Hi,
I am a hardware developer for various retro platforms and I am developing an adapter for using a Playstation 2 gamepad with the Amstrad.
I have already developed Amiga, C64 and MSX versions that I have been selling for a while now. I call it the Cyclone RX. Here is a link to the C64 version so you can see exactly what I am talking about:
NEW ! ! Cyclone RX Playstation Joystick Gamepad Adapter for Commodore C64 C128. (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Cyclone-RX-Playstation-Joystick-Gamepad-Adapter-for-Commodore-C64-C128-/111475522140?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT)
The reason for this post is (apart from introducing myself) the version I am developing now has support for one fire button. I may do a version with second fire button support if it is worth it, so I would like to ask, does anyone have a list of CPC games that uses both fire buttons?
Cheers!
Welcome!
Great piece of hardware.
I did an SMS joy mod myself too for Invasion of the zombie monsters cause needed two buttons.
Cyclone RX for C64 is awesome. Hope we see an Amstrad version soon.
Well in my game library any game that can use reconfigured keys uses both buttons.
So yes a 2 button one makes sense.
Quote from: CraigsBar on 22:57, 10 November 15
Well in my game library any game that can use reconfigured keys uses both buttons.
So yes a 2 button one makes sense.
I just realized 5 mins ago that one of my favorites CPC games, COMMANDO does indeed support 2 buttons out of the box. I was trying out the gx4000 gamepad you sent (gratitudes again) and while A button was mapped as gun fire, the B button was mapped as the bomb.
Excellent game btw :)
Thanks guys.
Ok that gets my list off to a start, Commando and Invasion of the zombie monsters.
You might be thinking, why not just implement the second fire button anyway?
Problem is, while the C64 doesn't like being directly connected to MCU I/O pins, the CPC positively detests it, so I use reed relays for switching, which aren't the cheapest components in the world, and the count is already up to five (one more than the C64 adapter).
It may turn out that a relay won't be necessary for the second fire button. I will look into that in the next day or to.
Meanwhile, development is going extremely well with this adapter, and I have a fully working prototype (albeit with only the primary fire button).
Hi and Welcome!
2nd Fire button would be great, for example Cyber Huhn used two of them. There is a decent number of games using Fire 2 imho.
Nice vehicle btw. ;) :)
Quote from: TFM on 23:21, 10 November 15
Hi and Welcome!
2nd Fire button would be great, for example Cyber Huhn used two of them. There is a decent number of games using Fire 2 imho.
Nice vehicle btw. ;) :)
Thank you!
I was looking here:
List of Amstrad CPC games - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amstrad_CPC_games)
But I can't find a game called Cyber Huhn??
Yep I can highly recommend the VFR800 (as long as it is the VTEC model of course) :)
Take Cyber Chicken then (Cyber Huhn is the ROM version). Both run on 64 KB CPC464 too. :)
That list doen't contain all games anyway, guess most homebrew stuff is probably missing.
Quote from: Kevin Mount on 23:19, 10 November 15
Thanks guys.
Ok that gets my list off to a start, Commando and Invasion of the zombie monsters.
You might be thinking, why not just implement the second fire button anyway?
Problem is, while the C64 doesn't like being directly connected to MCU I/O pins, the CPC positively detests it, so I use reed relays for switching, which aren't the cheapest components in the world, and the count is already up to five (one more than the C64 adapter).
It may turn out that a relay won't be necessary for the second fire button. I will look into that in the next day or to.
Meanwhile, development is going extremely well with this adapter, and I have a fully working prototype (albeit with only the primary fire button).
You can easily and safely interface to the CPC joystick port via a 74LS240, using the COM signal to enable the outputs. The MCU can directly control the states as you wish.
Bryce.
Quote from: Bryce on 23:43, 10 November 15
You can easily and safely interface to the CPC joystick port via a 74LS240, using the COM signal to enable the outputs. The MCU can directly control the states as you wish.
Bryce.
Thanks Bryce. Is this from experience? I would have expected a high risk of bus contention issues with this approach.
Also, looking at Motorola's datasheet I can'y find any reference to a com signal :(
Cheers.
I've used it here on my PS/2 and USB Mouse adapters: PS2Mouse - CPCWiki (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/PS2Mouse)
There are quite a few owners here who will confirm that it works without an issue.
Bryce.
Quote from: Bryce on 23:57, 10 November 15
I've used it here on my PS/2 and USB Mouse adapters: PS2Mouse - CPCWiki (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/PS2Mouse)
There are quite a few owners here who will confirm that it works without an issue.
