Over the weekend, having bad weather and therefore not much else to do up here, I decided to work on the 5200 digital controller. Much to my surprise, I was actually able to finish it- guess I was further along than I thought.
I had to alter a few of the original plans, like changing the 6-wire cable for an 8-wire, along with a few other things, but, finally...it was done.
So, plug it in to the 5200. Switch ON the 5200- nothing caught fire or exploded; good, we're doing o.k. so far...
Plug in Missile Command.
* Originally, I had planned on finding the "neutral" value and wiring that in with fixed resistors. Unfortunately, my ancient and beat-up multi-tester can in no way pinpoint that value, and I have neither the time nor the resources to find out by trial-and-error. So, both the vertical and horizontal circuits use the two potentiometers from the 5200 controller (regular analog) instead. Missile Command is perfect for adjusting these two potentiometers to the "neutral" positions.
O.K., you are as close to perfectly aligned when the cursor is right on the lower left corner of the "O" in "POINTS" when the game begins. I did this. Move joystick to left, right, up, down, let it go- good, so far!
Obviously, 5200 Missile Command cannot be played with a digital joystick. So, the first game I actually tried was...
BERZERK!
How many times haven't 5200 owners cursed to controls when they had to make a short maneuver, only to blunder into a wall while the fiendish voice gloats "GOT THE HUMANOID, GOT THE INTRUDER/CHICKEN!"
To my amazement, not now!
One thing that gets me 80% of the time is when you start from the left, and robots are right above and/or below you. Normally, you'd go just a bit to the left, where you can shoot them, but they can't shoot you. BUT, with the 5200 stick...see above. But this time, I actually did it! Not through luck!
Beat 11,000 points- not my best, but it was a test, and I wasn't killed by things that usually did.
Then, Star Raiders. This took some getting used to, but again, it worked.
Mario Bros. Centipede. Pac-Man. Robotron: 2084. Defender. So far, so good.
Qix. Oh, oh- *$%@!*&%$#@*! Not so good. The control did NOT work.
Likewise Ms. Pac-Man, although Pac-Man did.