Re: [Atari800-users] Atari800-users Digest, Vol 112, Issue 1

[Chris C. <chr...@gm...>]

On Sat, Jul 3, 2021 at 11:59 AM <
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> Today's Topics:
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>    1. Joystick Compatibility (Edward S. Baiz Jr.)
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> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2021 09:24:09 -0400
> From: "Edward S. Baiz Jr." <edb...@co...>
> To: "ata...@li..."
>         <ata...@li...>
> Subject: [Atari800-users] Joystick Compatibility
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> Hello all. Just wondering if the Atari 800 emulator is anywhere near to
> having joystick compatibility yet?
> Using the keyboard is fine, but using a joystick would be better.  Thanks..
>

Ooo, yeah, I'd like to see that, too!  I've puzzled for years over how one
would do this; it seems to require host drivers that recognize a real
joystick, and an API for accessing that information.  Why the heck didn't
atari800 add that functionality *25 years ago?*

As a last resort -- and *also *25 years late! -- I realized that, at any
time in the past few decades, I could have wired a joystick to a few keys
in a spare keyboard, so that manipulating the stick became
hardware-identical to pressing those keys.  (In my brother-in-law's MAME
cabinet I discovered hardware that takes exactly this idea to its logical
extreme: somebody markets a custom device that, under software
configuration, dynamically maps external switch-closures to fake
keypresses!)

Anyway -- I second the request for "real" joystick support, if it can be
done.

Chris