Bryce.
Thanks Bryce I'll have a look at that tomorrow. Are you still using the
PIC16F84A for that or have you moved onto the PIC16F628A?
Burnin' Rubber, Robocop, Navy Seals... probably most of the GX titles too.
Quote from: Kevin Mount on 00:01, 11 November 15
Thanks Bryce I'll have a look at that tomorrow. Are you still using the PIC16F84A for that or have you moved onto the PIC16F628A?
Why would I move to the 628? The 84 works fine.
Bryce.
Quote from: Bryce on 09:19, 11 November 15
Why would I move to the 628? The 84 works fine.
Bryce.
The 84 is more or less obsolete now, so it is normally two or three times the cost of a 628.
If you can make do with a bit less memory, the 627 is cheaper still.
Another money/space/time saving feature, the 627/628 has a built-in oscillator.
I made the switch about 2 years ago. All my MCU-based products use the 627.
Guys I am new to the 464, so I have a quick question.
Bearing in mind the official joysticks only have one fire button, how does gameplay work with a game that uses 2 fire buttons?
Is the second fire button copied to the keyboard?
Well, the original joystick port has COM1 and COM2 for the usage of two joysticks. The remaining 7 pins are up, down, left, right and there are two fire buttons. The Amstrad Joystick has them. There is a third fire button referred as spare.
All signals of joystick 2 are mapped to the keyboard too. But NOT joystick 1. All its seven signals are NOT at the keyboard.
There's loads of games where you can configure two fire buttons, especially with the GX4000 pad. I think ChaseHQ allows for this also.
Got one joystick at home providing all three fire buttons - and I'm using them :)
Quote from: ukmarkh on 21:41, 11 November 15
There's loads of games where you can configure two fire buttons, especially with the GX4000 pad. I think ChaseHQ allows for this also.
Redefining keys in Chase HQ? I'm shocked at the thought!
Many games that support redefine the keys. Have blocked the button 2 on the game pad. You can redefine the keys except gamepad button 2 :).
These is another patch i made to several games when i port to gx4000 in the past.
Quote from: TFM on 22:19, 11 November 15
Got one joystick at home providing all three fire buttons - and I'm using them :)
What games use three fire buttons??
Quote from: Kevin Mount on 16:34, 12 November 15
What games use three fire buttons??
Only thing I can think are not games, but AMX Art and AMX Stop Press.
Well, as pointed out before games do allow to redefine keys. There is a Renegade patch for 3 buttons, and I like this one in particular. ;)
Very interesting topic. You know, I hate some of the old platforms or racing where you had to move the stick up to jump or accelerate. I understand this, since many joysticks at the time had a single button. Generally speaking I learned to play with the keyboard at the time, the joysticks sucked, you couldn't register a precise direction with ease, now it's kinda better with the GX4000 joypad, although most games are not programmed with the second button in mind. It's good to know if there were old games which use the two buttons.
Slightly off topic, but I am developing a pcb-based version of the joystick Y splitter with 3 fire button support. The pcb layout is ready to go to the board house, so I should have a small batch of prototypes in a couple of weeks.
Hey Kevin, I can't wait to get my hands on a CPC version of the Cyclone RX. When is that one due?
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
Quote from: Kevin Mount on 21:07, 12 November 15
Slightly off topic, but I am developing a pcb-based version of the joystick Y splitter with 3 fire button support. The pcb layout is ready to go to the board house, so I should have a small batch of prototypes in a couple of weeks.
Awesome!
Indeed.
Quote from: dodogildo on 22:31, 12 November 15
Hey Kevin, I can't wait to get my hands on a CPC version of the Cyclone RX. When is that one due?
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
Not sure. I have the layout 90% finished, but I'm dithering a bit re powering it up.
I can't decide whether to:
1. Fit a mini-usb port to power it up from a phone charger or
2. Run an extension to the main 5V power lead.
What do you think?
How ever you decide, 5 V is a good idea, because it can be taken from the CPCs PSU or an extra 5 V PSU (common in CPC households ;-))
Quote from: TFM on 23:57, 12 November 15
How ever you decide, 5 V is a good idea, because it can be taken from the CPCs PSU or an extra 5 V PSU (common in CPC households ;-))
It's also a good idea because any other voltage and the MCU and PS2 gamepad will not work properly ;)
What is the story of Joystick on CPC?
