Weird CX-77 behavior

[phoney]

Hi folks. I just got a CX-77 Touch Tablet in the mail and I started using it with my 800 and ... weird behavior! Maybe you all can figure this one out ...

 

IT WORKS FINE IN ATARI ARTIST. This may be the weirdest thing of all, because ...

* In RAMBrandt and Pixel Artist Deluxe the large left and right buttons move the cursor left/right, the pen button moves the cursor up, using the pen on the tablet does nothing

* In Blazing Paddles, moving the pen on the tablet left/right works fine, but up and down are reversed. The big left button acts as select; the button on the pen does nothing

 

What would cause it to work in AtariArtist but NOT the other apps? Thank you!

[Rybags]

Touch tablets are resistive single-touch surfaces.  The X/Y comes in through the paddle inputs.

Buttons - left/right should correspond to the paddle fire buttons.  These are the same inputs as joystick left/right.

Fairly sure the stylus button corresponds to the joystick fire button.

 

Behaviours you observe are probably "correct" - the different programs expect a certain input device to be used.  Not sure if or how the mentioned programs can use different input devices.

[+x=usr(1536)]

4 minutes ago, phoney said:

* In RAMBrandt and Pixel Artist Deluxe the large left and right buttons move the cursor left/right, the pen button moves the cursor up, using the pen on the tablet does nothing

* In Blazing Paddles, moving the pen on the tablet left/right works fine, but up and down are reversed. The big left button acts as select; the button on the pen does nothing

 

What would cause it to work in AtariArtist but NOT the other apps? Thank you!

 

Are those programs compatible with the CX-77?

 

It's been decades since I last had one, but it was owned alongside a KoalaPad, and I can recall incompatibilities in some software with certain touchpads.  AtariArtist sticks in my mind as only working with the CX-77; you could be running into the same thing with other titles.

 

BTW, a copy of Florian Dingler's Perhipheral Tester is attached.  Might want to run the tablet against it and see what the results are.

Peripheral Tester, v2.0 (Florian Dingler, 2008).atr

[Beeblebrox]

https://www.atarimania.com/faq-atari-400-800-xl-xe-what-graphics-tablets-were-produced-for-the-atari_61.html

 

Quote:

 

 Atari Touch Tablet CX77
  - Shipped with AtariArtist cartridge RX8053
    (Illustrator product by Island Graphics, Atari Touch Tablet version)
  - Also shipped with CX8104 Atari 810/1050 Master Diskette II disk (DOS 2.0S)
  - Similar to the popular, earlier KoalaPad, but returns reversed
    y-position values compared to the KoalaPad/Animation Station tablets
  - Device measures 7.5" x 9.5" x 1.25"
  - Drawing surface measures 5" x 6.5"
  - A list of compatible software is elsewhere in the FAQ list.

[phoney]

Holy wow, the peripheral tester says my Y values are inverted?! X values are fine, buttons are fine, but the top of the tablet is the maximum Y value and the bottom is the minimum?!

 

And yet it still works in AtariArtist

[+x=usr(1536)]

48 minutes ago, phoney said:

Holy wow, the peripheral tester says my Y values are inverted?! X values are fine, buttons are fine, but the top of the tablet is the maximum Y value and the bottom is the minimum?!

 

And yet it still works in AtariArtist

 

Because AtariArtist is specifically designed to work with the Atari Touch Tablet.

 

The tablet just generates X and Y values as paddle input.  It's up to the software to decide which paddle represents X and which one represents Y.  If AtariArtist sees paddle(0) as X and paddle(1) as Y, that's what it'll use, but a KoalaPad, for example. may invert that so that paddle(1) is X and paddle(0) is Y.

 

Similarly, the X or Y inputs can be read left-to-right, right-to-left, top-to-bottom, or bottom-to-top.  It's up to the software to decide which direction is the 'correct' orientation for a given axis.

[phoney]

But in FAQ 8.10 here

https://www.atarimania.com/faq-atari-400-800-xl-xe-what-programs-use-touch-tablet-or-koalapad-animation-station_99.html

 

It says Pixel Artist Deluxe and RAMBrandt specifically work with the CX-77. So what am I doing wrong?

[Beeblebrox]

2 minutes ago, phoney said:

But in FAQ 8.10 here

https://www.atarimania.com/faq-atari-400-800-xl-xe-what-programs-use-touch-tablet-or-koalapad-animation-station_99.html

 

It says Pixel Artist Deluxe and RAMBrandt specifically work with the CX-77. So what am I doing wrong?

IIRC there's a patched version of RAMBrandt and maybe the former too, to get them to work.

 

check: https://atarionline.pl/v01/index.php?ct=utils&sub=2. Grafika&tg=RAMbrandt#RAMbrandt

 

...and generally google around. 

Edited April 19 by Beeblebrox

[Irgendwer]

1 hour ago, phoney said:

I just got a CX-77 Touch Tablet in the mail and I started using it with my 800 and ... weird behavior!

Your tablet works absolutely correct. Contrary to the Koala Pad the Y-Axis is inverted (I even guess to avoid to being sued for plagiarism).

 

In RAMBrandt you should just select the correct input device here:

 

 

If you like to try some games with the pad, here are some:

 

 

 

[phoney]

So, that still doesn't work. In ECKN and RAMBrandt, big buttons move left/right, pen button moves up, moving the pen on the tablet does nothing.

 

But in AtariArtist and the peripheral test app, it works.

[Irgendwer]

54 minutes ago, phoney said:

So, that still doesn't work.

 

Most programs support the joystick per default and the buttons and actions of the Touch Tablet are supposed to behave like that when interpreted as Joystick.

Like mentioned: Configure RAMbrant for the touch tablet in the depicted menu.

ECKN detects the Touch Tablet automatically if you move back and forth on the tablet while on the title screen.