A new controller SECOND BATCH AVAILABLE

[8bitwidgets.com]

1 hour ago, Ignorama said:

I never had any issue with the 8 way gate in the arcade stick in any game.

yea i've never done a solid A/B comparison of 8 vs 16 but it do wonder how noticeable it would be.  seems like 8 would be enough.  

[+fdr4prez]

2 hours ago, 8bitwidgets.com said:

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. 

I don't know much about the port; other than from looking at the schematic. 

 

It looks like you'd be interfacing directly with the cartridge port bus. 

 

So maybe build your own pass thru port adapter, male end goes into the console and a female end for the cart, that the lightgun would connect to.   

 

I've no clue what else you'd have to have on this pass thru board to interface with the bus, or mimic whatever the Intellivoice was to do, as I mentioned, this is beyond my EE design skills. 

 

But let's not take this thread too much further off topic. 

[+Lathe26]

The Intellivoice's top-side expansion connector can only replace the existing controllers if you're using the Keyboard Component.  The KC implements the other half of the circuitry that disables the build-in controllers in favor of the Intellivoice add-on wireless controllers.

[tripletopper]

6 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

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. 

I remember seeing the "pin layout" of an INTV2 a long ago.

 

I don't recall all the facts, but I noticed a "human code" meaning the electronics doesn't care what you press but the software does.

 

If each pin can either contain a charge or no charge (binary) then there are 512 possible states, 256 if one pin is designated ground and is not part of the code.

 

 

I remember these facts.

 

There are 3 column buttons for the 3 columns of the keypad.

 

If one of those buttons are pressed, the 4 of the other pins correspond to the rows.

 

If two of those column buttons are pressed that corresponds to one of 3 action buttons.  I call them AB, BC, and AC  because that's what pins need to be actuated. 

 

Because of that Defender has a fifth button state, ABC when any 2 buttons are pressed.

 

If I remember right there are 5 pins used to determine one of 16 ways.

 

If I remember right, there is a Pad signal button.  If it is off it's in neutral, (the bullseye). If it is on the disc is pressed.

 

The other 4 pins are +180 +90 +45 and +22.5 and all 16 possibilities are a unique combination of 4 binary choices.  Notice to make a secondary direction it's always light up the 45 bit.  I remember there was a separate tertiary bit for one consistent "near"  tertiary and the tert bit and the secondary but for the "far" tertiary.

 

What button combinations equal the 16 directions and neutral with neutral keypad and neutral buttons?

 

If that theory is right, then the way to ambidexterize the pad is to NOT the 180 bit. (Turn an on into an off and an off into an on). All 16 compass directions should be correct if that theory is correct.

 

I'm not sure about the directions, but I know I'm right about the keypad and buttons and the dual columns acting as a "non Keypad indicator" which uses the disc.

 

I'm going completely off memory when I was earlier researching this when discussing Netrogames with Keith Robinson.  I remember trying to compute how many bits per second the internet connection has to be to traffic the joystick data.  It's 8 bits / player-controller frame.

 

I don't if the controller frame rate is 30 reads per second or 60 and how that corresponds to TV frames per second, but it easily fits under 1kb/s.

 

Reading the pins purely will maintain the same quirks as the original control scheme.  Which means press only one key and don't press anything else with a key or else your results will only be predictable to code readers  and usually not in real time.

 

I'm sure of the buttons and key pad and the buttons.  I'm need to look a "pin lighting map" to see if that angle  theory is right and  corresponding to neutral and 16 directions.

 

I see on Google "4 Way instructions". I'm going to look at that to see if this disproves that theory.  This is like a real life game of Euleusis, the card game of inductive reasoning. BTW not being disproven means I need to gather more data.  I'll go check it out and update.

[+fdr4prez]

1 hour ago, Lathe26 said:

The Intellivoice's top-side expansion connector can only replace the existing controllers if you're using the Keyboard Component.  The KC implements the other half of the circuitry that disables the build-in controllers in favor of the Intellivoice add-on wireless controllers.

Why you gotta be a party pooper? 