I remember I was watching this video of Spectrum VS Amstrad VS C64 and one mentioned he bought a second joystick for his CPC, and it didn't work. Of course the CPC doesn't have second joystick port, but it was a chained joystick on the first joystick. Both where controlling the same player.
In the hardware mapping I remember there was only one joystick. And two buttons. No way to send more.
Someone mentioned a 3rd button? Is it possible?
Is it possible to have two joysticks or more than two buttons on regular CPC?
p.s. Ok, I just realized there is a button 3 on hardware scan mapping. I just need to find a CPC joystick with three buttons now :)
Quote from: Optimus on 12:14, 13 November 15
What is the story of Joystick on CPC?
I remember I was watching this video of Spectrum VS Amstrad VS C64 and one mentioned he bought a second joystick for his CPC, and it didn't work. Of course the CPC doesn't have second joystick port, but it was a chained joystick on the first joystick. Both where controlling the same player.
In the hardware mapping I remember there was only one joystick. And two buttons. No way to send more.
Someone mentioned a 3rd button? Is it possible?
Is it possible to have two joysticks or more than two buttons on regular CPC?
p.s. Ok, I just realized there is a button 3 on hardware scan mapping. I just need to find a CPC joystick with three buttons now :)
The CPC has a single joystick port but the COM signal for joystick 2 is here too. If you use a splitter, or a joystick connected to another joystick you can use two joysticks. One is mapped to the joystick on the keyboard map, the other is mapped to r,tg,5 etc.
The CPC has keyboard clash which means if both people are using joystick then the controls will conflict and they can control each other!
In the hardware, the CPC supports 3 fire buttons. The Plus doesn't. The plus supports 2. Also the plus has diodes which means joysticks can't clash and it all works great! :)
Quote from: Optimus on 12:14, 13 November 15
What is the story of Joystick on CPC?
I remember I was watching this video of Spectrum VS Amstrad VS C64 and one mentioned he bought a second joystick for his CPC, and it didn't work. Of course the CPC doesn't have second joystick port, but it was a chained joystick on the first joystick. Both where controlling the same player.
In the hardware mapping I remember there was only one joystick. And two buttons. No way to send more.
Someone mentioned a 3rd button? Is it possible?
Is it possible to have two joysticks or more than two buttons on regular CPC?
p.s. Ok, I just realized there is a button 3 on hardware scan mapping. I just need to find a CPC joystick with three buttons now :)
Optimus, please stop to confuse people here. Please read in the CPCWiki before you talk too much and tell things which are not true.
In brief:
- The CPC can handle two joysticks
- They need an Y cable to fit into the single joystick port (or use a through joystick made by Amstrad)
- A good Y cable contains diodes to omit interference between the two joysticks
- There are 3 fire buttons, two of them are documented
- There is hardware (f.e. AMX mouse, Atari-ST mouse adapter, TFM-Joystick etc.) using all 3 buttons
- There is quite a variety of software using 2 fire buttons
- Few software is using all 3 buttons (I remember only about 4-5 titles now)
- Games have more often the chance to redefine buttons
Looks like the adapter will be powered externally, via a phone charger.
I made up a cable to power the adapter from the main 5V dc plug, but it made the adapter unstable.
To be precise, the LEFT button gave the same result as if the ESC key was being pressed.
IMHO that sounds more like a keyboard clash instead of a PSU problem. But if you can omit it by using an external PSU then great. I'm not a fan of dividing power from the CPC anyway. But there are well and cheap PSUs on Amazon (f.e.) which have the right plug for the CPC already. :)
Quote from: TFM on 21:23, 13 November 15
But there are well and cheap PSUs on Amazon (f.e.) which have the right plug for the CPC already. :)
Can you share a link when you have the time?
Cheers
Quote from: TFM on 17:23, 13 November 15
Optimus, please stop to confuse people here. Please read in the CPCWiki before you talk too much and tell things which are not true.
Ok, but it's better to ask so that we make it clear for everyone. I am not trying to tell anything or confuse people, I am trying to make things more clear for me and others who are reading. Judging from the old radio show I had seen, people where making fun of the CPC guy, because he bought a second Joystick with chain connector, plugged in it the first joystick and then realized that both joysticks were controlling the same player. That's what they said and maybe it was true before some joystick splitter interface came out. Arnold's answer already made sense to me.
Rescue on fractalus use the second button to activate booster when mother ship is above the player
I wish there were some Multiface II pokes for my favorite games in order to map secondary fire to Gamepad/Joystick Button 2.