SNES Controllers not working with Attack of the Petscii Robots

[Shugyo]

Greetings. I am wondering if I am overlooking something obvious. I recently picked up the 7800 version of Attack of the Petscii Robots at the Portland Retro Game Expo. One reason I chose that game was for the the adapter that allows the use of SNES Controllers. My 7800 didn't have controllers when I received it so I have been using a 2600 controller mostly with 2600 games. I purchased a set of two SNES controllers to work with the adapter and just fired up Petscii Robots. I've tried both controllers in both ports and tried every option, button, and switch but in all cases the controller does nothing. Is there something I've missed? It seems unlikely to be two bad controllers although they are new 3rd party. Perhaps some 3rd party SNES Controllers don't work for some reason? Of course the next logical step is to try the adapter and controllers on a 2600. I have one in storage but before I got to the effort to dig it out thought it worth asking here. Plus, this test would not rule out some incompatibility issue with the controllers. Thank you.

[0078265317]

2 hours ago, Shugyo said:

Greetings. I am wondering if I am overlooking something obvious. I recently picked up the 7800 version of Attack of the Petscii Robots at the Portland Retro Game Expo. One reason I chose that game was for the the adapter that allows the use of SNES Controllers. My 7800 didn't have controllers when I received it so I have been using a 2600 controller mostly with 2600 games. I purchased a set of two SNES controllers to work with the adapter and just fired up Petscii Robots. I've tried both controllers in both ports and tried every option, button, and switch but in all cases the controller does nothing. Is there something I've missed? It seems unlikely to be two bad controllers although they are new 3rd party. Perhaps some 3rd party SNES Controllers don't work for some reason? Of course the next logical step is to try the adapter and controllers on a 2600. I have one in storage but before I got to the effort to dig it out thought it worth asking here. Plus, this test would not rule out some incompatibility issue with the controllers. Thank you.

 Was the game only at PRGE or can I buy it somewhere else?  I have used snes controller also.  But with a seagull78 too add 2 button support.  And some other adapters.  Not the one you have I think.  Can I see a picture of the adapter?

[Shugyo]

You can buy the game here at Atari Age. Here is a link: https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_list&c=90

 

You can see the adapter in some of the pictures.

[+slx]

Have you checked if the game has a setup option for controller(s)? According to this the adapter, unlike the SNACK adapter, is a simple wire and resistor thing without any setup options of its own. 

[Trebor]

12 hours ago, Shugyo said:

Greetings. I am wondering if I am overlooking something obvious. I recently picked up the 7800 version of Attack of the Petscii Robots at the Portland Retro Game Expo. One reason I chose that game was for the the adapter that allows the use of SNES Controllers. My 7800 didn't have controllers when I received it so I have been using a 2600 controller mostly with 2600 games. I purchased a set of two SNES controllers to work with the adapter and just fired up Petscii Robots. I've tried both controllers in both ports and tried every option, button, and switch but in all cases the controller does nothing. Is there something I've missed? It seems unlikely to be two bad controllers although they are new 3rd party. Perhaps some 3rd party SNES Controllers don't work for some reason? Of course the next logical step is to try the adapter and controllers on a 2600. I have one in storage but before I got to the effort to dig it out thought it worth asking here. Plus, this test would not rule out some incompatibility issue with the controllers. Thank you.

From http://7800.8bitdev.org/index.php/SNES2Atari:

Quote

Games must be specifically coded to use the SNES controller.

Testing the adapter and controller on a 2600 is not going to work successfully unless the 2600 game being tested was specifically coded to use the SNES controller.  Ditto for any 7800 title test.

 

SNES2Atari is different from an adapter that strips out the bulk of a controller's functionality and makes it 7800 compliant akin to an original ProLine 7800 joystick or gamepad.  This adapter allows leveraging of all SNES controller inputs, but the game needs to have been programmed for recognition of the inputs from a SNES controller to work.

 

The adapter works fine for me with an original SNES controller under Attack of the PETSCII Robots with the default "STANDARD CONTROLS' option.  No special settings or setup required.

 

From the aforementioned linked site, there is a test ROM than can be leveraged as well to see if it is indeed an incompatibility with the 3rd party controller being utilized.

[Shugyo]

21 hours ago, slx said:

Have you checked if the game has a setup option for controller(s)? According to this the adapter, unlike the SNACK adapter, is a simple wire and resistor thing without any setup options of its own. 

Thanks for the response and link. The game does have a few options to set up the controllers and I tried all of them although the default "Standard" option is the one that is supposed to work. No luck with any of them.

