Is there a either PC 15 or USB to Intellivision adapter that could do 16 way?

[tripletopper]

Hey.  Does anyone want to play intellivision with a joystick instead of that pad?

 

As long as your joystick is an 8-way or 4 way joystick I got the perfect recommendation based on a previous product. 

 

Retrogameboyz.com makes a Genesis ->Atari 5200 adapter that I purchased and it does work perfectly for digital games.

 

Plus a couple places sell bohoki adapters for your analog sticks for the INTV.

 

I was going to pay $150 for a Master system to intellivision adapter with one slight modification... Instead of having two buttons and having the third button accessed by pressing both buttons I was going to have the third button access independently through a 3.5 mm TRS connector and convert the Master system 9 pin to other TRS 3.5 mm connectors so that I can hook up with my fight stick. 

 

A standard one cost $120 so it might take a little more to get the 3.5 mm instead of the dual wiring. 

 

Finally does anyone know a way where I could get either a USB or PC 15 flight stick to work with an Intellivision so I can get 16 ways?

 

By the way I have my own adapter to attache to the buttons on my PC15 to 3.5 mm connectors.  And I might be able to use a Xbox adaptive controller to get it other ways.  

[intvdave]

Why not just use Intellivision controllers and:

 

http://intellivision.us/interface.php

 

 

[Crash7]

1 hour ago, intvdave said:

Why not just use Intellivision controllers and:

 

http://intellivision.us/interface.php

 

 

 

Yup.  Best device for playing retro games on computers.  

 

Especially INTV and Sega Genesis. 

[tripletopper]

Because I have the actual hardware, and it's the physical control method of the disc that I find tough to use.

 

But certain games work best 16 way.  So an analog pc15 joystick would be perfect if I can convert it into INTV  joystick language.

[intvdave]

Sounds like you just need to patch the emulator to accept the analog inputs.

[tripletopper]

You missed the point.  I have a back in the day flashback modded INTV.

 

There is no emulator .

[intvdave]

What is a "back in the day flashback"? An original console? The AtGames Flashback console? How is it modded?

[tripletopper]

My console is now retroactively called an intellivision one.

 

I bought from intellivisionaries.com (while they were making flashback adapters a flashback) controller Intellivision one adapter which uses the "straight line connector".

 

The reason why I bought one was because I wanted to add a fight stick. 

 

Then I learned some Intellivision had 16-way games, some of which are impossible to complete with an 8-way controller.

 

Knowing that in order to have a physical 16-way controller in the form of a joystick you have to have eight separate actuators on the Cardinals and diagonals and the tertiary touching one Cardinal and one diagonal. 

 

That would be an awfully hard expensive and most likely not effective way to make a 16-way physical joystick. 

 

For an 8-way joystick and a 4-way joystick I could use my own joystick and I'm going to get RetroGameBoyz.com to hopefully build a cheap joystick circuit where you could use a y connector with a real intellivision keypad I just command the joystick and buttons with an external joystick while the keypad is used for the keypad.  

 

For the 16-way joystick it would probably be easier if you took an analog joystick like a pc15 joystick had some sort of processor which divided the total range of the pc15 joystick into 16 wedges and one bullseye, and then directly translate that into a Intellivision controller pin language.

 

I understand the reason you can have 16 ways three action buttons and 12 keypads is because the only two things that can be actuated together is one of the 16 ways and one of the three buttons plus a fourth button state of multiple buttons being pressed and a fifth button state of no pressing of buttons.  I heard if you press a keypad button and a side button or joystick button at the same time, unpredictable things could happen with the intellivision unless you actually did it before and are banking on that.

 

That being said I understand there's a difference between second generation joystick philosophy and third generation joystick philosophy.

 

First of all I never understood why no one thought the floor or a tabletop wasn't an acceptable surface to lay an arcade style joystick on.  It seems like companies were going for  cheaper controllers.  Handheld always seems to be the goal.  

 

Second I understand why the second generation is vertical.  It's for ambidexterity's sake.  But the problem with most second generation controllers that take advantage of that is that the cost of ambidexterity is arm asymmetry, and that usually causes hand and arm cramps, when you combine it with the fact that they were going for handheld controllers.

 

What Nintendo did revolutionary was not the d-pad so much  but the horizontal arrangement of the joystick.

 

Really who had a horizontal layout, until the vectrex and then the NES?

 

I just want a giant size joystick,  meaning normal fightstick size, that will work with the Intellivision.  I understand for eight way and four-way games there's already a solution.  I'm just checking to see if there's a solution for 16-way games to do this. 

 

I understand there's lots of problems with making a mechanical 16 way joystick.  That's why I was hoping for a joystick converter solution which could take analog controls and convert them into Intellivision joystick pin language

[intvdave]

If you have an Intellivision One unit, which I am not familiar with, it sounds like you have a Raspberry Pi. If you had an original console, I would have expected to say you have the original console, Intv2, or System 3. Not a "one".

