Can a joystick damage an MSX?

Master (153)

10-11-2022, 10:14

What could be a solution for example to use a PSP controller is to make use of 2 joystick ports for 1 controller.
If we had a solution to increase the number of ports of MSX to 4, we can do multiplayer

By aoineko

Paladin (892)

10-11-2022, 18:09

Yes, I also considered the solution of using the 2 ports for one controller.

If someone can develop a protocol for detecting and reading the data, and if someone is willing to create a physical prototype, I would be happy to add it to the MSXgl library (like for the Ninja Tap).

(we are a bit off topic ^^)

By Danjovic

Champion (323)

10-11-2022, 18:57

Accumulator wrote:

You need to design a new controller and change port reader actions. The controller can only be used with applications designed for it and not normal.
Also a dual controller , 2 cyclones, and 2 fire buttons , could be possible. One for direction of player, one for direction of fire direction and a and B fire button.
Theoretically....

A SNES controller suits such scheme very well, being the shoulder buttons the triggers A and B and AXBY the directional fire.
It is possible to use the same cicuitry of Shinobi Tap and adapt the driver to read 12 bits during scan. The SNES controller provide means to detect its presence and that can be added to enhance the detection routine.

By Accumulator

Master (153)

10-11-2022, 22:44

Excuse me for my ignorance, what is a Shinobi Tap?
Also in my opinion, first develop an application or game , than the controller, or simultaneously. On the other hand it stimulates to create games for it. Chicken and the egg story

To edit my previous post, not 2, but 4 fire buttons are possible using 2 ports, or 6 if you count simultaneously pressing a&b.

Also I have been thinking about time pressing buttons, what is the duration of time a human presses a button or a quick click by a processor. Like automatically track & field or manually..

I have one additional Sony JS-303T board and buttons, rest like physical case controller is missing, I have no clue what happened to it, but modifying a SNES controller sound not so bad ..m

By Danjovic

Champion (323)

11-11-2022, 10:28

Shinobi Tap is a multicontroller adapter that uses NES controllers. From the programer's perspective it is a Ninja Tap device. It is supported by some games including 2 recent homebrews - crawlers and muhonmourn3(patch ) and it is also supported by MSXgl.

If you are going to make something for an MSX machine, have in mind that you are doing it for fun, not for profit. In other words don't worry if your adapter is going to be a success or not, just do it and learn new things along the way. The same appliies for software projects, though you don't see people complaining about the lack of users that would potentially use them.

By the way, the chicken and egg does not constitute a real problem, as the dinosaurs layed eggs a long time before they evolved to chickens, lol

By ducasp

Paladin (677)

11-11-2022, 12:11

For more buttons a joymega is a quite easy solution, you just have an inverter in the joystick selection pin and adapt two connections that are different and you have a joypad with 8 buttons (A to C, X to Z, mode and start) that if no specific software is used, B and C works as standard buttons 1 and 2.

And several softwares already support it, including sofarun and on the fly patching so extra buttons can be used as keyboard keys and HIDLIB is quite nice supporting it and the mega multi tap.... (but I think for multi-player of more than 2 joysticks probably Ninja/Shinobi tap are better because it is very difficult to find a mega/Genesis multi tap adapter)

Joysnes is a second option, but it is less supported than joymega and less popular.

By Accumulator

Master (153)

17-11-2022, 15:43

And why are we stuck on joystick/mouse port,. If we also can use the printer port/rs232port, for data in, out , for vibration/feedback controller and even attach covox for talking controller..
Anyone ever made such hi tech controller?

By Accumulator

Master (153)

17-11-2022, 17:53

Another solution to enable more buttons is..
Send no power/data to pin 8, read settings from controller buttons /circuit 1
Put power/data to pin 8 and controller should switch to cicuit2 and read those buttons.
and
In this case double quantity of buttons .
Also renumeration of buttons could help, 6 in-pins = 64 possibilities

By aoineko

Paladin (892)

17-11-2022, 18:50

That's how the mouse works on MSX, right?

By Accumulator

Master (153)

17-11-2022, 19:23

Pin 8 is also used in mouse, if I am correct as some kind of ack. signal. If it is possible to find an Ic with min. 6 selectable input ports, of 12+ , and 6 output ports and 1 pin for which input ports to select and connect to output ports. (Pin8)
Read joystick port 2 times, 1 with power off and 1x with power on pin 8.
Of course you can always play with duration of signal on pin 8 and have even more configurations