Posted by Marshall on 7, 2000 at 11:31 AM:
The procedure here has not been verified. Hopefully, some of the electrical guru's on this board will be able to verify that it works. Everything is straightforward and basically consists of moving the outputs of the joystick 2 cable to the Joystick 2 inputs of the gameport. If this information is helpful, hopefully Saint can post it to the website.
HOW TO CONNECT TWO ANALOG JOYSTICKS TO MAME USING THE GAMEPORT FOR UNDER $20.00 WITHOUT SOLDERING.
Note: This procedure only allows you to connect two standard joysticks to MAME with no soldering. Only two buttons per stick will be available, however, this is sufficient for many two player games such as 1941/1943, Joust, Twin Cobra, Top Gunner, or Ikari Warriors (without the player rotation). For those who aren't afraid of soldering, solder cups may be used and the terminal blocks and splitter cable omitted.
WHAT IS REQUIRED (NON-SOLDERING)
Two Tech Innovations 2-button joysticks (OfficeMax $5.00 each, lifetime warranty)
Joystick Y-Splitter Cable (MicroCenter $6.95)
14 Position Terminal Blocks (only 13 positions required. I recommend the 5.0 mm PCB blocks for compactness, Radioshack.com has these for about the same price.
Here are the www.digikey.com part nos.:
ED2236-ND ($2.07) ED1601-ND ($0.34)
Scrap PCB board or wood for mounting ($1.00 or $2.00).
An ohmmeter or continuity tester is required for determining cable assignments.
WHAT IS REQUIRED (SOLDERING)
Two Tech Innovations 2-button joysticks (OfficeMax $5.00 each, lifetime warranty)
1 Male DB 15 Solder Cup www.digikey.com A1032-ND ($1.57)
2 Female DB15 Solder Cups www.digikey.com A1033-ND ($0.93, each)
Hook-up Wire
Scrap PCB board or wood for mounting ($1.00 or $2.00).
WIRE CONVENTIONS (provided from www.gunpowder.freeserve.co.uk/wheels/wiring.htm) Note that Male and female plugs reverse directions.
View looking at back (wire/solder) side of Male Plug or front of Female Plug
-------------------------------
\ 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 /
\ 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 /
--------------------------
View looking at back (wire/solder) side of Female Plug or front of Male Plug
-------------------------------
\ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 /
\ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 /
--------------------------
Pin Assignments:
1 - +5V
2 - Button 0
3 - J1 X
4 - Ground
5 - Ground
6 - J1 Y
7 - Button 1
8 - +5V
9 - +5V
10 - Button 2
11 - J2 X
12 - MIDI Ports (Not Used)
13 - J2 Y
14 - Button 3
15 - MIDI Ports (Not Used)
HOW TO HOOK IT UP
Cut the splitter cable and connect the wires as follows or solder these wiring connections:
Note: TB1 = Terminal Block terminal 1, MP1 = Male Plug Pin 1, F1P1 = Female Plug 1 Pin 1, etc.
(Wires shown in parenthesis are not required, but would allow connection of a 4-button steering wheel to Female Plug 2, with Buttons reversed, or a 4-button joystick to Female Plug One, with Joystick 1 button 3 and joystick 2 button 1 activating the same key)
MP1-TB1-F1P1-F2P1
MP2-TB2-F1P2 - (F2P10)
MP3-TB3-F1P3
MP4-TB4-F1P4-F2P4
MP5-TB5-F1P5-F2P5
MP6-TB6-F1P6
MP7-TB7-F1P7 - (F2P14)
MP8-TB8-F1P8-F2P8
MP9-TB9-F1P9-F2P9
MP10-TB10-F2P2-(F1P10)
MP11-TB11-F2P3
MP12- Not Connected
MP13-TB12-F2P6
MP14-TB13-F2P7-(F1P14)
MP15 - Not Connected.
This is the entire circuit. Basically this simply routes the Joystick 2 inputs to the Joystick 2 ports of the gameport. If you traced the wiring, you could build the circuit with less wires, however, this circuit has two advantages in that it should work for any gameport gaming device and that you are not cutting the joystick wiring so that when (not if) the joystick breaks, you can return it intact for replacement.
Once the wiring is complete, simply plug the male plug into the gameport and plug Joystick 1 into Female Plug 1 and Joystick 2 into Female Plug 2.
In mame, I think you would change the Mame.cfg file to joytype=dual and everything should be set.
I have not tried this circuit out myself. If anyone sees any problems with the design or has any helpful suggestions, please post them.
Game On!