 

No worries, where there's a will there's a different way. 

 

Time to add another project to my list.  (why is it ever growing?) 

 

It's time to source some parts. 

[tripletopper]

7 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

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. 

I remember seeing the "pin layout" of an INTV2 a long ago.

 

I don't recall all the facts, but I noticed a "human code" meaning the electronics doesn't care what you press but the software does.

 

If each pin can either contain a charge or no charge (binary) then there are 512 possible states, 256 if one pin is designated ground and is not part of the code.

 

 

I remember these facts.

 

There are 3 column buttons for the 3 columns of the keypad.

 

If one of those buttons are pressed, the 4 of the other pins correspond to the rows.

 

If two of those column buttons are pressed that corresponds to one of 3 action buttons.  I call them AB, BC, and AC  because that's what pins need to be actuated. 

 

Because of that Defender has a fifth button state, ABC when any 2 buttons are pressed.

 

If I remember right there are 5 pins used to determine one of 16 ways.

 

If I remember right, there is a Pad signal button.  If it is off it's in neutral, (the bullseye). If it is on the disc is pressed.

 

The other 4 pins are +180 +90 +45 and +22.5 and all 16 possibilities are a unique combination of 4 binary choices.  Notice to make a secondary direction it's always light up the 45 bit.  I remember there was a separate tertiary bit for one consistent "near"  tertiary and the tert bit and the secondary but for the "far" tertiary.

 

What button combinations equal the 16 directions and neutral with neutral keypad and neutral buttons?

 

If that theory is right, then the way to ambidexterize the pad is to NOT the 180 bit. (Turn an on into an off and an off into an on). All 16 compass directions should be correct if that theory is correct.

 

I'm not sure about the directions, but I know I'm right about the keypad and buttons and the dual columns acting as a "non Keypad indicator" which uses the disc.

 

I'm going completely off memory when I was earlier researching this when discussing Netrogames with Keith Robinson.  I remember trying to compute how many bits per second the internet connection has to be to traffic the joystick data.  It's 8 bits / player-controller frame.

 

I don't if the controller frame rate is 30 reads per second or 60 and how that corresponds to TV frames per second, but it easily fits under 1kb/s.

 

Reading the pins purely will maintain the same quirks as the original control scheme.  Which means press only one key and don't press anything else with a key or else your results will only be predictable to code readers  and usually not in real time.

 

I'm sure of the buttons and key pad and the buttons.  I'm need to look a "pin lighting map" to see if that angle  theory is right and  corresponding to neutral and 16 directions.

 

I see on Google "4 Way instructions". I'm going to look at that to see if this disproves that theory.  This is like a real life game of Euleusis, the card game of inductive reasoning. BTW not being disproven means I need to gather more data.  I'll go check it out and update.

 

Back from the update.  Ask Google the right way and you find it.  Looking at it, the logic it there is a definite N at pin 2, easy at pin 2, south on pin 4 and west in pin 1.

 

That's why a 4 Way is easy.

 

It looks like by looking at the logic, it is a 12 sensor system, exactly like the pad builder said.

When I designed the Sinister Stick 180 for personal use and industry submission I noticed that switching north and south with each other, as well as east and west with each other (along with swapping same strength punches and kicks in Street Fighter 2) works when ambidexterizing by 180ing the controller.

 

Buttons have to be manually wired as AB AC and AB.

 

The keypad can reverse the order of the column pins and row pins.  Now I just have to see if ambidexterizing the stick and keypad don't contradict each other.  BRB

 

I need to make a detailed chart, but looking at it, 180ing the longpad or a traditional fight stick will carry it's consistency, like Mattel system designers were originally thinking of a horizontal pad that is 180able.  The Pinout looks like a relic of that.  But they chose a vertical layout instead of horizontal, much to the pain of INTV haters and even a few masochistic INTV lovers.

 

Imagine if Mattel chose a horizontal layout instead of vertical.  But ambidexterity was already at the heart of the design, even with a horizontal design.