[Shugyo]

16 hours ago, Trebor said:

From http://7800.8bitdev.org/index.php/SNES2Atari:

Testing the adapter and controller on a 2600 is not going to work successfully unless the 2600 game being tested was specifically coded to use the SNES controller.  Ditto for any 7800 title test.

 

SNES2Atari is different from an adapter that strips out the bulk of a controller's functionality and makes it 7800 compliant akin to an original ProLine 7800 joystick or gamepad.  This adapter allows leveraging of all SNES controller inputs, but the game needs to have been programmed for recognition of the inputs from a SNES controller to work.

 

The adapter works fine for me with an original SNES controller under Attack of the PETSCII Robots with the default "STANDARD CONTROLS' option.  No special settings or setup required.

 

From the aforementioned linked site, there is a test ROM than can be leveraged as well to see if it is indeed an incompatibility with the 3rd party controller being utilized.

Thanks for the information. I would not expect the adapter/controllers to work properly on a 2600 but I figured that it might tell me something if any of the buttons worked. I understand that the cx-24 was supposed to be designed to be compatible with the 2600 so I figured it might at least tell me if the problem is with the controllers or the adapter. With the information six and you supplied, I think my next step will be to test the adapter with my multimeter. If everything looks good, perhaps the issue is with the SNES Controllers. I forgot to mention that I don't have an SNES to test them with so I might just need to return them and try another set from a different manufacturer.

[RevEng]

On 10/21/2023 at 11:52 PM, Shugyo said:

Thanks for the information. I would not expect the adapter/controllers to work properly on a 2600 but I figured that it might tell me something if any of the buttons worked. I understand that the cx-24 was supposed to be designed to be compatible with the 2600 so I figured it might at least tell me if the problem is with the controllers or the adapter. With the information six and you supplied, I think my next step will be to test the adapter with my multimeter. If everything looks good, perhaps the issue is with the SNES Controllers. I forgot to mention that I don't have an SNES to test them with so I might just need to return them and try another set from a different manufacturer.

To rule out a problem with whichever console port you have them plugged into, try the snes2atari in the other port. (with 7800 Petscii Robots, of course) The game will autodetect the control and use either port.

 

A multimeter test isn't going to be very instructive. The SNES controllers talk to the console through a serial protocol, unlike controllers from Atari.

 

Are these SNES gampads from Nintendo, or some third party manufacurer? We tested the game with a pretty wide variety of SNES controllers, both first and third party, but obviously not every third-party controller that ever existed.

[Shugyo]

Thanks RevEng. As mentioned in my original post, the controllers are not from Nintendo (they're 3rd party) and I tried them both in both ports. As far as the adapter, I just checked continuity as well as the value of the resistor. I figured that couldn't hurt. I believe the problem  is the generic controllers.They are going back to Amazon. I haven't decided what I am going to do next. There seem to be dozens of 3rd party SNES controllers available but no way to tell which might work. I probably will look for another option. I am wondering if a  Seagull 78 with a Genesis controller would work with the 7800 controller option? I have many genuine Genesis controllers and I am looking for something that will work with the 7800 for any two button game. I didn't understand that the adapter and SNES controller can only work for Attack of the Petscii Robots and not other games.

[RevEng]

11 hours ago, Shugyo said:

 I am wondering if a  Seagull 78 with a Genesis controller would work with the 7800 controller option? I have many genuine Genesis controllers and I am looking for something that will work with the 7800 for any two button game. I didn't understand that the adapter and SNES controller can only work for Attack of the Petscii Robots and not other games.

Yeah, Seagull 78 will work with any 7800 game, including Petscii Robots.

 

It's not presently in stock, but my understanding is the Mega7800 adapter will be in stock soon - it will allow your Genesiis pad to work with 7800 games too, but has the added virtue of allowing upcoming homebrew games that are aware of it to use the extra buttons. (Millie+Molly, A.R.T.I., Bernie and the Tower of Doom, ...) and it will also allow Sega "Light Phaser" Lightguns to work without modification with 7800 Lightgun games. (CRT display required, of course)

 

Unfortunately Mega7800 came out after Petscii Robots, otherwise we would have added it as a multi-button option for the game. (but it works just fine in it's default two-button Proline mode)

[Shugyo]

Thanks again! I'll order a couple Mega7800 when they are in stock.

[RevEng]

On 10/27/2023 at 2:00 PM, Shugyo said:

Thanks again! I'll order a couple Mega7800 when they are in stock.

Heads-up that they're back in stock at AA.

[Shugyo]

Thanks! Order placed. Since I was paying for shipping anyway, I had to add another game to the order too. :)