If you do have a Raspberry PI, which I am guessing to be, then you do have an emulator. You have an emulator if you do not have an original console. You should have access to USB ports also. And with an emulator, just hack the emulator to use the analog controller.

Does the jzIntv emulator support analog inputs?

If you are referring to the AtGames Flashback controller adapter, then you are using an original controller. This does not sound like what you are saying. You would not need this interface for anything but the AtGames Flashback controller.

If you have an original console, you would have access to the original controllers.

Is the goal just not to use the original controller? Would it not be cheaper and easier to run the games in emulation to use the controller you want to use?

So...what is an Intellivision One?

 

[tripletopper]

This is what I have:

 

Actual photo: 

[tripletopper]

If something has a two, then it's obvious there must have been a one.  

 

Unless you're a Bill Cosby 6th spy movie, then thankfully there's no one through five.  

 

 

I said "what is now retroactively called an Intellivision 1."

 

It's original intellivision one hardware with the original controllers sold and replaced with flashback controllers and having a 2 INTV->INTV1 cables installed  so that I could add an external fight stick.  (Or other appropriate controller.)

 

 

[+fdr4prez]

10 minutes ago, tripletopper said:

I said "what is now retroactively called an Intellivision 1."

But it's not.

 

By whom? 

 

So far it's just you. 

[intvdave]

You have the flashback controllers!!! On an original console! Those are probably the sweetest controllers. If you want to sell them

 

I get your struggle... I think. You do not want to use the original controllers and nothing else is compatible. If you do get an interface made, you may want to think of selling it. I am sure others would be interested in this. I think many still play on the original console.

 

Thanks for sharing the pics. I did not know someone made an interface for the original console. I knew of a 9 pin adapter.

[tripletopper]

Well I have the original (flashback pinned)  controllers both in case they turned out to be the better controllers in certain games, and for the sake of experiencing it the way it was originally meant.  

 

I prefer arcade style sticks, and I'm thinking the easiest thing to do is divide a pc15 flight stick into 16 wedges and one bullseye.

 

If you have to quickly shift from left to right, it would be tough with that control.

 

I understand the original philosophy of the controls was to have joystick and paddle controls in one physical device.

 

Also, no one gave people instructions about a game.  I remember when the game demo tells you enough pictorially to give you an idea how to play.  At 6 years I figured out Pac-Man by watching the demo.  My 11 year old brother couldn't figure out on the first playthrough and died on the first level, and my dad said "This will never be a hit".

 

My dad also said about the NES "Don't you know video games are dead?"

 

Also with no pictures of how to play an NES, I figured out to put it on the floor, put my index and middle fingers on the d-pad and A and B.

 

I found the YB arrangement on an SNES a little backwards because I have to backbend my wrist, and thought "your middle finger was longer than your index,and the index finger button was further away.". Doesn't make much ergonomic sense .  Also making the A Button on the Genesis the auxiliary button made no sense.  My index finger pressed A and I wasted my magic in Golden Axe.

 

My brother was telling me I was holding the controller wrong.  I kind of resent the move to the thumb pad because it was less accurate than a stick.

 

The way I hold the INTV controller is to grab it in my left hand with fingers on the buttons, and using my index finger to hit the disc and keypad buttons.  I even type on my cell phone that way: like I'm dialing a touch tone telephone.

 

I'm wondering what you thought of the Intellivision controller, how to grip it, and what your thoughts were and what you initially thought of the NES d-pad.

 

 

[intvdave]

Left hand holding the controller and thumb on the disc. Considering I was the best player in my neighborhood, it must have worked well enough.

 

I could not tell you anything about newer controllers. My one and only is the Intellivision controller. Everything else is fighting for second place. This is why I play in emulation. I use the Intellivision controller for every console and game. I do like to use the Coleco controller for Colecovision games just to get the real experience. I have yet to configure my 5200 controller for Star Raiders. I do not like the Atari joystick

[+fdr4prez]

I do not know anything about what you want to connect, but from what little I looked at things in the internet, this is how I'd do it:

 

 

You'd use an Arduino Pro Mini and you'd wire it to a 15-pin connector for your flight stick.

 

Then for the output, you have to use two optoisolators (LVT-846) to keep the circuit isolated from the console, and have the 9-pin cable wired to the optoisolators.

 

You need to add some resistors to the Arduino output pins going to the isolators - one resistor per Arduino output, and the size is dependent on if you use a 5v Pro Mini or a 3.3v Pro Mini.

 

If you use a 5v Pro Mini, then using 200-ohm resistors is needed.

 

If you use a 3.3v Pro Mini, then using 100-ohm resistors is needed.

 

You can power the Arduino using the microUSB port using a phone charger wall adapter, or you can wire to the RAW/GND pins and you can use a power wall wart up to 12v DC. 

 

This shows an Intv2 cable connection.

 

Now you just need to learn to write the Arduino code.  

 

There are plenty of samples on the internet for using thumbsticks on an arduino.  Then you just need to write the code to handle the XY mapping to the 16-directions and the button presses, and the appropriate outputs to the console.