PS/2 Mouse support on VIC-20

[adric22]

I already posted this in comp.sys.cbm but I know there are people here who don't go there often.. so here are the questions:

I wanted to raise this topic again.. For those who are unfamiliar, a
little refresher.. A couple of years ago I developed a mouse driver
for connecting a PS/2 mouse directly to the userport of a Commodore
DTV without any extra hardware. But the driver didn't work on a real
C64 because I had to disable badlines on the DTV before I could get
reliable operation. However, I had theorized that it might be
possible to use better timing so that the mouse was read during the
screen refresh so that maybe the badlines wouldn't cause timing
issues. However, there wasn't much interest and at the time I was
only interested in working on the DTV so I never pursued the issue.
For a demo of this on the DTV, look here:

http://galaxy22.dyndns.org/dtv/common/p ... index.html

However, since I'm still highly considering making a real-time
strategy game for the C64, something akin to StarCraft, mouse support
is apparently needed. I could obviously add support for the 1351 but
I don't even own one anymore and I think they are getting pretty
rare. So I was thinking about re-visiting the PS/2 mouse driver
issue and seeing if I could get it to work on a real C64. The
hardware to connect the mouse would be extremely simple and cheap. So
it would be available to everyone at very low cost. Plus you could use
fancy optical mice, cordless mice, etc.

So my question is this.. if I got this working, would anyone else have
any software they've written which could benefit? Or any software
planned to be written which could use it?

Second question.. I hadn't even considered the VIC-20 or Plus/4 at the
time. But do they have badlines? I am thinking not since the VIC-20
does not blank the screen when reading from cassette. In which case,
the mouse driver would probably work as-is on the VIC-20 without any
mods.

Third question.. Would anyone be interested in adding PS/2 mouse
emulation on the userport to VICE or other emulators?

[RobertBe]

However, since I'm still highly considering making a real-time strategy game for the C64, something akin to StarCraft, mouse support is apparently needed. I could obviously add support for the 1351 but I don't even own one anymore and I think they are getting pretty rare.

Our club has several in storage.

So I was thinking about re-visiting the PS/2 mouse driver issue and seeing if I could get it to work on a real C64. The hardware to connect the mouse would be extremely simple and cheap. So it would be available to everyone at very low cost. Plus you could use fancy optical mice, cordless mice, etc.

Would that be like the Indivision Micromys PS/2 adapter at

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/cat ... cts_id=877

Hey, this mouse talk reminds me of this --

http://www.zazzle.com/commodore_64_mous ... 8460165652

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

[adric22]

Our club has several in storage.

You're missing the point. There are way more PS/2 mice available than 1351 and with more modern features.

Would that be like the Indivision Micromys PS/2 adapter at

No, that is totally different. my mouse driver requires no extra hardware, no circuits, no microcontrollers. All it requires is a way to physically attach the PS/2 data and clock lines to the user port. Which should be way cheaper that this device. I was even thinking of modding a C64 to put a PS/2 mouse port right on the back or side of it.

[TBCVIC]

I've been thinking about connecting PS/2 mice to various 8-bit computers too, so I would be very interested of such a thing. I had it in my mind to use a PIC to interface with, but ofcourse your ways is much better.
I've been thinking about doing RTS games too actually...
The Vic-20 doesn't have any badlines, so go right ahead.

[RobertBe]

You're missing the point. There are way more PS/2 mice available than 1351 and with more modern features.

You did not clarify that before. All you said was

...and I think they are getting pretty rare.

No, that is totally different. my mouse driver requires no extra hardware, no circuits, no microcontrollers. All it requires is a way to physically attach the PS/2 data and clock lines to the user port. Which should be way cheaper that this device. I was even thinking of modding a C64 to put a PS/2 mouse port right on the back or side of it.

Hmm, it doesn't sound plug-and-play to me.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

[Pedro Lambrini]

I'd love to see this. Is it really as simple as you say? I'd love to see some mouse-controlled games on the Vic.

...As well as a mouse version of Clowns. I love that game but I can't use paddles on any of my machines (the annoying flicky-movement issue).

[adric22]

I'd love to see this. Is it really as simple as you say? I'd love to see some mouse-controlled games on the Vic.

Well, if I try doing this on the VIC-20, my first experiment would probably be to have the mouse control the drawing program I recently designed. That would be easy enough.

Then I was thinking of this RTS game I want to design.. Since it will probably use no sprites, I was thinking of maybe doing a simultaneous development on the C64/Plus4/Vic-20. Only trouble is... I was sort of planing to use a sprite for the mouse-pointer on the C64. So I'd have to come up with something else on the VIC-20 and Plus/4. I guess I'd need at least 1 software sprite.

[TNT]

A couple of years ago I developed a mouse driver for connecting a PS/2 mouse directly to the userport of a Commodore DTV without any extra hardware. But the driver didn't work on a real C64 because I had to disable badlines on the DTV before I could get reliable operation. However, I had theorized that it might be possible to use better timing so that the mouse was read during the screen refresh so that maybe the badlines wouldn't cause timing issues.

You may want to check your private messages at Lemon64 before coding too much...