Circus Atari and other paddle games

[GamecubeFreek]

I just recently found out that my paddle controller works (I thought it had been broken the last 10 years!) so I tried out Circus Atari, which I had never played before. Playing that game is the most fun I have ever had with the Atari VCS. Anyway, I was wondering if anybody else thinks it is a fun game, and also, what other paddle games are worth getting if I can find them. The only one I can think of is Kaboom (oh, and Warlords)

[Flack]

Here are a few that we came up with last time.

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30244

I still vote for Warlords!

[GamecubeFreek]

oh, thanks...I keep forgetting to do that whole search thing. I should be more careful next time. But while we are on the subject, I have a couple of games (demons to diamonds and street racer) that say they require the standard paddle contoller. I figured there wasnt any difference in contollers, but I cant get them working. Any ideas what the problem could be?

[Arcade Antics]

oh, thanks...I keep forgetting to do that whole search thing. I should be more careful next time. But while we are on the subject, I have a couple of games (demons to diamonds and street racer) that say they require the standard paddle contoller. I figured there wasnt any difference in contollers, but I cant get them working. Any ideas what the problem could be?

There are two different sets of paddle controllers for the 2600.

The first, the "standard paddle controllers," are used with games like Warlords, Breakout, Circus Atari, etc. They come in pairs and one pair can be plugged into each controller port so that up to four players can play some games, eg, Warlords. The knob doesn't rotate 360 degrees, and the paddle has a little tennis racket logo on it.

The second flavor of paddles are the Driving controllers. This type of paddle is a single controller and the knob rotates has a 360 degree range of motion. Used with games like Indy 500, has an indy car logo on it. :)

If you're trying to use the Driving controllers with Demons to Diamonds, that would explain your problem. But you mentioned that you've already played Circus Atari, and those paddles work with Demons to Diamonds. Maybe you've got a short in the control port or paddle wires.

[Flack]

By the way, excluding any homebrews I may not be familiar with, Indy 500 is the only game to use the Indy 500 controllers.

http://www.atariage.com/2600/archives/controllers_atari.html

[Nature Boy]

Circus Atari was my favourite paddle game back when we first had an Atari and today. I don't know what it is about it - maybe it's seeing the wrecked clown when you miss 'im...

The other paddle game that gets decnet play at my house is Night Driver. That was my wife's favourite paddle game growing up.

And of course Kaboom is great - except I haven't gotten a working copy of that yet :)

[Ze_ro]

By the way, excluding any homebrews I may not be familiar with, Indy 500 is the only game to use the Indy 500 controllers.

Thrust+ Platinum uses it I believe... So did Stella Sketch, although I'm not sure if that one is available anymore.

Another thing to be aware of with paddles is that you probably should avoid paddles made by Commodore for their 8-bit computers (VIC-20, C-64, etc). In particular, the VIC-20 paddles have an identical shape to normal VCS paddles, except that the base is white with raised letters that say "Commodore". The problem with the Commodore paddles is that the potentiometer inside them doesn't have as much range as the ones for the VCS. I think the VCS pots go up to 1 mega-ohm, while the Commodore ones are something like 500 kilo-ohms. What ends up happening is that the paddle SEEMS to work normally, except that you won't be able to move to certain parts of the screen. So you'll be playing Breakout, but your paddle will just stop about an inch before the edge of the screen, leaving a huge gap that competely buggers your game.

I did some tests on this, and it seems like a lot of games actually take this range difference into account, so you can use Commodore paddles just fine (In fact, if you use VCS paddles on these, there will be a large amount of paddle swing that really never gets used because you're already against the edge of the screen or something).

I also have reason to believe that the Commodore paddles might behave differently on different VCS's (possibly due to slight differences in resistor or capacitor values in the systems themselves). I remember that for a long time, all I had was a set of white Commodore paddles, and they worked perfectly fine for Video Olympics on my Heavy Sixer... then one day I took the paddles over to a friend's house for some 4-player Pong goodness, and on his 4-Switch, anyone using the white paddles could never reach the top of the screen. I haven't done enough tests to really elaborate on this, but from what I do know, it seems to me that the Heavy Sixer is probably the most forgiving of the systems when it comes to Commodore paddles. If you have a Heavy Sixer, you likely won't have nearly as many Commodore-related problems in paddle games as your friend using a 2600 Jr.

