Re: [stella] Linking 2600 consoles?

Subject: Re: [stella] Linking 2600 consoles?
From: jimn8@xxxxxxxxxx (Jim Nitchals)
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 10:51:15 -0700 (PDT)
> 
> If the 2600 joystick ports are anything like the 8-bit Atari ports, I
> don't think they could support data rates much higher than 1200 baud
> (maybe less since the clock speed and CPU availability is lower on the
> 2600).  This probably wouldn't be fast enough to support a networked game. 

To the contrary, the Atari 400/800's joystick port delivers data at *VERY*
high rates without hacking the hardware.  We got 3-5K bytes per second
depending on whether one or two joystick ports were used.  Electronic Arts
called it the "N-Wire" after the last name of its designer  :)

We used the N-Wire on Apple II's (parallel card or paddle port), C-64,
Atari 800, and even IBM PC's (we hand-modified parallel cards to support
bidirectionality, and surprisingly the later PC port designs used the
*same* hack) and Macintosh (mouse port with a switch box.)

It'd be a piece of cake to sync up two 2600's, and have them share stick
data during vblank time with plenty of CPU left over for game work.

- Jim "N".


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