Atari 2600 Joystick To USB Adapter Announced 53
TheAlchemist writes "AtariAge and Pixels Past have announced the creation of the Stelladaptor 2600 to USB Interface. This new hardware product allows you to connect standard Atari 2600 joysticks, paddles, and driving controllers to modern Windows, Macintosh and Linux computers. They have worked closely with the authors of the excellent z26 Atari 2600 Emulator, and an updated version of z26 for Windows will be released that automatically recognizes when the Stelladaptor is plugged in and allows you to play joystick, paddle, and driving controller games without any additional configuration. You can also use your Atari 2600 joystick and paddle controllers with the popular MAME arcade emulator, and standard Atari 2600 joysticks will work with any emulators that support standard USB controllers. The Stelladaptor will debut at the upcoming PhillyClassic 5 gaming expo later this month."
Hmmm (Score:5, Informative)
But if you wanted some nice controllers, Coleco had them, the wheel and the pedals rocked, the super sized controllers for the sports games were great (although I kept getting blisters with them) with the little roller, the 4 buttons, and when you used it, it looked like a killer glove to hit someone with, not that I ever did, mind you :)
Re:Hmmm (Score:1)
[Tear] I miss the good old days.
Re:Hmmm (Score:2, Informative)
but yeah, the steering wheel with sega's turbo was awesome at the time.
Re:Hmmm (Score:2)
Back in the day, my dad worked at K-Mart as an electronics salesman. I was not the most behaved little boy. It scared the hell out of me whenever he talked about bringing a paddle home.
Breakout was fun, though.
And don't forget... (Score:5, Interesting)
(Personally, while I enjoy many 2600 games the joystick is a completely loser for me, especially the ones I've used which tend to be old and only marginally working anyhow. Plug one of those other controllers in and the game immediately becomes more fun. Interestingly, sometimes it immediately becomes easier too, and I'm not a fan of a game being difficult because the controller is fighting you.)
I can't completely guarentee this since I haven't tried it but I see no reason it shouldn't work.
Re:And don't forget... (Score:3, Informative)
Instant Nostalgia! (Score:3, Interesting)
I've got a joystick that I used with my C64 that was built from arcade parts...
I love the idea that I will now be able to hook it back up to my current computer and play games in my C-64 emulator or MAME...
damn 30 bucks (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:damn 30 bucks (Score:3, Informative)
Additionally, being able to use 2600 controllers with your computer means you are not limi
Re:damn 30 bucks (Score:2)
gotta love technology (Score:5, Insightful)
Never mind the massive amounts of hi-tech complexity in between.. just to get the same result as an old box of 7400-series logic chips.
And this old box 1) "booted" immediately, just turn it on, 2) didn't get viruses, 3) didn't leak your credit card number to a script kiddy in Russia.
*shakes head*
I don't know what the exact point of this post is, except it makes me want to shake my fist at the screen and say "These kids today... "
Re:gotta love technology (Score:3, Funny)
It also wasn't very satisfactory in the porn department, either.
You sure? (Score:2)
Re:You sure? (Score:2)
awesome!! (Score:2, Funny)
I had to check the calendar... (Score:3, Funny)
Truth is stranger than TCP over Avian Transport.
-- Mitch
Re:I had to check the calendar... (Score:3, Insightful)
And there's really no harm in it; human interface hardware becomes obsolete much more slowly than CPUs or storage, because human interfaces are already limited by how fast a human can go. Keyboards and mice, e.g., haven't changed much since the 70s.
Atari 2600 (Score:4, Informative)
* enduro (car racing)
* donkey kong (only 2 levels that repeated)
* tennis
I would have killed for that centipede game!
By far tennis was the most lame. We had two joysticks - whoever had the more expensive one (that form fitted the hand better, had more buttons) always won in a 2P game. The cheap joystick was literally like a chopstick sticking out of a box, it didn't even have suction pads to stick to the table surface.
Most people do not know that inside an Atari 2600 is a variable pot. Soldered onto the PCB is a component with a groove for a flat-head scredriver. It fine-tunes the RF being sent to your TV - if only I had known about it ~20 years ago!
http://www.mikeskinner.net/
You needed suction cups? (Score:3, Funny)
Good! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Good! (Score:2)
Can make your own... (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/joystick/pc_
Re:Can make your own... (Score:1)
PC Atari (last updated 2000?) allows joysticks *and* paddles connected via the parallel port using a special circuit. The schematics are in their documentation. I've n
Re:Can make your own... (Score:2)
Re:Can make your own... (Score:2)
atariage is great. (Score:2)
Re:atariage is great. (Score:2)
Had one of those Atari sticks... (Score:1)
But the standard they created rocks! While the Atari stick broke in the 1st year after I had inherited it (darn you Summer/Winter/California Games!), my Competition Pro, I bought at 1st with my C64 is still alive today, and survived any other choice for secondary stick...
Nearly immediately after the switch to a PC I stopped playing arcade or action games completely, because without those good ole simple sticks games weren't really fun to play. And all because of that shi
the best joystick ever (Score:3, Interesting)
Pictures are here [mac.com]
It just had the perfect feel and was fairly well built. It was the only joystick I've ever seen survive Decathalon.
The One True Joystick (Score:2)
Re:The One True Joystick (Score:1)
Re:The One True Joystick (Score:2)
Relatively simple to do (Score:1)
By the way, nothing beats the Competition Pro!
I'll be getting one (Score:1)
My personal choice of joystick is probably the most popular joystick used with the Amiga. I present... The Zipstick:
See this eBay search for pics [ebay.co.uk]
not only atari joysticks. (Score:3, Informative)
So if you have a joystick from your old C64, Amiga, Spectrum (connected via interface), Amstrad, Atari (XL, XE, ST, or any Atari console), you can use it with this controler on your PC.
There were other joysticks using this same plug, but different wiring (Sega, MSX, afair Nintendo), so if the interface doesn't have switches you can't use them.
Some of them were really cool, and 10 year old Quickshot joysticks are still working fine, in contrary to my overpriced badly designed joysticks bought a year or two ago.
Robert
Sega Genesis (Score:1)
Re:Sega Genesis (Score:2)
Do you have a link to a place selling a Genesis to USB converter? I haven't had much luck finding one.
Looks good, but.... (Score:2)
I would have rather seen two 9-pin ports on it, so I can play two player games. I don't see myself wanting to spend $30 for one player games.
Any ideas why they didn't put two ports on it?
KABOOM!! (Score:1)
Yeah, I agree, the Atari joysticks were no good. That's why I bought those a red ball Wico joysticks. I am looking forward to using those again also.
Whee! (Score:1)
This will let people use the One True Joystick [passagen.se] on modern hardware.
I could have sworn I've seen an Atari-to-USB adapter before, though, but maybe it was just an Atari-to-PCJoystick adapter after all... frankly, it's strange that no one has come up with these before.
I have had one complaint about USB: It's not so easy for random people to make hardware based on USB. Back in the C64 days, everyone who could hold a soldering iron could make all sorts of weird widgets to connect to the computer. Especially c
This reminds me (Score:2)
Any recommendations?
this has been done before: nes to usb too! (Score:1)
They do NES, SNES, atari and more... You can send your controller to them and they'll usb-afy it. *shrug*
e.