5200-daptor

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The 5200-daptor is a USB interface for connecting Atari 5200 CX52 Joystick and CX53 Trak-ball controllers to your PC/Mac, Raspberry Pi (read below), or game console that supports USB HID.  No driver is needed as the 5200-daptor is recognized as a USB HID (Human Interface Device) joystick.

To use the trak-ball, plug it in before the USB, and then hold any RED button as you plug in the USB.  Keep it pressed until the 'daptor's LED is flashing regularly (5-10 seconds).   Don't move the ball during this time!  Note: hold both RED buttons to also get mouse output.

Altirra is recommend for playing 5200 games.  This is the only emulator I have found that will let you select the controller type - joystick or trak-ball.  This is needed for some trak-ball enabled games, such as Missile Command, which play differently depending on which controller is plugged in.   Altirra setup notes below.

For MAME/MESS, set the Joystick Deadband to 0.0 and Joystick Saturation to 1.0

Raspberry Pi - RetroPie comes with Atari800 that has 5200 emulation, but has limited setup for controllers.  It will recognize the joystick, but it does not have any way to map the controller keypad or start/pause/reset buttons.  It supposedly has trak-ball support via mouse input (which the 5200-daptor does), but I have not been able to get it work.

12/01/14 - Minor firmware update: mouse (for trak-ball support) marked as a "boot mouse" for MIST. 
01/18/15 - No mouse output if trak-ball mode is selected by holding only one red button.  Hold both to get mouse output.

Latest Firmware: 5200-daptor.hex - follow the Vision-daptor Firmware Programming Instructions.

Purchasing & General Adapter Information

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Help (including contact info)

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Altirra Setup

Create an input map for the joystick -

  1. In the menu, select Input->Input Maps
  2. Click Add...
  3. Enter a descriptive name, such as "5200-daptor CX52 Joystick"
  4. Click Edit...
  5. Click Add Controller...
  6. Select "5200 Controller"
  7. Now select and edit the mapping of the controller functions (Tip: "Rebind..." will let you just select and then press the controller button to map it) -
Screen shot of the mapping.

You can follow this same procedure to create a map for the trak-ball - this time selecting "5200 Trackball" at step 6.  Or use the Clone function to copy the joystick mapping, and then edit it to change the controller to "5200 Trackball".  Note: Axis 1 & 2 are still mapped to Joy Axis 1H & 1V, *NOT* the mouse.
When you go to play, check which controller you are using via Input->Port 1.

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