As was already said in the introduction, the emulated Spectrum joystick (Cursor, Interface 2 or Kempston) is controlled by the PC cursor keys and 5/0/. on the numeric keypad and TAB as fire keys. The emulated joystick can also be controlled by a real joystick, both an analogue (PC standard) or a digital one.
The analogue joystick support is rather straightforward. If you've got one, it works - it couldn't be simpler. The digital joystick support is less obvious, since PC's don't support these.
To use digital joysticks, Ruud Zandbergen has made a device that uses the two inputs of a normal analogue joystickinterface to connect a digital joystick to a PC. Here's the circuit diagram:
15 pins male (pc) 9 pins male (joystick)
=1.0cm
4+5+14 means: connect pins 4, 5 and 14. The same applies for pins 1 and 9. Here's the list of ingredients:
– | 1 x 9 pins D plug, male |
– | 1 x 15 pins D plug, male |
– | 4 x 1k Ω , 1/4 Watt resistors |
– | 1 x 47 Ω, 1/4 Watt resistor |
– | piece of 7-wire flatcable |
This joystickinterface needs an analogue PC-joystickinterface on which you can connect TWO analogue joysticks (on one plug!). Most cards can do this, but some multi-I/O cards support only one joystick. Check the documentation of your I/O card to see whether your joystickinterface is suitable. The soundblaster joystick interface works fine.
A number of PC games will behave strange when the digital joystick interface is connected; they run very slow or crash. When this happens, remove the joystick interface (not only the joystick!).