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Author	Topic: Analog joysticks	3254 Views

• Blondie
  
  Community Member
  2 posts

  Analog joysticks

  12 May 2009 at 6:08am

  Hey all!
  
  Does anyone know of any way to get an original Apple //-compatible analog joystick (such as the awesome CH Products offerings) working with an emulator? So many of those great GS games just don't play right with the keyboard or mouse in an emulator.
  
  After searching around, I've found various solutions for getting Atari and other joysticks from that era working via USB, but they are all digital. Connecting the unique analog Apple joystick to modern hardware is something that nobody seems to have solved yet.
  
  
  

• Alex Lee
  
  Administrator
  105 posts

  Re: Analog joysticks

  13 May 2009 at 3:07am

  I don't know of any way. I imagine reading the values of the analogue stick make a converter cable a lot trickier than the on/off movement of the traditional Atari type joysticks.
  
  The best I can offer is that I bought a USB gamepad some years ago (I can't even remember the make and model!) but it included analogue controls (like the analogue controls on Playstation controllers). This USB gamepad's analogue controls KIND OF worked using the Bernie ][ the Rescue emulator running on a PowerMac. Bernie used the Mac OS 8/9 input sprocket support, but alas that API has not been implemented into OS X, so analogue joystick support would probably have to be written specifically for the existing emulators out there.
  
  I find most IIGS games play fine from the keyboard, and it's more the 8-bit Apple II classics (like Airheart) that make better use of the analogue stick.
  
  - Alex

• bloomer
  
  Community Member
  6 posts

  Re: Analog joysticks

  16 May 2009 at 3:21am

  I would think that technically, this would be a relatively easy hardware mod to make, but the reason nobody's doing it commercially is because it would be a tiny market for the result, especially when there are already analogue joysticks you can plug into any Mac or PC. Never mind that they mostly suck for playing Apple II games, they are analogue and can be used to do it.
  
  But that's for 8-bit games. For instance I've used a USB gamepad with analogue sticks to play Apple II games on Virtual II. So there's support for a gamepad in some 8-bit Apple II emulators, but in the IIGS ones, there isn't even that - except in Bernie, which Alex clings to but I don't know that anyone else continues to use it because of the impracticality :)
  
  I did ask the Sweet16 gent about joystick/pad support last year and he said it wasn't a priority for him. I dunno, I would think the biggest reason people run the IIGS emulators is for gaming, and there is still no up to date emulator which supports sticks/pads properly.
  

  Last edited: 16 May 2009 at 3:22am

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