Thumbs Up for This Customized Atari 5200 Controller

It might be practically 40 years outdated, however the Atari 5200 nonetheless conjures up legions of followers to relive the 8-bit glory days of their youth. There was a lot to like concerning the recreation console, however the joystick-and-keypad controllers weren't amongst its many charms. The joystick didn’t auto-center, the buttons had been mushy, and the ergonomics had been nonexistent.

Retro-aficionados needn't endure in silence, although, due to this substitute controller for the Atari 5200. didn’t need to accept one of many business replacements or, horrors, an adapter for the outdated PC-style joystick, so he rolled his personal. Working from the unique Atari schematics, devised a plan for utilizing a available thumbstick controller as the idea for his construct. The important drawback was the right way to adapt the 10okay pots on the brand new joystick to work in an setting anticipating 500okay pots, which he solved utilizing an analog to digital and again to analog method. The ADCs on an ATtiny85 convert every joystick pot’s voltage to a digital worth between zero and 255, which is shipped to a 100Okay digital potentiometer. Just a little twiddling with RC constants brings it again consistent with what the console expects. The thumbstick and buttons dwell on a customized PCB – kudos to for designing an ambidextrous board. The video under exhibits the design and the completed product in motion.

is on a little bit of a 5200 kick as of late; he simply completed up a Raspberry Pi multi-cartridge for the venerable console. His controller ought to make retro-gameplay on the console slightly simpler on the arms.