CPC 464 Joystick issue

[bolton80]

Hi, I recently picked up a CPC 464. Never owned one before, although a friend had one. 

Anyway, been doing some maintenance on it. Had to remove the dual membrane keyboard pad and clean that, as I was getting unwanted inputs appearing, and that works fine now. 

However, I find that when I have the joystick it came with (Quickjoy II Turbo SV124) plugged in when I switch the Amstrad on, I always immediately have a Z input on screen. Just the one. But then when I load something and try to define keys. it will again immediately enter a Z even though I haven't touched anything. Tried plugging a Megadrive controller in the Amstrad, and that seemed to register odd combinations when trying to use it, but no automatic Z. Any ideas what I should do please?

[Mark_wllms]

The CPC series usually displays Z on screen when the joystick FIRE2 is pressed. Most joysticks didn't have a second fire button, so this might be a problem with your cable, connector or port.

[eto]

Hi, I recently picked up a CPC 464. Never owned one before, although a friend had one.

Anyway, been doing some maintenance on it. Had to remove the dual membrane keyboard pad and clean that, as I was getting unwanted inputs appearing, and that works fine now.

However, I find that when I have the joystick it came with (Quickjoy II Turbo SV124) plugged in when I switch the Amstrad on, I always immediately have a Z input on screen. Just the one. But then when I load something and try to define keys. it will again immediately enter a Z even though I haven't touched anything. Tried plugging a Megadrive controller in the Amstrad, and that seemed to register odd combinations when trying to use it, but no automatic Z. Any ideas what I should do please?

If the the joystick/gamepad has any kind of IC that is performing some logic (like autofire or mapping buttons to lanes) it will most likely not properly work on the Amstrad as the CPC does not provide 5V. For an overview of all differences, see here: http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/DE-9_Joystick

The Quickjoy might have an Amstrad switch. Make sure you set it to CPC. If not, make sure that autofire is deactivated. 

A megadrive controller has pull-up resistors and usually needs 5V to properly work which the CPC does not provide. If it's a 3 button model, the 4 directions might maybe work but fire shouldn't work at all or should have weird results. 

[darkhalf]

You can also use an adaptor which iconsgr has made up. These work well with auto fire joysticks (I've also used this with a mouse adaptor to add mouse input to the CPC)

http://retroworkbench.blogspot.com/p/5v-power-supply-for-joystick-port-to.html

[bolton80]

Thanks for your responses. I have since tried another joystick (a Cruiser one), which doesn't have an auto-fire option, and that worked perfectly. 

So I will check the joystick that isn't working and see if I can find a fault, and make sure the 464 and turbo switches are working correctly.