Atari 2600 /analog joystick as a paddle

Andrzej

I am totally new to this, so thanks in advance for all your patience and kindness.

I wanted to start Raspberry Pi/Retro Pi adventure with my sons (5 and 8 yro) by launching a classic Atari 2600 pong (Video Olympics - Pong Sports (Paddle) 1977).

So far with some success but a limitted one.

I have RetroPi 3b up an running with a current image of retropie installed.
I transferred the rom via usb stick and was able to launch the game.

I am using Retropie with two cheap PS style conrolers (wired ones). The Retropie seems to have picked up both controllers corectly as in the control configuration menu I was able to recognize each of the buttons and analog sticks of each of the controllers.

However when I launch the game it seems to fail to recognize the controllers correctly.
Instead of assigning controllers' analog joyisticks to paddles it assigned just binary D-Pad keys of one of the controllers to both players' controls.

So that up and down of 1st controller's D-Pad is assigned to player 1 control and left and right of 1st controller's D-Pad is assigned to player 2 control.

This way the thing is hardly playable.
But we still managed to have some fun with it today (did I mention I have wonderful kids ;-))

What I want and need to do, is to assign analog sitck #1 of the 1st controller to 1st paddle and analog stick #1 of second controller to the 2nd paddle.

I read some of the documentation on controllers configuration in RetroArch. But it still leaves me mistified abt what to do to fix the problem.

Right now the thing runs through ir-stella. Should I change it to stella? But how?
Will it suffice?

As it is just a start of our journey with the Pi I need some help with this one so I do not stuck.

I guess someone must have encountered this problem before me but so far dr. Google did not provide any ready answers for me.

Please Guys help, my parental image depends on it ;-)

edmaul69

You can use standalone stella and assign the analog to the paddle.

Andrzej

@edmaul69 thanks a lot 👍. It worked.

moffett_s

Old thread I know, but I've searched and can't find an answer...

I can't get analog control (paddle simulation) for Stella or lr-stella with xbox360 controller. Several posts I've read say it just works, but all I get is digital motion (with the analog sticks on the XB360 contoller), but that is useless in playing paddle games.

I get it to work when a trackball or mouse is connected.

I've installed Stella and TAB'd in to check settings. I've made anywhere from no changes to changing all sorts of settings , but still nothing.

Help Please.

RPI3B (RP4.3 and 4.4 tried)
2.5 amp PSU
XB360 controller
16GB sd card with fresh 4.3 or 4.4 installed

mediamogul

@moffett_s said in Atari 2600 /analog joystick as a paddle:

I can't get analog control... for Stella or lr-stella with xbox360 controller.... all I get is digital motion... I get it to work when a trackball or mouse is connected.

Analog control is not available in lr-stella and as you've noticed analog joysticks will map as being digital in Stella. The official Stella user's guide notes that a mouse or Stelladaptor/2600-daptor with real paddles are required for paddle emulation. However, it is possible to map mouse movement to a controller's thumbsticks to get the full granular range of movement. I have my controllers set up this way and it works as well as what you'd find on a licensed 2600 compilation for a modern setup.

icode

Check out these cool devices on icode.com. they allow you to have up to 4 paddles or joysticks connected to you PC via usb. There is even a bluetooth version.

Atari paddles and joysticks usb adapter