exxos
New member
This is, and isn't good news. While there have been those joysticks about, they are unfortunately USB joysticks. I brought a couple with the intention to convert them over to Atari style so they look and act like the classic joysticks. Though they are not a simple cable change
The PCB is wired up really screwy. Where Up & Down are wired to the controller chip , but then Right pad is wired in series with the Left pads ground then wired in series with the down's ground. So there is some odd encoding going on for the USB controller chip. This actually means a huge amount of removing SMT parts and track cutting. Some tracks are so tiny as they are going to the USB controller chip, that soldering on a wire to them isn't going to be ideal. It was heading into a huge bodge more than anything. While I was hacking this board about, the more I worked on it the more I thought that its going to be to much hacking and a lot of work to the point it would actually be easier and less time consuming to actually get new PCB's made for the things. So you can probably see how this is all going....Buying 9 pin D-type cables isn't to much of a problem, buying the joysticks isn't to bad either. Building them up for use with Atari's will probably end up in a £30 price tag plus postage. Though it is also possible that if I design a easy PCB to fit these things, that people could simply buy the PCB and that can be shipped off pretty cheap around the world, rather than myself buying the joysticks, then paying shipping, then the buyer paying shipping, it would soon ramp up cost. Though if people brought the joystick themselves, they would only have to buy the cable and the PCB from me and they could convert them themselves. Of course not everyone can solder or do things like so, so I am happy to build a few up for sale complete in my store anyway.
I started looking into new joysticks as I have a bag full of joysticks, and with old switches, bad cables etc etc they are just basically junk and not really functional anymore. I have looked into converting simple game pads also. My girlfriend tends to prefer those than joysticks. Though currently I thought I would see if there is any interest in the classic joysticks before I even consider expanding onto other controllers.
So the bottom line is, how many people would be interested in buying the PCB to do the conversion themselves, or interested in a complete new joystick. I suspect the PCB's will cost around £10 each. So looking for at least 10 pre-orders before they go into production.