 

 

 

 

[8bitwidgets.com]

On 3/20/2024 at 7:24 AM, larryvgs said:

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.

yea this weekend I'm (Finally) able to test multi color printing for the number keys.  i'm using a 0.2mm nozzle for it to see if I can get a quality to match the numbers of the original.  when i did testing with 0.4mm i wasn't happy with the consistency of letters and in fact that testing was with my mentor who had the smooth build plate.  for months bambu was out of stock on their smooth plate.  all i had was a textured plate which wouldn't be good for the buttons.  

[8bitwidgets.com]

5 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

So maybe build your own pass thru port adapter,

ooo i like the sound of that.  my partner (the super smart one) has been wanting to do FPGA programming..  and (well it's already mostly done beyond enclosure finalizing) we have the INTV MCP around the corner.  Maybe 2.0 could be a beefed up version that offers some additional electronics on it.  If we could identify what's needed to achieve this.  Very interesting.  I'm definitely going to run this by him soon and gauge his interest.  

 

5 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

But let's not take this thread too much further off topic. 

Yea i'm going to start a new one on this subject, unless there's a strong "intellvoice port" thread somewhere already.  though maybe it's more of a "the possibilities of a new intellivoice-like module".  with FPGA, I'm wondering if we couldn't effectively recreate the intellivoice "easily" maybe call it the Intellivoice+ well maybe copyright issues, but anyway..  new thread!

 

3 hours ago, Lathe26 said:

only replace the existing controllers if you're using the Keyboard Component.

biting lip..  ok not going to ask this question here..  but will bring this up in new thread..  

 

2 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

Why you gotta be a party pooper? 

lol

 

2 hours ago, tripletopper said:

I remember seeing the "pin layout" of an INTV2 a long ago.

awesome post / breakdown of the button usage and behavior.  I didn't know any of this.  

 

[tripletopper]

Hello.  I got a theory on how to make an Ambi Pad.

 

I think the entire formula for the keys and Pad is swap North and South, swap East and West, and swap "left column pad" pin and "right column keypad" pin

 

These keys should be interchanged pairs: 1 and Enter, 2 and 0, 3 and clear, 4 and 9, 5 and 8, and 6 and 7.

 

If that turns out to work out, and the pin swapping has the correct tertiary behavior, then that might tell us 2 things.  One is the fact Mattel was considering an ambidextrous horizontal controller, which would have predated the NES Gamepad , and the second would be the Ideal layout for it.

 

If right hand buttons are.

 

T

-R

L

 

Then the left hand buttons should be

R

-L

T

 

Which when 180ed makes it:

-T

L

-R

 

It's easy to make an Ambi Stick. The left hand stick is normal, and the right hand stick should be plugged out it's back (front in LHS mode) with the appropriate Pin Swap 

 

That current design would  make a good easy-peasy, user-changeable ambidextrous pad.

 

I might look at it tonight when I have some time.

[mr_me]

16 hours ago, tripletopper said:

Hello.  I got a theory on how to make an Ambi Pad.

...

Yes, you can use any Intellivision controller upside-down (ie. ambidextrous), by remapping the pins with a passive cable adapter.

[8bitwidgets.com]

If there's enough interest, I could make an adapter cable for anyone interested. I have all of the parts to make it maybe 10 pairs of them.  

 

All I would need is the pinout.  to route the right pins to the console to reverse the inputs.  

 

I have a Longplay I can test with to make sure it's working.  

[tripletopper]

Based on the pin map I posted earlier from another source 2 and 4 should be swapped should be swapped with each other.

 

So should 1 and 3 with each other.

 

Finally 6 and 8 should be swapped with each other.

 

I guess you could in theory pin swap a Standard INTV controller and get a Coleco-ized INTV controller (disc on top half of controller). I don't know how useful that would be but it could be done in theory.

 

 But it would probably be more useful as a Longplay Sinister Adapter.

 

The only minor issue might be the cord.  If you 180 the Longplay as it is now, as a right handed movement  pad the cord sticks out in the front.

