Re: [stella] Atari to re-release a whole bunch of stuff

Subject: Re: [stella] Atari to re-release a whole bunch of stuff
From: "B. Watson" <atari@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 10:27:23 -0400 (EDT)


On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, Albert Yarusso wrote:

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the 7800 controllers either, but these appear to be a bit smaller so they may be more comfortable than the originals. I'm sure they went with them to match the style of the console, which is also modeled after the 7800. I'm curious to see how they feel.

I can't tell from the pictures... are these standard 9-pin Atari joystick connectors? If I bought one of these, I'd want to use my old Wico bat-handle stick (leaf springs rule).

The following rant is partly or entirely off-topic, sorry about that:

Actually, I wonder why console makers still insist on inventing their
own proprietary controller pinout for every console. It seems like they
could all get together and agree to use USB, and standardize on a set
of buttons (A/B/X/Y, 2 or 4 shoulder buttons, start, select, pause)
and axes (One d-pad, one or two analog thumbsticks, one slider/throttle).

I guess I don't really wonder about it: vendor lock-in is one answer, and
the fact that games can *always* count on all the buttons being available
is another. Still, PC gaming seems to do OK with a (mostly) open standard.

It'd be really nice if console makers had done this years ago. I wouldn't
have 10 different controllers with a snake's nest of wires sticking out
in front of my TV... `Hm, which one's the Genesis controller? I forgot
what they look like.'

(Back in the day, I used the same Wico stick for the 2600, Atari 800,
Commodore 64, and Atari ST... and it made me very happy.)

Sorry, this topic is resonating in my brain right now because I'm in
the middle of writing a Perl driver for Linux joysticks.

--
B.

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