with that before.  Yea not sure how that would interface into the intellivision either.  I suppose there must be a way.  Just beyond my knowledge.

 

5 minutes ago, tripletopper said:

but I'll see if I could deal with it myself as I bought two sets of three DB9 double me mail and double female converters one for each joystick. 

I believe it will work, but it's funny how easy it is to get things reversed when you're dealing with these kind of adapters.  A little tape would likely be all you need to insure they stay connected if it's meant to be a fairly permanent situation.

 

6 minutes ago, tripletopper said:

I've used VGA pin adapters on my consoleized Virtual Boy to get a stereoscopic inverse picture

wild  

[Ignorama]

No solution or answer to any of the problems, but I sell my two controllers (with Adapter) für 120€+ Shipping. Please note, Shipping outside Europe will be around 50€, so pretty expensive sadly.

 

If anybody is interessted let me know, PayPal Family and Friends only.

[8bitwidgets.com]

3 minutes ago, Ignorama said:

but I sell my two controllers (with Adapter)

Longplay controllers?   

 

10 minutes ago, Ignorama said:

Shipping outside Europe will be around 50€

For US buyers (I think) you could use www.shippo.com which does international stuff and put his address as the sender and you as the recipient and i bet you might find some cheaper options.   I've done this with www.pirateship.com but this was US to US so far since PS only does US for now.  

 

[tripletopper]

If I may make a couple suggestions...

 

First of all I understand it might be too late to make a design change in the process, so this would be for a second model. 

 

If you have the disc and the three button triangle totally in the center you could in theory make an ambidextrous pad.  Just rotate  the pad 180° and rewire on the opposite end to correspond with the reverse layout.

 

I'm personally interested in an ambidextrous 16-way stick.  With thumb pads I'm all thumbs.  I prefer large controls over small ones. 

 

The way you probably have it designed you probably have 16 physical actuators for the 16 physical ways on the pad.

 

If the way you chose to do 16 ways instead was taking an analog stick (like a PC15 or Atari 5200)  and dividing it into wedges and one bullseye for neutral , maybe I could have someone take the PCB and turn it into the basis for a 16-way fight stick.

 

So do you have 16 physical actuators for 16 physical ways or do you use a circuit based  computation of an analog stick and finding 16 wedges and a bullseye?

 

It should be pretty easy to do with a PC 15 set a radius that defines the bullseye and then if movement is beyond bullseye then divide the angles into 16 regions.  And I believe the formula is tangent of (y / x), assuming zero degrees is East and clockwise are positive degrees.

[8bitwidgets.com]

3 minutes ago, tripletopper said:

make an ambidextrous pad. 

yea that would be cool.  have a physical switch that would be capable of inverting the signals

 

 

 

 

[Ignorama]

16 minutes ago, 8bitwidgets.com said:

Longplay controllers?   

 

The ones sold in this Thread from Coyote Gamers. And I ship DHL only, other services are not trustworthy here

[8bitwidgets.com]

26 minutes ago, Ignorama said:

And I ship DHL only, other services are not trustworthy here

ah i see.  well hopefully someone who needs them buys them.  

[Rickster8]

I'm still looking for a long play controller that has the disc on the right side..... 🙄

 

Would gladly swap one of my left side disc controllers. I have two lefties....  

[Crash7]

Yeah I could use one of those also LOL

[+fdr4prez]

5 hours ago, tripletopper said:

If I may make a couple suggestions...

 

First of all I understand it might be too late to make a design change in the process, so this would be for a second model. 

 

If you have the disc and the three button triangle totally in the center you could in theory make an ambidextrous pad.  Just rotate  the pad 180° and rewire on the opposite end to correspond with the reverse layout.

 

I'm personally interested in an ambidextrous 16-way stick.  With thumb pads I'm all thumbs.  I prefer large controls over small ones. 

 

The way you probably have it designed you probably have 16 physical actuators for the 16 physical ways on the pad.

 

If the way you chose to do 16 ways instead was taking an analog stick (like a PC15 or Atari 5200)  and dividing it into wedges and one bullseye for neutral , maybe I could have someone take the PCB and turn it into the basis for a 16-way fight stick.

 

So do you have 16 physical actuators for 16 physical ways or do you use a circuit based  computation of an analog stick and finding 16 wedges and a bullseye?

 

It should be pretty easy to do with a PC 15 set a radius that defines the bullseye and then if movement is beyond bullseye then divide the angles into 16 regions.  And I believe the formula is tangent of (y / x), assuming zero degrees is East and clockwise are positive degrees.

If it was easy, then it would have been done a long time ago. 

 

Isn't it interesting that in 40-years that there really hasn't been many third-party controllers for the Intellivision - even when it was available pre-crash? 

 

For this Long Play Controller - They are not using an analog stick, and they are not doing a "computation of an analog stick" 

 

Those would require using a microcontroller that requires power. 

 

The Intellivision console does not provide power to the controller. 

 

This would require an external power source, or you open your console and solder a wire to the main board and then you'd figure how to get that 10th wire into the existing 9-pin controller socket. Or put a new controller socket on to the console. 

 

All that just to get internal power to be sent to the controller. 

 

So even though getting internal power from the console is the best solution, it highly improbable for most people to do. 

