How play joytick games on A3020 ?

[drfloyd]

Hello

I discover that Archimedes A3020 has no joystick port... So, wha about the games ??

[SarahWalker]

Keyboard.

[danielj]

Most people who used acorn machines were quite proficient with keys, or in later years the mouse. I knew very few people who had joysticks on their Acorn computers (I can't actually think of anyone I knew back in the day with joysticks).

[drfloyd]

ok ! it's a keyboard/mouse game machine so

[Naomasa298]

ok ! it's a keyboard/mouse game machine so

The A3020 wasn't meant as a games machine, it was aimed at education. The A3010 was the game oriented machine.

[acorndave]

You can get a 'GamesPad' (single or dual) which plugs into the parallel port. Don't know how good / usable they are though.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GamesWare-Du ... SwmThcrgqf

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GamesWare-Si ... Swb2hcrgq3

[drfloyd]

on the 3010, the joystick ports are ATARI ports ? We can plug SPEEDGING or QUICKSHOT ?

[richw]

Yes, the A3010 has an Atari interface.

Not many games support the Acorn Joystick SWIs. There was an app called JoyMaster which allowed the joystick movements to be mapped to keyboard or mouse actions.

[philpem]

The RTFM interface was the more widely supported one -- that and The Serial Port.

I'm sure there were adapter RMModules to convert from Acorn to the other two. If not, they probably aren't hard to write given copies of the APIs. MadProf came with the source to an RTFM JoyMod, and I think the Acorn one is documented in the PRMs.

[sirbod]

Not many games support the Acorn Joystick SWIs.

The RTFM interface was the more widely supported one -- that and The Serial Port.

According to the statistics, Acorn was the widest supported interface. In order of supported games:

I've tested just about every game released for RISC OS and Joystick support is detailed in this post.

[richw]

Of course, if you use ADFFS to enjoy retro games on a Pi, then USBJoystick will allow you to use a modern USB joystick/joypad to control any Joystick game (regardless of which SWIs it used).

[IanJeffray]

I created a module to read Playstation (1 and 2) pads connected to the parallel port. This presents an "Acorn" joystick interface to RISC OS.
The schematic and software can be downloaded here : http://ian.jeffray.co.uk/riscos/joypad/
There's also an app to allow "Acorn" Joystick actions to be mapped to keys, for games that don't support the Acorn joystick interface.

Our own (Paradise) games supported this interface in an extended form - providing rumble feedback through the PSX pads.

[philpem]

Not many games support the Acorn Joystick SWIs.

The RTFM interface was the more widely supported one -- that and The Serial Port.

According to the statistics, Acorn was the widest supported interface. In order of supported games:

Joystick_support.png

I've tested just about every game released for RISC OS and Joystick support is detailed in this post.

Thanks for putting me straight, Jon -- most of the games I played were Krisalis, so that explains why I had no luck finding one which worked with the A3010 Joystick ports. (I also didn't know the keyboard shortcut to enable the joystick!)

Seems that at least for those games, a Krisalis/Bogeysticks -> Acorn translator module might be a good shout.

[sirbod]

Seems that at least for those games, a Krisalis/Bogeysticks -> Acorn translator module might be a good shout.

This is where it gets somewhat complicated and why I put this disclaimer on the Joystick support page:

NOTE: The interfaces a game supports in its code and what the documentation or game say they support aren't necessarily the same. Some games are written for the Acorn interface exclusively and rely on translation Modules to support other interfaces. Inferno for example only talks to the RTFM and Acorn interfaces, but provides Serial Port/Vertical Twist support via the VTi translation Module.

Technically, any game that supports the Acorn interface could be said to support Serial Port/Vertical Twist with their translation Module, the same goes for a few other Joystick interfaces. It's for this reason only interfaces games talk to directly are included in this list, it does not include Joystick interfaces supported via translation, even if the game or its manual specifies they're supported.

If memory serves me correctly, all but the very early Krisalis games come with various Joystick translation Modules to add support for Serial Port, RTFM etc.

I know I keep harping on about it, but if you want a gaming experience to match an original A310, use a Pi attached to a 50Hz TV as Richard's USBJoystick will let you use just about any USB Joystick and ADFFS also has the ability to key map for games that don't support Joysticks natively.