FlashShift
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- Joined
- Jun 18, 2025
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Have started working on a JAMMA adapter for RoadBlasters, and I wanted it to work with a gamepad or joystick, so that I don't have to connect a steering yoke. So far, have made some great progress. The optical board pulses CLK and DIR pins on J103, but the game expects a specific ordering of the optics. The two pulses interleave in order to steer, and depending on the interleave of those pulses, you go either left or right. I implemented a test circuit on a breadboard with an NE555 timer combined with an RC delay circuit (resistor+capacitor) so that the first pulse is clocked, and the second pulse is just behind it. Success! And to reverse the pulse, I just invert the signal. Depending on how the DIR pin pulses first determines the direction.
Going to tie this to some gamepad buttons next, and test the steering. The longer you hold the pad down, the more it will veer into a given direction. One problem I can see with this is there's presently no return to zero. I'll most likely need to add an 8-bit counter to the circuit, and trigger it to count/clock backwards whenever a button is released until it reached zero (or 127, or whatever). Synchronizing this with the game may be tricky.
Anyway, thought I'd share this - have always loved this game, and would really like to get it going on my jamma+gamepad "coffee table" setup.
Going to tie this to some gamepad buttons next, and test the steering. The longer you hold the pad down, the more it will veer into a given direction. One problem I can see with this is there's presently no return to zero. I'll most likely need to add an 8-bit counter to the circuit, and trigger it to count/clock backwards whenever a button is released until it reached zero (or 127, or whatever). Synchronizing this with the game may be tricky.
Anyway, thought I'd share this - have always loved this game, and would really like to get it going on my jamma+gamepad "coffee table" setup.
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