unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) (01/22/91)
In article <36038@netnews.upenn.edu> tyler@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Tyler W Phillips) writes: > I recently purchased a CH Mach III joystick because my old joystick >had a problem of only registering in the top left eighth or so of the normal >joystick spectrum. Well, it appears that it was not the joystick afterall >because this brand new joystick is doing the same thing. Is there anything >I can do about this, or am I condemned never to use a joystick. BTW, This >is on a IIgs if that makes any difference. Any help would be appreciated. This is a very simplistic response, I realize.. but... You don't happen to be playing non GS specific games in FAST mode on the GS? You have to re-center the joystick if you want to do this... (then recenter it back when you play GS games) For a simple joystick centering program, run this: 10 ? PDL(0),PDL(1) 20 goto 10 And then you want to get both as close to 127 as possible w/the joystick centered. -- /Apple II(GS) Forever! unknown@ucscb.ucsc.edu MAIL ME FOR INFO ABOUT CHEAP CDs\ \WRITE TO ORIGIN ABOUT ULTIMA VI //e and IIGS! Mail me for addresses, & info. /
beh@bass.bu.edu (Bruce E. Howells) (01/22/91)
In article <11374@darkstar.ucsc.edu> unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) writes: > >In article <36038@netnews.upenn.edu> tyler@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Tyler W Phillips) writes: >> I recently purchased a CH Mach III joystick because my old joystick >>had a problem of only registering in the top left eighth or so of the normal >>joystick spectrum. Well, it appears that it was not the joystick afterall >>because this brand new joystick is doing the same thing. Is there anything >>I can do about this, or am I condemned never to use a joystick. BTW, This >>is on a IIgs if that makes any difference. Any help would be appreciated. > > This is a very simplistic response, I realize.. but... > > You don't happen to be playing non GS specific games in FAST mode >on the GS? You have to re-center the joystick if you want to do this... >(then recenter it back when you play GS games) > > > For a simple joystick centering program, run this: > >10 ? PDL(0),PDL(1) >20 goto 10 > > And then you want to get both as close to 127 as possible w/the >joystick centered. >-- >/Apple II(GS) Forever! unknown@ucscb.ucsc.edu MAIL ME FOR INFO ABOUT CHEAP CDs\ >\WRITE TO ORIGIN ABOUT ULTIMA VI //e and IIGS! Mail me for addresses, & info. / Not quite... The problem with that is that the joystick timer can't reset properly between the first and second read, leaving the second one slightly wrong. A cleaner solution is: 10 ? pdl(0)," "; 20 for i = 1 to 5 30 next i 40 ? pdl(1) 50 for i = 1 to 5 60 next i 70 goto 10 [done from memory, and it's been WAY too long since I've done Applesoft, so if it's wrong my apologies, but the idea is there] For further info, see the Technical Reference Manual of your choice. Bruce Howells, beh@bu.edu
4225_5117@uwovax.uwo.ca (01/22/91)
In article <72832@bu.edu.bu.edu>, beh@bass.bu.edu (Bruce E. Howells) writes: > In article <11374@darkstar.ucsc.edu> unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) writes: >> >>In article <36038@netnews.upenn.edu> tyler@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Tyler W Phillips) writes: >>> I recently purchased a CH Mach III joystick because my old joystick >>>had a problem of only registering in the top left eighth or so of the normal >>>joystick spectrum. Well, it appears that it was not the joystick afterall >>>because this brand new joystick is doing the same thing. Is there anything >>>I can do about this, or am I condemned never to use a joystick. BTW, This >>>is on a IIgs if that makes any difference. Any help would be appreciated. >> >> This is a very simplistic response, I realize.. but... >> >> You don't happen to be playing non GS specific games in FAST mode >>on the GS? You have to re-center the joystick if you want to do this... >>(then recenter it back when you play GS games) >>/Apple II(GS) Forever! unknown@ucscb.ucsc.edu MAIL ME FOR INFO ABOUT CHEAP CDs\ >>\WRITE TO ORIGIN ABOUT ULTIMA VI //e and IIGS! Mail me for addresses, & info. / > > Not quite... The problem with that is that the joystick timer can't reset > properly between the first and second read, leaving the second one slightly > wrong. > Bruce Howells, beh@bu.edu Actually, Unknown is right. Some games used their own joystick reading routines and when run in fast mode, don't get their timing right. Whereas the ROM routines set the speed to slow whenever they're called. However, on a GS specific game, with your own routine, it is possible to read both axis at once because the increased speed (though figuring out the right "wait loop" timing is tricky - basically experiment). Mike Hackett (University of Western Ontario)
tyler@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Tyler W Phillips) (01/22/91)
