diyelectromusicJun 16, 2025

Finally. I have a way to "properly" read unmodified Atari paddle controllers from an Arduino.

That was a lot more complicated than I expected it to be.

And arguably it still isn't finished as the code needs optimising to read all four paddles in a useful way that doesn't lock out everything else!

It would be a /lot/ simpler to hack the controllers and just wire the pots across 5V and GND...

https://diyelectromusic.com/2025/06/16/atari-2600-controller-shield-pcb-revisited/

#Arduino #Atari2600

Show threaddiyelectromusic

And immediately followed by a simpler version, thanks to the observation by @bytex64 that the originals wouldn't have used ADCs at all! :)

https://diyelectromusic.com/2025/06/22/atari-2600-controller-shield-pcb-revisited-part-3/

Just goes to show that sometimes we can't "see the wood for the trees" in some of these things! And we are spoiled by our modern tools.

#Atari #Arduino

Was this a #MakerFail ? Not sure. Certainly some learning going on there though :)

Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 3

Following on from Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 2 someone on Mastodon made the point that the reason they tended to use RC circuits to read paddles “back in the day”…

Simple DIY Electronic Music Projects
Jun 22, 2025 at 6:31pmWeb
Show threadChipJun 22, 2025
@diyelectromusic Nah, no fail here. You applied your knowledge to a problem and it worked. :)