 

One way to resolve it might be to "double wire" the left hand pinout and the right hand pinout to what would be the Back side of the controller either way, and just use a Standard Retro DB9 Extension Cord and you plug the female end to whichever end is the "back end" for the way you want to play.

 

I use a DB37 setup on my Sinister Stick.  and as long as you plug in only one side at a time, there should be no problems.   The electronic current just ignores the extraneous unplugged path. 

 

I can't dummyproof enough for children to be able to play if it were a mass market product, (like anything pre-crash is going to have a mass market appeal in 2024)  but as long as the pre-crash community is all adults, it'd be good enough for us.  As for the children we are responsible for, I think we can each deal with that privately within our own respective families

[+evg2000]

2 hours ago, 8bitwidgets.com said:

If there's enough interest, I could make an adapter cable for anyone interested. I have all of the parts to make it maybe 10 pairs of them.  

 

All I would need is the pinout.  to route the right pins to the console to reverse the inputs.  

 

I have a Longplay I can test with to make sure it's working.  

I think this page should help with figuring out the mapping:
https://arcarc.xmission.com/Web Archives/Deathskull (May-2006)/games/tech/intvcont.html

 

[tripletopper]

You pulled the same source I did, so chances are, either we're both right on this, or the person who we got it from got it wrong.

 

If a Longplay already works,  then the correct pin swap would be 1<>3. 2<>4 and 6<>8 to ambidexterize a Longplay by 180ing the pad.

 

Just seeing if your analysis matches mine.

 

If that were the case, then the Overlay has to be a 2 way overlay insert. From the top and from the bottom.   The numbers would be correct both ways relative to the front of the controller.

[+evg2000]

I suggest you give it a try. Maybe $10 for parts. I would use a small breadboard, some wires. I would use male and female js connectors and a js extension cable.  Or just one connector and strip the wires on the extension cable. Should be easy to do and fun. 

 

Give it a try and key us know the results

[tripletopper]

Hello I noticed a little problem with the layout that the Long play uses and the layout that RetroGameBoyz uses.

 

Both designs could be used easily for an Ambi stick.  And as far as the disc and the keypad goes ambidextrizing it would work exactly the same both ways. 

 

However I don't know if a universal cable is going to solve this problem I've discovered. 

 

LongPlay controllers have a left and a right button in the front I assume and the top button in the back assuming you're pushing it with your right thumb. 

 

When you're looking at it from a left-hand stick point of view the triangle points away from the keyboard which would be the right in left hand stick mode.  And would be to the left with right hand stick. 

 

However RGB has a different position.  They put the top button in front and behind it a left right button.  Which means that the triangle buttons points towards the keyboard if you're keeping within the right angles not away from it.

 

Because RGB is using a fight stick and LongPlay is using a handheld pad, both ergonomics makes sense for their respective controllers.

 

Thankfully this is simple because the left button is paying 6 + 7 the right pin is pins 7 + 8 and the top pin is 6 + 8. 

 

I got to see if switching the six and eight pins, what you have to do for the keypad anyway, will work with ambidextrizing both models.  

 

Here is the photograph showing what the models are.

 

Please correct me if I get one of these two arrangements wrong in terms of what button maps of what but these are the correct physical arrangements of buttons.

 

If you make sure that symmetry is kept  when 180ing both joysticks, now you don't have to make separate left-handed and right handed models because the intellivision button code already took care of that. 

 

And I have shown on my Sinister stick (though it's been shown before by others) that you can have two DB9. Females on the place where the controller cord would go then you link a male to female cable to the console that's a straight DB9 and it'll work both ways as long as there's only one cord being plugged into the console and it's plugged into the back of whichever way you do it.  I'm going to work out the pen swapping in the 180 and seeing if one cable could truly work for both the retro Game boys and the LongPlay.

 

Also pictured is a a list of each direction and their 180° opposite and you could see that pin swapping two and four plus pink swapping 1 and 3 gives you each other's inverse as indicated by horizontal neighbors. 

 

Looking at the keyboard I got to look at it one more time.  I think I might have made a mistake but I'm going to check.

