From strt to finish. X2Jiggy shows how his controller is built. Worth a watch for the great 8-bit tune. (via x2Jiggy)
Since the emergence of smart phones and development boards such as the Raspberry Pi, there has been an increased popularity of retro games coming to these platforms. Emulators exist on phones, which can be easily downloaded to quickly begin gaming, and the same is true for the Raspberry Pi. As for owners of the Pi, retro games can also be a good motivational first project to kick start a hacking hobby. For one hacker enthusiast, who goes by the alias of x2Jiggy, creating a custom controller to play those retro games was his project to bring back the glory days of the Atari.
Due to the simple circuitry of the original Atari controllers, x2Jiggy decided to create his own design housed in a wooden craft box. Included in the controller is a joystick, paddle, and keypad. The keypad was created using perfboard, along with 12 tact switches. The switches are aligned and soldered together in the traditional way most hobby keypads are made. In addition, a male and two female DE-9 connectors are used to mount the keypad to the top of the box. The joystick used in his design was salvaged from a Playstation arcade controller; however, he states any arcade joystick will work fine. To finish off his design, a momentary-on pushbutton is mounted on the case along with a 1 Megaohm linear potentiometer.
X2Jiggy was nice enough to post his design and a list of parts needed to complete the projects on the web. They can be found on instructables.com along with a pdf of instructions for creating the project. As noted by the creator this controller will plug right into the original console and eliminate any need for switching between the joystick, paddle, or keypad. For anyone interested on taking this project on, it will also be very easy to add in your own features or change it in anyway you would like. On an another note, it would also be cool to see this pad wired to a microcontroller to drive an RC car or control a small robot.
The only aspect that bugs me is the harvesting of one controller for another. All the controller parts can be purchased individually, just so everyone knows. Otherwise, it’s a little like “Homer Simpson’s chili spoon, carved from a bigger spoon.”
C
See more news at: