612 lines
21 KiB
ReStructuredText
612 lines
21 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. include:: <isonum.txt>
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.. _joystick-parport:
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==============================
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Parallel Port Joystick Drivers
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==============================
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:Copyright: |copy| 1998-2000 Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@ucw.cz>
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:Copyright: |copy| 1998 Andree Borrmann <a.borrmann@tu-bs.de>
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Sponsored by SuSE
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Disclaimer
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==========
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Any information in this file is provided as-is, without any guarantee that
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it will be true. So, use it at your own risk. The possible damages that can
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happen include burning your parallel port, and/or the sticks and joystick
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and maybe even more. Like when a lightning kills you it is not our problem.
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Introduction
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============
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The joystick parport drivers are used for joysticks and gamepads not
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originally designed for PCs and other computers Linux runs on. Because of
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that, PCs usually lack the right ports to connect these devices to. Parallel
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port, because of its ability to change single bits at will, and providing
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both output and input bits is the most suitable port on the PC for
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connecting such devices.
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Devices supported
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=================
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Many console and 8-bit computer gamepads and joysticks are supported. The
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following subsections discuss usage of each.
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NES and SNES
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------------
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The Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System
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gamepads are widely available, and easy to get. Also, they are quite easy to
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connect to a PC, and don't need much processing speed (108 us for NES and
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165 us for SNES, compared to about 1000 us for PC gamepads) to communicate
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with them.
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All NES and SNES use the same synchronous serial protocol, clocked from
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the computer's side (and thus timing insensitive). To allow up to 5 NES
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and/or SNES gamepads and/or SNES mice connected to the parallel port at once,
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the output lines of the parallel port are shared, while one of 5 available
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input lines is assigned to each gamepad.
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This protocol is handled by the gamecon.c driver, so that's the one
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you'll use for NES, SNES gamepads and SNES mice.
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The main problem with PC parallel ports is that they don't have +5V power
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source on any of their pins. So, if you want a reliable source of power
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for your pads, use either keyboard or joystick port, and make a pass-through
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cable. You can also pull the power directly from the power supply (the red
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wire is +5V).
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If you want to use the parallel port only, you can take the power is from
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some data pin. For most gamepad and parport implementations only one pin is
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needed, and I'd recommend pin 9 for that, the highest data bit. On the other
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hand, if you are not planning to use anything else than NES / SNES on the
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port, anything between and including pin 4 and pin 9 will work::
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(pin 9) -----> Power
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Unfortunately, there are pads that need a lot more of power, and parallel
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ports that can't give much current through the data pins. If this is your
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case, you'll need to use diodes (as a prevention of destroying your parallel
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port), and combine the currents of two or more data bits together::
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Diodes
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(pin 9) ----|>|-------+------> Power
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(pin 8) ----|>|-------+
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(pin 7) ----|>|-------+
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<and so on> :
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(pin 4) ----|>|-------+
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Ground is quite easy. On PC's parallel port the ground is on any of the
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pins from pin 18 to pin 25. So use any pin of these you like for the ground::
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(pin 18) -----> Ground
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NES and SNES pads have two input bits, Clock and Latch, which drive the
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serial transfer. These are connected to pins 2 and 3 of the parallel port,
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respectively::
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(pin 2) -----> Clock
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(pin 3) -----> Latch
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And the last thing is the NES / SNES data wire. Only that isn't shared and
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each pad needs its own data pin. The parallel port pins are::
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(pin 10) -----> Pad 1 data
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(pin 11) -----> Pad 2 data
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(pin 12) -----> Pad 3 data
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(pin 13) -----> Pad 4 data
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(pin 15) -----> Pad 5 data
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Note that pin 14 is not used, since it is not an input pin on the parallel
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port.
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This is everything you need on the PC's side of the connection, now on to
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the gamepads side. The NES and SNES have different connectors. Also, there
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are quite a lot of NES clones, and because Nintendo used proprietary
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connectors for their machines, the cloners couldn't and used standard D-Cannon
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connectors. Anyway, if you've got a gamepad, and it has buttons A, B, Turbo
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A, Turbo B, Select and Start, and is connected through 5 wires, then it is
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either a NES or NES clone and will work with this connection. SNES gamepads
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also use 5 wires, but have more buttons. They will work as well, of course::
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Pinout for NES gamepads Pinout for SNES gamepads and mice
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+----> Power +-----------------------\
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| 7 | o o o o | x x o | 1
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5 +---------+ 7 +-----------------------/
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| x x o \ | | | | |
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| o o o o | | | | | +-> Ground
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4 +------------+ 1 | | | +------------> Data
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| | | | | | +---------------> Latch
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| | | +-> Ground | +------------------> Clock
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| | +----> Clock +---------------------> Power
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| +-------> Latch
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+----------> Data
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Pinout for NES clone (db9) gamepads Pinout for NES clone (db15) gamepads
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+---------> Clock +-----------------> Data
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| +-------> Latch | +---> Ground
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| | +-----> Data | |
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| | | ___________________
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_____________ 8 \ o x x x x x x o / 1
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5 \ x o o o x / 1 \ o x x o x x o /
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\ x o x o / 15 `~~~~~~~~~~~~~' 9
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9 `~~~~~~~' 6 | | |
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| | | | +----> Clock
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| +----> Power | +----------> Latch
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+--------> Ground +----------------> Power
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Multisystem joysticks
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---------------------
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In the era of 8-bit machines, there was something like de-facto standard
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for joystick ports. They were all digital, and all used D-Cannon 9 pin
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connectors (db9). Because of that, a single joystick could be used without
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hassle on Atari (130, 800XE, 800XL, 2600, 7200), Amiga, Commodore C64,
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Amstrad CPC, Sinclair ZX Spectrum and many other machines. That's why these
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joysticks are called "Multisystem".
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Now their pinout::
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+---------> Right
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| +-------> Left
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| | +-----> Down
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| | | +---> Up
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_____________
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5 \ x o o o o / 1
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\ x o x o /
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9 `~~~~~~~' 6
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| +----> Button
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+--------> Ground
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However, as time passed, extensions to this standard developed, and these
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were not compatible with each other::
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Atari 130, 800/XL/XE MSX
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+-----------> Power
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+---------> Right | +---------> Right
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| +-------> Left | | +-------> Left
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| | +-----> Down | | | +-----> Down
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| | | +---> Up | | | | +---> Up
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_____________ _____________
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5 \ x o o o o / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1
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\ x o o o / \ o o o o /
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9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
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| | | | | | |
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| | +----> Button | | | +----> Button 1
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| +------> Power | | +------> Button 2
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+--------> Ground | +--------> Output 3
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+----------> Ground
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Amstrad CPC Commodore C64
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+-----------> Analog Y
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+---------> Right | +---------> Right
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| +-------> Left | | +-------> Left
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| | +-----> Down | | | +-----> Down
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| | | +---> Up | | | | +---> Up
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_____________ _____________
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5 \ x o o o o / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1
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\ x o o o / \ o o o o /
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9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
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| | | | | | |
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| | +----> Button 1 | | | +----> Button
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| +------> Button 2 | | +------> Power
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+--------> Ground | +--------> Ground
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+----------> Analog X
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Sinclair Spectrum +2A/+3 Amiga 1200
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+-----------> Up +-----------> Button 3
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| +---------> Fire | +---------> Right
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| | | | +-------> Left
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| | +-----> Ground | | | +-----> Down
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| | | | | | | +---> Up
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_____________ _____________
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5 \ o o x o x / 1 5 \ o o o o o / 1
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\ o o o o / \ o o o o /
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9 `~~~~~~~' 6 9 `~~~~~~~' 6
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| | | | | | | |
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| | | +----> Right | | | +----> Button 1
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| | +------> Left | | +------> Power
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| +--------> Ground | +--------> Ground
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+----------> Down +----------> Button 2
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And there were many others.
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Multisystem joysticks using db9.c
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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For the Multisystem joysticks, and their derivatives, the db9.c driver
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was written. It allows only one joystick / gamepad per parallel port, but
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the interface is easy to build and works with almost anything.
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For the basic 1-button Multisystem joystick you connect its wires to the
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parallel port like this::
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(pin 1) -----> Power
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(pin 18) -----> Ground
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(pin 2) -----> Up
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(pin 3) -----> Down
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(pin 4) -----> Left
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(pin 5) -----> Right
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(pin 6) -----> Button 1
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However, if the joystick is switch based (eg. clicks when you move it),
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you might or might not, depending on your parallel port, need 10 kOhm pullup
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resistors on each of the direction and button signals, like this::
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(pin 2) ------------+------> Up
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Resistor |
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(pin 1) --[10kOhm]--+
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Try without, and if it doesn't work, add them. For TTL based joysticks /
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gamepads the pullups are not needed.
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For joysticks with two buttons you connect the second button to pin 7 on
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the parallel port::
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(pin 7) -----> Button 2
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And that's it.
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On a side note, if you have already built a different adapter for use with
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the digital joystick driver 0.8.0.2, this is also supported by the db9.c
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driver, as device type 8. (See section 3.2)
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Multisystem joysticks using gamecon.c
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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For some people just one joystick per parallel port is not enough, and/or
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want to use them on one parallel port together with NES/SNES/PSX pads. This is
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possible using the gamecon.c. It supports up to 5 devices of the above types,
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including 1 and 2 buttons Multisystem joysticks.
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However, there is nothing for free. To allow more sticks to be used at
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once, you need the sticks to be purely switch based (that is non-TTL), and
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not to need power. Just a plain simple six switches inside. If your
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joystick can do more (eg. turbofire) you'll need to disable it totally first
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if you want to use gamecon.c.
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Also, the connection is a bit more complex. You'll need a bunch of diodes,
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and one pullup resistor. First, you connect the Directions and the button
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the same as for db9, however with the diodes between::
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Diodes
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(pin 2) -----|<|----> Up
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(pin 3) -----|<|----> Down
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(pin 4) -----|<|----> Left
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(pin 5) -----|<|----> Right
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(pin 6) -----|<|----> Button 1
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For two button sticks you also connect the other button::
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(pin 7) -----|<|----> Button 2
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And finally, you connect the Ground wire of the joystick, like done in
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this little schematic to Power and Data on the parallel port, as described
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for the NES / SNES pads in section 2.1 of this file - that is, one data pin
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for each joystick. The power source is shared::
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Data ------------+-----> Ground
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Resistor |
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Power --[10kOhm]--+
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And that's all, here we go!
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Multisystem joysticks using turbografx.c
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The TurboGraFX interface, designed by
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Steffen Schwenke <schwenke@burg-halle.de>
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allows up to 7 Multisystem joysticks connected to the parallel port. In
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Steffen's version, there is support for up to 5 buttons per joystick. However,
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since this doesn't work reliably on all parallel ports, the turbografx.c driver
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supports only one button per joystick. For more information on how to build the
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interface, see:
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http://www2.burg-halle.de/~schwenke/parport.html
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Sony Playstation
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----------------
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The PSX controller is supported by the gamecon.c. Pinout of the PSX
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controller (compatible with DirectPadPro)::
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+---------+---------+---------+
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9 | o o o | o o o | o o o | 1 parallel
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\________|_________|________/ port pins
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| | | | | +--------> Clock --- (4)
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| | | | +------------> Select --- (3)
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| | | +---------------> Power --- (5-9)
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| | +------------------> Ground --- (18-25)
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| +-------------------------> Command --- (2)
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+----------------------------> Data --- (one of 10,11,12,13,15)
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The driver supports these controllers:
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* Standard PSX Pad
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* NegCon PSX Pad
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* Analog PSX Pad (red mode)
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* Analog PSX Pad (green mode)
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* PSX Rumble Pad
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* PSX DDR Pad
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Sega
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----
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All the Sega controllers are more or less based on the standard 2-button
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Multisystem joystick. However, since they don't use switches and use TTL
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logic, the only driver usable with them is the db9.c driver.