 

So using external power sources will be required, and you'd need some isolation built into the controller so that this external power doesn't mess with the console (I can upload a video of this happening, if anyone is interested). 

 

The details of using a microcontroller (such as an Arduino) I've outlined in your thread. 

 

This Long Play controller does not have a microcontroller and does not require external power. 

 

It is using 12 microswitches (not 16), with some transistors and the underside shape of the disc or dpad to control how it interacts with those 12 switches and outputs either 16-directions for the disc or 8-directions for the dpad. 

 

It is a bit of ingenious magic that they figured out 12 switches going up to 16-directions. 

 

Making a single controller that is ambidextrous that you'd flip over to move the 3-buttons to the left side or the right side would require a microcontroller with a switch to properly remap both the inputs and the outputs for the desired orientation. 

 

Not an impossible thing to do. 

 

It is just not easy. 

 

Otherwise it would have been done by someone by now. 

 

It may be easier to have a slightly longer controller (or a completely different shape) and that has the 3 buttons on both sides of the disc, so there would be no flipping and no remapping to do. 

[Ignorama]

22 minutes ago, fdr4prez said:

Isn't it interesting that in 40-years that there really hasn't been many third-party controllers for the Intellivision - even when it was available pre-crash? 

Not at all, no. The crash happened 1983. The Intellivision II was released in 1983. So the first easy to swap Controller happened when consoles died. And you also should remember the fact, that the Intellivision was good compared to many other competitors, but still had a freakin small player base, so it would be quite hilarious for commercial companies to invest in such things like Controllers for this small audience.

 

Personally I am still 100% fine with @grips03 Arcade sticks I bought... dunno, 8 or 9 years ago probably? These are extremely convenient. And even I know the Intellivision in theory supports 16 directions, I never had any issue with the 8 way gate in the arcade stick in any game.

[+fdr4prez]

19 minutes ago, Ignorama said:

Not at all, no. The crash happened 1983. The Intellivision II was released in 1983. So the first easy to swap Controller happened when consoles died. And you also should remember the fact, that the Intellivision was good compared to many other competitors, but still had a freakin small player base, so it would be quite hilarious for commercial companies to invest in such things like Controllers for this small audience.

It was more of a rhetorical question/comment to @tripletopperwho thinks these should be easy to poop out. 

 

I think there was only one commercially released third-party controller - Wico Command Center - or something like that. 

 

Even though the 2609 console had internal connectors, even as a kid back then, I never considered them to be "hard-wired" since they were using connectors and not soldered directly to the main board.  Easy enough to replace the original controllers with newer versions if they were available. 

 

If a good third-party controller, or inline to DB9 adapter was made back then, then I would have been all over it. 

 

Little known fact: one original concept for the Intellivoice module (1982) was to pop the little top cover off and plug in wireless controllers. 

 

Too bad they killed that concept. 

 

If an industrious individual around here could utilize that port, it'd be great. 

 

Too bad that cover is now glued in place and nearly all Intellivoice modules do not even have that connector installed. 

 

But it is easy to pop/break that cover off, and solder on a connector. 

 

Any volunteers around here to work on that project? 

 

It is beyond my skillset. 

 

 

[8bitwidgets.com]

1 hour ago, fdr4prez said:

Otherwise it would have been done by someone by now. 

I get what you're saying, but ideas like this are not always obvious even to those who have the knowhow.  I've had some great suggestions made for things that I've developed.  Things I didn't know existed. 

Dip switches and a little planning could make this possible.  I am surprised though that they made the longplay controller, which i get has it's unique design, came out before anyone made a reproduction (or at least a close one attempt) of the original.  i get that the INTV flashback would certainly qualify as a reproduction for sure but were not sold as such.  Not exactly ideal to force someone to buy a whole system for replacement / alternate controls.  Then to boot that they (from what i hear, not sure if it's true) messed up the wiring that was intended to be backwards compatible with Sears/INTV II.  

 

16 minutes ago, fdr4prez said:

was to pop the little top cover off and plug in wireless controllers. 

I did not know about this port.  This makes me wonder if this might be the way to go for the light gun adapter we'd like to tackle this year.  I'm not a big fan of requiring batteries..  but didn't know of any other options.   Though I admit requiring the intellivoice does mean that many less potential customers..  and i'm not sure people are willing to damage their precious intellivoices to hook something up to it.  if the panel pops out and can be put back that would be a different matter.  

 

This also goes back to the idea that "if it were easy.." but it's not easy if you don't know the options, or sometimes even know there is a need.  I'm let handed.  I love joysticks on the left side..  I'd never think someone wants to reverse the long play.. though I must say thinking through it..  the number pad would be tricky to invert unless you added some kind of overlay..  that then has game overlays over it.. possible but yea.. tricky..  though i think if someone designed the inversion to not necessarily be effortless could make things easier to design for to be longlasting.   or you just expect people to be able to make sense of a 12 number pad and simply not label them..  if 1-2 of the buttons were raised that would help a person quickly feel the middle (like doing this to "5" and "8") 

I made the INTV 2 FB adapters kinda for no reason other than I had some mistaken PCBs for the FB to INTV adapters I was meaning to make (got the traces mixed up) and thought to myself "who's going to actually be looking to play with original controllers on the FB?"  Then people bought them because yea, they had worn out their FB controllers or their Ultimate FB..  go figure