4 player adapter

shem · Post by **shem** » Wed May 06, 2009 5:39 am

I would like to fit a 4 player adapter into a vic20 internally does anyone have a schematic of the standard 4 palyer adapter such as the protovision one ???

Also is there any software for the vic to take advantage of the extra joystik ports?

thanks
shem...

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed May 06, 2009 6:00 am

The very obscure OEM/Mr. Computer cartridge Close Encounters of the Worst Kind appears to support a secondary joystick in the user port. They sold this peripheral separately, supporting both the VIC-20 and C64. However it is not quite what you ask for.

shem · Post by **shem** » Wed May 06, 2009 6:07 am

Thanks carlsson
Well its a start at least

I have paid for the megacart should be with me in a few weeks
any games on the megacart that support 2 player joustiks??

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Wed May 06, 2009 6:17 am

shem wrote:Thanks carlsson
Well its a start at least

I have paid for the megacart should be with me in a few weeks
any games on the megacart that support 2 player joustiks??

Exactly the game mentioned from Carlsson, there is no other game for the vic that support the additional Joystick using this addon btw it seems very easy to write a new one

Enjoy your new Mega-Cart

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Wed May 06, 2009 6:28 am

Actually Amazing Maze, Space Ric-o-shay and Tank Wars (all from OEM) use the adapter for two player simultaneous action. So that's four games.

shem · Post by **shem** » Wed May 06, 2009 6:29 am

wow this gets better I woluld like to build this adapter into the vic internally if I can fid a schematic

English Invader · Post by **English Invader** » Wed May 06, 2009 6:43 am

I've just ordered a Mega Cart. The website said it would send an e-mail for payment and shipping details, and it's been about three days. Does anyone know how long I should expect to wait for a response?

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Wed May 06, 2009 7:24 am

shem wrote:does anyone have a schematic of the standard 4 player adapter such as the protovision one ???

Actually on Protovision's own web site they have sketchy drawings on which pins you use on the user port, how you wire up the 74LS257 and connect the joystick ports.

http://www.protovision-online.de/hardw/build4player.htm

Since only PB0-PB7, GND and +5V are used, I believe the exact same interface will work on a VIC-20 too.

Groepaz/Hitmen refers to the Protovision interface as "classical games adapter". Also check the "DXS/HIT Adapter" which seems to be an improved design eliminating the TTL IC.

http://hitmen.c02.at/html/hardware.html

Of course the question is whether the OEM games use the parallel port in the same way as either of these interfaces do. The only way to find out would be to build an adapter, plug it in and observe what happens on screen. Well, we could disassemble the games and look for code reading the VIA chip too.

I know e5frog and a few more recently built their own Protovision-style interfaces into C64C's. I suppose the experiences gained from that experiment would be useful even with your VIC-20.

shem · Post by **shem** » Wed May 06, 2009 8:00 am

Great stuff
thank you

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Wed May 06, 2009 8:28 am

English Invader wrote:I've just ordered a Mega Cart. The website said it would send an e-mail for payment and shipping details, and it's been about three days. Does anyone know how long I should expect to wait for a response?

I'm guessing a few months at least. There are a lot of people ahead of you that pre-ordered. Each cartridge is made by hand, one at a time.

6502dude · Post by **6502dude** » Wed May 06, 2009 9:50 am

English Invader wrote:I've just ordered a Mega Cart. The website said it would send an e-mail for payment and shipping details, and it's been about three days. Does anyone know how long I should expect to wait for a response?

A reply to each new order (order confirmation) is usually made within 1 business day.

Request for payment is not made until about 1 week before shipping date.

If you have not received reply to order (order confirmation), please check to ensure reply message was not spam filtered. If still no message found, please use info button on mega-cart web site to send follow up message.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Thu May 07, 2009 9:40 am

Mayhem wrote:Actually Amazing Maze, Space Ric-o-shay and Tank Wars (all from OEM) use the adapter for two player simultaneous action. So that's four games.

All these game are on Mega-Cart

shem · Post by **shem** » Thu May 07, 2009 10:58 am

Fantastic

Now I really cant wait for the megacart paid for it a few days ago plus with the national bank holiday coming up i might book a few extra weeks off work

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Thu May 07, 2009 11:14 am

Back on topic...I'd be interested in working on a multiplayer game for the VIC using the Protovision 4-player interface.

Re. Amazing Maze, Space Ric-o-shay and Tank Wars - Any idea if they would work? Do we have specs of the OEM interface?

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Fri May 08, 2009 2:31 am

A relevant disassembly of Amazing Maze may give us some hints. At $A0B8 and forward, it checks $9110 four times:

If $9110 AND 128 = 0, store #$01 to $00
If $9110 AND 64 = 0, store #$03 to $00
If $9110 AND 32 = 0, store #$02 to $00
If $9110 AND 16 = 0, store #$00 to $00
otherwise store #$04 to $00

This routine is called twice, from $A697 and $AA97. If $00 is not #$04, it reads an indexed offset from $A0EF:

$A0EF: $01 $96 $81 $16

Offsets < 128 are added to the value of $01, $02 and dealt further with. All offsets are AND 127.

If I understand those numbers correctly, we get the following:

$9110 AND 128 = up
$9110 AND 64 = down
$9110 AND 32 = left
$9110 AND 16 = right

Which pins on the user ports those bits represent, I can't be bothered to look up at this minute, but someone could compare with the programming examples for the Protovision adapter.

Denial

4 player adapter

4 player adapter

Re: 4 palyer adapter