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Sega Master System
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The SMS gamepads are almost exactly the same as normal 2-button
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Multisystem joysticks. Set the driver to Multi2 mode, use the corresponding
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parallel port pins, and the following schematic::
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+-----------> Power
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| +---------> Right
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| | +-------> Left
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| | | +-----> Down
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| | | | +---> Up
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_____________
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5 \ o o o o o / 1
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\ o o x o /
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9 `~~~~~~~' 6
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| | +----> Button 1
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| +--------> Ground
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+----------> Button 2
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Sega Genesis aka MegaDrive
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The Sega Genesis (in Europe sold as Sega MegaDrive) pads are an extension
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to the Sega Master System pads. They use more buttons (3+1, 5+1, 6+1). Use
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the following schematic::
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+-----------> Power
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| +---------> Right
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| | +-------> Left
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| | | +-----> Down
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| | | | +---> Up
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_____________
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5 \ o o o o o / 1
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\ o o o o /
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9 `~~~~~~~' 6
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| | | +----> Button 1
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| | +------> Select
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| +--------> Ground
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+----------> Button 2
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The Select pin goes to pin 14 on the parallel port::
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(pin 14) -----> Select
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The rest is the same as for Multi2 joysticks using db9.c
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Sega Saturn
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~~~~~~~~~~~
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Sega Saturn has eight buttons, and to transfer that, without hacks like
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Genesis 6 pads use, it needs one more select pin. Anyway, it is still
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handled by the db9.c driver. Its pinout is very different from anything
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else. Use this schematic::
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+-----------> Select 1
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| +---------> Power
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| | +-------> Up
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| | | +-----> Down
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| | | | +---> Ground
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_____________
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5 \ o o o o o / 1
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\ o o o o /
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9 `~~~~~~~' 6
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| | | +----> Select 2
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| | +------> Right
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| +--------> Left
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+----------> Power
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Select 1 is pin 14 on the parallel port, Select 2 is pin 16 on the
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parallel port::
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(pin 14) -----> Select 1
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(pin 16) -----> Select 2
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The other pins (Up, Down, Right, Left, Power, Ground) are the same as for
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Multi joysticks using db9.c
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Amiga CD32
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----------
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Amiga CD32 joypad uses the following pinout::
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+-----------> Button 3
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| +---------> Right
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| | +-------> Left
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| | | +-----> Down
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| | | | +---> Up
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_____________
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5 \ o o o o o / 1
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\ o o o o /
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9 `~~~~~~~' 6
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| | | |
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| | | +----> Button 1
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| | +------> Power
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| +--------> Ground
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+----------> Button 2
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It can be connected to the parallel port and driven by db9.c driver. It needs the following wiring:
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============ =============
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CD32 pad Parallel port
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============ =============
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1 (Up) 2 (D0)
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2 (Down) 3 (D1)
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3 (Left) 4 (D2)
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4 (Right) 5 (D3)
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5 (Button 3) 14 (AUTOFD)
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6 (Button 1) 17 (SELIN)
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7 (+5V) 1 (STROBE)
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8 (Gnd) 18 (Gnd)
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9 (Button 2) 7 (D5)
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============ =============
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The drivers
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===========
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There are three drivers for the parallel port interfaces. Each, as
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described above, allows to connect a different group of joysticks and pads.
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Here are described their command lines:
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gamecon.c
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---------
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Using gamecon.c you can connect up to five devices to one parallel port. It
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uses the following kernel/module command line::
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gamecon.map=port,pad1,pad2,pad3,pad4,pad5
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Where ``port`` the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0).
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And ``pad1`` to ``pad5`` are pad types connected to different data input pins
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(10,11,12,13,15), as described in section 2.1 of this file.
