Atari Synth Cart Controller

This project uses my Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB in reverse, to allow the Arduino to act as an Atari keypad controller and thus allow it to control the Atari Synth Cart. https://makertube.net/w/ryCciwFyQQpcs1Q4Wwy52x Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to expensive … Continue reading Atari Synth Cart Controller →

Arduino MIDI Atari Paddles

Finally, I get to the point where I can do something vaguely musical with my Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB. This turns it into a simple MIDI CC controller using the Atari paddles. https://makertube.net/w/dgK7y73KfC1SWc5z2wsJ6x Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to … Continue reading Arduino MIDI Atari Paddles →

Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 3

Following on from Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 2 someone on Mastodon made the point that the reason they tended to use RC circuits to read paddles "back in the day" was due to the expense of ADCs. Which triggered a bit of an "oh yeah" moment. The whole point was not to … Continue reading Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 3 →

Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 2

This has another look at my updated Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB in order to attempt to read all four paddle controllers a bit more accurately and efficiently. Update: A much simpler approach is now described in Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 3. Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment … Continue reading Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 2 →

Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited

As previously mentioned in my Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Build Guide the PCB doesn't work so well with paddle controllers due to the way they are wired up. This is an update to the PCB to allow the paddles to be used in a very similar way to the original Atari 2600. Warning! I strongly … Continue reading Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited →

Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Build Guide

Here are the build notes for my Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Design. Recall from my design notes that this version doesn't deal with paddles very well Here is an updated version that supports paddles better, but at the expense of requiring more complex code to read them: Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited. Warning! I strongly … Continue reading Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Build Guide →

Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Design

This is an Arduino Uno shield format PCB for hooking up two Atari 2600 style controllers to an Arduino. Note: this iteration of the design doesn't really do the paddles very well, but it works fine for joysticks and keypad controllers. Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Build Guide There are some updates here: Atari 2600 Controller … Continue reading Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Design →