Joysticks

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

Everything can be fit into the 15-pins plug. Make sure the resistors don't touch the other blank connections! This interface can be used for all usual digital joysticks, with or without auto fire (that is every joystick that work with a Kempston joystick interface, or that work on a Commodore 64/Amiga or Atari). The joysticks for the Spectrum +2/+3 will not work, however the pin layout is easy to change.

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!).