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The types are:
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===== =============================
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Type Joystick/Pad
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===== =============================
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0 None
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1 SNES pad
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2 NES pad
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4 Multisystem 1-button joystick
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5 Multisystem 2-button joystick
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6 N64 pad
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7 Sony PSX controller
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8 Sony PSX DDR controller
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9 SNES mouse
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===== =============================
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The exact type of the PSX controller type is autoprobed when used, so
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hot swapping should work (but is not recommended).
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Should you want to use more than one of parallel ports at once, you can use
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gamecon.map2 and gamecon.map3 as additional command line parameters for two
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more parallel ports.
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There are two options specific to PSX driver portion. gamecon.psx_delay sets
|
|
the command delay when talking to the controllers. The default of 25 should
|
|
work but you can try lowering it for better performance. If your pads don't
|
|
respond try raising it until they work. Setting the type to 8 allows the
|
|
driver to be used with Dance Dance Revolution or similar games. Arrow keys are
|
|
registered as key presses instead of X and Y axes.
|
|
|
|
db9.c
|
|
-----
|
|
|
|
Apart from making an interface, there is nothing difficult on using the
|
|
db9.c driver. It uses the following kernel/module command line::
|
|
|
|
db9.dev=port,type
|
|
|
|
Where ``port`` is the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0).
|
|
|
|
Caveat here: This driver only works on bidirectional parallel ports. If
|
|
your parallel port is recent enough, you should have no trouble with this.
|
|
Old parallel ports may not have this feature.
|
|
|
|
``Type`` is the type of joystick or pad attached:
|
|
|
|
===== ======================================================
|
|
Type Joystick/Pad
|
|
===== ======================================================
|
|
0 None
|
|
1 Multisystem 1-button joystick
|
|
2 Multisystem 2-button joystick
|
|
3 Genesis pad (3+1 buttons)
|
|
5 Genesis pad (5+1 buttons)
|
|
6 Genesis pad (6+2 buttons)
|
|
7 Saturn pad (8 buttons)
|
|
8 Multisystem 1-button joystick (v0.8.0.2 pin-out)
|
|
9 Two Multisystem 1-button joysticks (v0.8.0.2 pin-out)
|
|
10 Amiga CD32 pad
|
|
===== ======================================================
|
|
|
|
Should you want to use more than one of these joysticks/pads at once, you
|
|
can use db9.dev2 and db9.dev3 as additional command line parameters for two
|
|
more joysticks/pads.
|
|
|
|
turbografx.c
|
|
------------
|
|
|
|
The turbografx.c driver uses a very simple kernel/module command line::
|
|
|
|
turbografx.map=port,js1,js2,js3,js4,js5,js6,js7
|
|
|
|
Where ``port`` is the number of the parport interface (eg. 0 for parport0).
|
|
|
|
``jsX`` is the number of buttons the Multisystem joysticks connected to the
|
|
interface ports 1-7 have. For a standard multisystem joystick, this is 1.
|
|
|
|
Should you want to use more than one of these interfaces at once, you can
|
|
use turbografx.map2 and turbografx.map3 as additional command line parameters
|
|
for two more interfaces.
|
|
|
|
PC parallel port pinout
|
|
=======================
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
.----------------------------------------.
|
|
At the PC: \ 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 /
|
|
\ 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 /
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
====== ======= =============
|
|
Pin Name Description
|
|
====== ======= =============
|
|
1 /STROBE Strobe
|
|
2-9 D0-D7 Data Bit 0-7
|
|
10 /ACK Acknowledge
|
|
11 BUSY Busy
|
|
12 PE Paper End
|
|
13 SELIN Select In
|
|
14 /AUTOFD Autofeed
|
|
15 /ERROR Error
|
|
16 /INIT Initialize
|
|
17 /SEL Select
|
|
18-25 GND Signal Ground
|
|
====== ======= =============
|
|
|
|
|
|
That's all, folks! Have fun!
|