spierce@pnet01.cts.com (Stuart Pierce) (07/02/89)
Here's a question that I think might be of general interest. The July issue of Amiga World picked the Advanced Gravis as the best joystick. The Gravis joystick is an analog joystick (horizontal and vertical potentionmeters) that is primarily designed for IBM/Apple computers. All of the Amiga joysticks that I've seen are the Atari/Commodore microswitch-type joysticks. The Gravis does come with a 15-to-9 pin converter. Can I just plug one in and start using it with my Amiga? Will current joystick-only (no mouse control) programs function properly with an analog joystick? Here's a related question. IBM-type joysticks always have a 2nd fire button. The only Amiga game I have that supports a 2nd fire button is StarRay -- a Defender clone. The documentation says that 'the second (right) one is connected just like the right mouse button, thus between Pin 8 (earth) and Pin 9 of the joystick connector'. Would the Gravis (or similar) controller give me the 2nd fire button I want? Thanks for any information on this subject! Stuart W. Pierce
blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) (07/03/89)
From article <4535@crash.cts.com>, by spierce@pnet01.cts.com (Stuart Pierce): > Here's a related question. IBM-type joysticks always have a 2nd fire button. > The only Amiga game I have that supports a 2nd fire button is StarRay -- a > Defender clone. The documentation says that 'the second (right) one is > connected just like the right mouse button, thus between Pin 8 (earth) and Pin > 9 of the joystick connector'. Would the Gravis (or similar) controller give > me the 2nd fire button I want? > Stuart W. Pierce You can add R-Type to the (short!) list of games that support a two button joystick. It uses the second button to control the eject/attach of the weapons pod. My two button joystick is a Wico bat-handle that I've hacked up. With a perfectly good second button going to waste, I figured something should be done about it! I added half a Radio Shack joystick extension cord to get the extra wire needed for the second button, and rewired the insides so that the handle button is 0 and the base button is 1. But I also wired it so that the "base/stick" switch swaps button 0 to the base and button 1 to the handle. (Like I said, a perfectly good switch going to waste. :-) Oh, and to the first question you posed: Nope, an analog stick will work only with games written specifically for an analog stick. My impression from the Amiga World article was that Gravis is selling a digital model. -- Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland 580 Arapeen Drive, SLC, Utah 84108 Here: utah-cs!esunix!blgardne {ucbvax,allegra,decvax}!decwrl!esunix!blgardne "Nobody will ever need more than 64K." "Nobody needs multitasking on a PC."