Thanks to all who helped, but it seems that I was not specific enough about the nature of the problem. On my friends IIe, the joystick works fine, centering at about 127 and maxing at 255. Put it on my IIgs, and it centers at about 40 and maxes at 80. Oddly enough, it seems to work perfectly within that 0 to 80 range. Unfortunately, that doesn't help unless the game lets you center your joystick before play. This leads me to believe that it is actually a problem with the computer, and not the joystick. Is there anything I could have done that would make the joystick behave this way? (after all, the original joystick worked for about 6 months before these symptoms appeared.) I suppose if I cannot figure it out, I will have to return the joystick after all (and a damn fine joystick it is too :-( ). Thanks again. tyler@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
swiers@plains.NoDak.edu (Mike Swiers ) (01/22/91)
In article <11374@darkstar.ucsc.edu> unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) writes: > > You don't happen to be playing non GS specific games in FAST mode >on the GS? You have to re-center the joystick if you want to do this... >(then recenter it back when you play GS games) Oh yeah? I didn't know that. I guess it's 'cuz I so seldom play games...and never play non-GS-specific games that require a joystick. > > > For a simple joystick centering program, run this: > >10 ? PDL(0),PDL(1) >20 goto 10 There's a nifty NDA floating around that does this as well. > > And then you want to get both as close to 127 as possible w/the >joystick centered. >-- >/Apple II(GS) Forever! unknown@ucscb.ucsc.edu MAIL ME FOR INFO ABOUT CHEAP CDs\ >\WRITE TO ORIGIN ABOUT ULTIMA VI //e and IIGS! Mail me for addresses, & info. / Mike T h i s i s s o I c a n p o s t t h i s a r t i c l e .
twong@civil.ubc.ca (Thomas Wong) (01/23/91)
In article <36056@netnews.upenn.edu> tyler@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Tyler W Phillips) writes: > > Thanks to all who helped, but it seems that I was not specific enough >about the nature of the problem. On my friends IIe, the joystick works fine, >centering at about 127 and maxing at 255. Put it on my IIgs, and it centers at >about 40 and maxes at 80. Oddly enough, it seems to work perfectly within that >0 to 80 range. Unfortunately, that doesn't help unless the game lets you >center your joystick before play. This leads me to believe that it is actually >a problem with the computer, and not the joystick.... I have had strange experiences with joysticks myself. I have a //e and a //c, and two joysticks (Starfighter and Quickshot). The Starfighter can go from 0 to 255 in my //e with no problem. But the Quickshot gets approx same numbers you got... 0 to 80 or so. But the Quickshot works perfectly fine on my //c (0 to 255). So my solution was to leave the Starfighter on my //e and the Quickshot on my //c and never looked into the problem again. Now that you brought this up, can someone explain this? Thanks. Thomas.
platkus@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Shawn W Platkus) (01/23/91)
In article <36056@netnews.upenn.edu> tyler@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Tyler W Phillips) writes: > > Thanks to all who helped, but it seems that I was not specific enough >about the nature of the problem. On my friends IIe, the joystick works fine, >centering at about 127 and maxing at 255. Put it on my IIgs, and it centers at >about 40 and maxes at 80. Oddly enough, it seems to work perfectly within that >0 to 80 range. Unfortunately, that doesn't help unless the game lets you >center your joystick before play. This leads me to believe that it is actually >a problem with the computer, and not the joystick. Is there anything I could >have done that would make the joystick behave this way? (after all, the >original joystick worked for about 6 months before these symptoms appeared.) >I suppose if I cannot figure it out, I will have to return the joystick after >all (and a damn fine joystick it is too :-( ). Thanks again. > >tyler@eniac.seas.upenn.edu I heard a looong time ago about a few GSes that came with bad joystick ports or something that caused a similar problem to what you described! Don't get too excited though, this was about three yrs ago. What kind of GS do you have ROM1 or 3, and when did you get it? Platkus
gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) (01/24/91)
In article <36056@netnews.upenn.edu> tyler@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Tyler W Phillips) writes: >On my friends IIe, the joystick works fine, centering at about 127 and >maxing at 255. Put it on my IIgs, and it centers at about 40 and maxes >at 80. Oddly enough, it seems to work perfectly within that 0 to 80 range. One possibility is that the program you're using relies on the CPU running at 1 MHz. Another, more interesting possibility is that the joystick manufacturer had trouble finding the specific potentiometer values that Apple specifies, and decided instead to fake out the 555 timer by making an equivalent RC time constant by using a capacitor in addition to the potentiometer. I think the IIGS has a different internal arrangement for the joystick port, such that the proper potentiometer value works okay but "equivalent" RC combinations no longer have equivalent behavior.