Joystick Rebirth
Breath new life into your oldschool controllers
Everyone has experienced the pleasure of playing childhood favourites through an emulator on modern PCs, but have you ever had the feeling that it just doesn't feel the same? A quick game of the classic joystick waggler - Daley Thompson's Decathlon - just doesn't feel the same on a gamepad or analogue joystick; in fact it can be damned infuriating!
Alas, the joys of USB have rendered the good old 9 pin adaptors obsolete and it isn't a particularly simple job to rewire the joysticks without some tehnical knowhow. There are a number of ways to tackle this problem, the easiest being simply to buy an adaptor such as the Stelladaptor 2600. This retails for just under $30 and therefore isn't exactly cheap, but you do then have the ability to use any of your old 9 pins without any further jiggery pokery. It's just basic plug and play.
» Stelladaptor - $30 from Atariage
» Retrobox adaptor - $23 from RetroZone, or $17 for a kit
» Build your own convertor - Here comes the science bit!
The second option would be to whip out the soldering iron and attack an old USB gamepad you have lying around. By attaching the wires from the 9pin to certain points on the USB pad, your old joystick can utilise the functions of the USB pad. It's all rather parasitic and you will end up with your 9pin and USB controller permanently attached unless you go to great lengths fitting out the gamepad with a female 9pin connector or transfering it's circuit board into another container (in which case you end up losing the ability to use the gamepad).
» Converting a gamepad to accept a retro joystick - Straightforward and nderstandable
» Adding inputs for a 9pin to a USB controller - Quite technical unfortunately
The third method would be to purchase a kit from a supplier such as RetroZone ($17) and do a bit of soldering. Take one old controller, stick in some old components and voila!
» Converting a Super Nintendo pad to USB - Take one controller, add a few electrical widgets...
» RetroZone kit - $17 for the necessary bits.
The final method would be just to buy a retro controller already adapted for USB. There are plenty around if you look hard enough. Competition Pro (phwoar!) have already released new USB versions of their classic controller (about £10 on ebay) and RetroZone offer various old controllers already converted to USB, available in many flavours.
» RetroZone - More old controllers than you can shake a (joy)stick at.
» Competition Pro & review - Get a brand new one for some great wiggling action.