[tripletopper]

I see a way you could do this and that's if you apply the pin swap to the keypad only on the six to eight pin swab but not the two and four pin swap and the one in three pin swap.  

 

After evaluating it , the joystick portion has to have 2 and 4 swapped, and 1 and 3 swapped.  However for the keypad to work locally, that has to be swapped between one and four as one pair and two and three as the other pair.

 

Here's an example of a pin swapped upright keypad versus a 180 unswapped keypad.  The solution is to have the joystick swaps and the keypad swaps be independent, or to have a fixed keypad and have an Nintendo Switch type situation where you could put a disc or d-pad on whatever side you want to control it on and a button set on the other side as an attachable device with a keypad constant as the main center.   Steam Decks  show that Nintendo don't own the rights to attachable joysticks.

 

Now that I think about it, it's going to be an ugly mess.  

 

But now that we got this information we could see that we can have a center keypad hold the main connection, and then you could put either a separate left-handed or right-handed disc or stick and a separate button attachment set. 

 

I understand it's too late to go back to the drawing board now, but now I realize that a universal cable will not fix both problems of the keypad and the joystick simultaneously.

 

And it's not based on a difference of models. 

 

At least I have proven inverting a 16 way joystick using the 180 method works just as well with the way the television is coded because the 9th bit always equals rotate by 1/16 of a circle clockwise which is symmetric when you 180 and flip north and south and flip east and west.

 

Maybe a modular design with three buttons inserted with 3.5 mm cables so you could program the three buttons however you want would make more sense.

 

Oh okay, I talked myself out of buying a longplay.  But at least I talk myself into how to have someone design a fight stick adapter for the Intellivision to fit a 3.5mm TRS joystick in the right way.

 

Thankfully RetroGameBoys already has part of the answer and in television keypad inserts with Sega Genesis as an optional insert.

 

Here's a picture of my findings to show that you can't pin swap your way to an inverted keypad and an inverted joystick and be consistent with both 

[8bitwidgets.com]

Dang that's a shame.  it would be awesome if we could do that, but i get it.  the complexity of the intv controller is just too much..

this is similar to the problem I had with trying to make a colecovision adapter for the flashback CV controller to CV..   unlike a simple Odyssey 2 or 2600 joystick with only 5 actions... the fact that the CV would use multiple pins to achieve various results were not consistent with what the CV itself would want.. it was possible but only through complex logic / electronics.  

[tripletopper]

If one wanted to build an ambidextrous pad/stick for Intellivision, RetroGameBoyz's Intellidapter would be a good starting point.

 

5 pins affect the direction only, pins 1-4 and 9.

 

3 pins affect the button layout only, 6-8

 

Pins  1-4 and 6-8 all affect the keypad.

 

Therefore the proper strategy is to use the keypad as the hub, and add on a joystick and buttons.

 

Think Nintendo Switch, but the main purpose of removing portions is modularity for easy configuration.

 

I would buy a RetroGameBoyz adapter except for one flaw: a lack of 3 independent buttons.

 

Currently it uses a "Master System Hack" of L+R= T.

 

Their true Joystick uses 3 independent buttons.

 

I would buy their $120 adapter if I can use my 3.5mm TRS based Fight Stick with it.

 

Any fight stick that starts out  uncoded and has direct inputs can work with this.

 

I think this might be a good compromise.  I THINK, (I'll test it once I get equipment from my joystick builder Stan Escolano) that my designed SMS to 6x TRS 3.5 mm cable does work, because the Sega Master System itself uses an "electronically uncoded" signal.  (Simple presence of signal is actuation, simple absence is lack of actuation.). This cable can act as a bridge to the already existing SMS adapter.  

 

As for the third button, I would suggest a switch to switch between combination mode and independent mode.  Combination mode is where L+R=T and independent mode takes it's third button from a 3.5mm TRS cable so a single button can be hooked up to act as an  independent third button

 

Also a "BYOC" (bring your own controller) version which just has the circuitry to deal with INTV 4 way and 8 way correctly and deal with the 3 buttons correctly.  You provide a real "back in the day INTV Keypad" (if one mixes FB equipment and BITD equipment, one's self is responsible for getting it working.  Thankfully 8 Bit Widgets has a half a solution, and the other half are DB9 gender benders)  a DB9 Y cable  and the keypad is handled right. 