By the way, if you've been paying attention, you may have realized something very interesting: Even though the Atari and Commodore paddles have different ranges of resistance, both paddles rotate the same amount! What this means is that if you swing each paddle a quarter turn, the character controlled by the Commodore paddle should move approximately twice as far! This means that using a Commodore paddle should provide better fine control, at the price of movement speed (you'll have to rotate it twice as far). I also believe that Commodore paddles are more resistant to jitter, partially because of this... but I have no good explanation to support this theory. (Of course, any advantage you gain by this is completely moot if you can't get your paddle to move the entire width of the screen.)

If all that sounded excessively complicated, then you're completely right. That's the kind of junk that should be sitting in a FAQ somewhere. The basic moral of the story though is that you should avoid Commodore paddles unless you're out of options, or you're a paddle freak who's hungry for a slight advantage.


I have a couple of games (demons to diamonds and street racer) that say they require the standard paddle contoller. I figured there wasnt any difference in contollers, but I cant get them working.

Let me guess... you're using a 3rd party paddle that was meant for one of the non-Atari VCS's like the Gemini, right? Okay, here's the story: On the VCS, there are two joystick ports, and when Atari released paddle controllers, they were paired together so that you had two paddles to each port for four paddles in total (Paddle #0 and #1 in the left port, #2 and #3 in the right port). Unfortunately, they never labelled the paddles, so unless you had a multimeter handy, you really never knew whether you were using paddle #0 or paddle #1. For some unfathomable reason, a good number of developers didn't seem to care which paddle their game used (Which, to some degree, is understandable... since they both look the same, what's the difference?), so there are some games that use paddle #0 and some that use paddle #1. Most games use paddle #0.

The problem comes up with systems like the Gemini. When Coleco made the Gemini, they were smart enough to come up with the idea to combine the joystick and paddle into one controller (personally, I love the Gemini's controllers... I use them all the time on my VCS). Unfortunately, this results in a controller that has only one paddle on a plug. Coleco came up with a bit of a hack to fix this by sticking four ports on the machine so that you could connect four controllers. There was also a switch on the machine to switch between paddle mode and joystick mode (Before you ask, no you can't do 4-player joystick games using these systems).

But I'm rambling a bit now. The problem here is that the paddle on a Gemini controller responds as if it were paddle #0 (or, if you have it in the right joystick port, it would respond as if it were paddle #2). Since you only have paddle #0 in the port then, and no paddle #1, you suddenly have no way of playing the few games that decided to only listen to paddle #1. Demons to Diamonds and Street Racer are two of these games. Sega's Tac-Scan is in a completely different world and responds only to paddle #3 (The idea was that you'd plug your paddles into the right port and your joystick into the left port and never have to swap them... except for two player games... or every other paddle game in existance).

If you're actually using a non-Atari system that DOES have four joystick ports, then you probably also have a switch on it for paddle/joystick mode... if you switch to paddle mode, and then stick your controller into the second joystick port (fourth for Tac-Scan), you should be able to play these "goofy" games. If you're using a real Atari VCS, then your only option (aside from doing some electrical hacking) is to buy a pair of actual Atari paddles.

I hope that helps.

--Zero

[Ze_ro]

Oh yeah... and Circus Atari kicks ass :)

--Zero

[thetoxicone]

Beat'em and Eat'em is a fun paddle game.

[Raccoon Lad]

Woody Pop, Megumi Rescue, Galactic Protector, Alex Kidd: BMX challenge, Out Run, Out Run 3-D, and Super Racing all rock!


Of course, I'm referring to the Sega Mark III paddle, not the atari one.

[tynstar]

You have the best two I have ever played. Warlords and Circus!!!!!

And get the driving paddles because Indy 500 rocks! The ice levels are the best.