[stella] re: Combat programming and LED's

Subject: [stella] re: Combat programming and LED's
From: jimn8@xxxxxxxxxx (Jim Nitchals)
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 17:23:37 -0800 (PST)
Matt wrote:
> So once when I was dreaming about what kinds of games to write, it
> occurred to me that if I really wanted a cool version of Star Raiders,
> you could make one that had a special keypad (instead of the one that
> came packed with it) that had lights for the shields and other features.
> E.g. when the shields were on, the light would go on.  Or perhaps three
> lights for each...green=good, yellow=ok, red=bad, none=off or nonexistent.
> Is this possible with this kind of code (and a specially made control panel)?

If Star Raiders were reprogrammed to take advantage of a redesigned game
controller, you bet!  The joystick ports for up/down/left/right are really
*bi-directional* which allows them to be used to *send* data as well as
receive it.  Nintendo's joysticks are serial devices, for example, that
send the button data one bit at a time under control of the CPU.  There's
no reason a Star Raiders controller couldn't be designed to do the same,
and use the leftover bits to drive LED's.

The hardware involved would be simple - all the parts could be bought at
Radio Shack, probably.  Modifying the software is the hard part, unless
you already have the source code.

- Jim


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