 

Also I thought of a way you can add keypad buttons as a joystick button on my 3.5 mm TRS Stick: just change the push buttons to a 3.5mm TRS connectors.

[tripletopper]

17 hours ago, 8bitwidgets.com said:

Dang that's a shame.  it would be awesome if we could do that, but i get it.  the complexity of the intv controller is just too much..

this is similar to the problem I had with trying to make a colecovision adapter for the flashback CV controller to CV..   unlike a simple Odyssey 2 or 2600 joystick with only 5 actions... the fact that the CV would use multiple pins to achieve various results were not consistent with what the CV itself would want.. it was possible but only through complex logic / electronics.  

Also If one wants a ColecoVision Super Action Controller hook up, consider edladdin.com. He builds joysticks and PCBs for Coleco and 7800.

 

According to his PCB, you can hook up individual joysticks and grounds to each button, and the circuit board deals with 2 different grounds correctly.  Joystick and Index button (left on standard CV) are on ground A.  Middle (right on standard CV)  Ring, Pinky buttons, and keypad buttons are on ground B.

 

Also it has a different list of games that don't work vs the Official Coleco list.  It seems like certain games, having a lack of a spinner helps, and in others a lack of a spinner hurts.

 

Games like QBert's Qubes, it will work on Edladdin Super CV, but not a real Super Action Controller.  It's like the presence of a roller/ spinner distracts it on a real CVSAC.

 

I guess the solution is plugging in a Super Action Controller with a roller on one end of a Y Cable  for the games that mess up without a roller.

[+evg2000]

@tripletopper I think you may have derailed this thread way too much.  Now you are talking CV in an INTV thread.  Maybe start your own thread for the controllers you are designing.

[tripletopper]

Sorry, I was responding to something specific Mr Me was saying about doing a  ColecoVision adapter.

 

I just gave the name of a person who did a good ColecoVision thingd but even though it is off topic it was segueing off what Mr Me said.

[8bitwidgets.com]

All good.  We were exploring outside examples and how they were unable to solve things without complex workarounds that at this point no one here is looking to get into.  I was hoping for a simple solution but the logic of the INTV controllers just doesn't quite match the needs of an invertible pinout.  A new thread on this would be great though.  

[tripletopper]

I think I know how to build (but am currently unable to physically do so, but can instruct Stan to do it just like my Sinister Stick) an Intellivision Joystick adapter for uncoded controls, ( like my Sinister Stick)

 

1. Use a DB9 Y cable and hook up

 

1A.  a pre-existing INTV FB controller.

1B. A device with 7 3.5mm TRS cables on one end, and a DB9 on the other end

 

Device B has N=2,  S=4, W=1 and E=3. BUT..

 

With 4 AND games at each diagonal, where lifting any 2 opposite ones lights pin 9

 

L lights up 6 and 7

R lights up 7 and 8

T lights up 6 and 8

 

Since y-wiring acts as an OR the pins and be lit with 2 different buttons in an OR relationship each.

 

If I want the other buttons to actuate the keypad buttons, add 12 extra 3.5mm to a 12 button matrix, And light them according to the pin matrix I found.

 

I understand there are runtime bugs if a key is used with another key or a disc or button input.

 

Also, I know there's a way to add a dedicated pause button.  It's equivalent to two different keys together.  If I remember right, It's 1 and 9, but I can look it up before I finalize.

 

Also I have a theory on how to program a joystick circuit.  Define the bullseye, and then use angle for the 16 regions on a PC15.

 

Of  course a PC15 direction pin doesn't center at the bullseye, but at a corner.  So so move the bullseye, which is handled in the programming.

 

Though I don't know the particulars on how to do it, it should be doable. And I assume it uses code, not circuitry.

 

[+evg2000]

@tripletopper please post in a new thread. this is its own discussion.