Gamers of the 80’s and 90’s used Joystick’s with a 9 pin D connector this was referred to as the Kempston or Atari interface standard the Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari 8 Bit home computers and the 16 bit Atari ST and Commodore Amiga also used this type of joystick
The Competition Pro and Zip Stick stand out as the better-quality options for these models were available with microswitches instead of the cheaper metal contact switches, although lower cost models from Quickshot, Cheetah, Sinclair, Commodore were very common in any gamer’s setup
For the true retro experience, you can now connect a vintage 9 pin joystick to your A500 mini, c64 mini or PC via the J2USB retro joystick adapter
Pin 5 = Not Connected on Joysticks (Middle Mouse Button)
Pin 6 = Fire Button 1 (Acts as mouse button)
Pin 7 = 5 Volts DC- Power Supply from computer
Pin 8 = Ground
Pin 9 = Fire Button 2 (Acts as mouse button)
All Commodore Amiga computers have two 9 pin D-SUB type connectors with male pins, Port 1 is usually used for connecting a mice, but for two player gaming the mouse can be unplugged and two joysticks or other game controllers can be connected at the same time.
The controller needs to be compatible with the Atari standard such as Competition Pro, ZipStick, QuickShot, Atari, Cheetah etc are compatible
For two player games with two controllers you will have to unplug the mouse, unless you use a joystick switcher box like the once shown below
Amiga mouse adapters are now available than allow standard USB mice to be used with the amiga 9 pin mouse port, below if a mouse upgrade kit that includes a modern optical mouse and an adapter
Install and run the unifying software then follow the instructions to add your Logitech devices one at a time, once the software has been run and added the devices – you can now use all devices added with just one receiver
*Note devices used must be compatible with Unifying Receiver
First connect the interface and power cable to your floppy disk drive make sure that the pins are lined up correctly, then you connect the usb cable to the side of the interface, dont use too mutch force as mini usb connectors are fragile.
Connect the usb cable to a USB 2 or USB 3 port on your PC or Laptop, it recommended to use a port on your motherboard, Note that front panel case USB ports and hubs can cause errors so it better to connect directly to the ports at the back of your PC.
The drawbridge software is open source and free to download from the developer’s website below
https://amiga.robsmithdev.co.uk/download
One downloaded, extract the .rar archive DrawBridge folder to your windows desktop
inside the Drawbridge folder, run the software “DrawBridgeWin.exe” – By Double Clicking
If the interface has been detected correctly the COM Port: window will show a com number – this shows the interface is plugged in and detected
***The disk interface is setup as a Drawbridge Plus, you can check this by using the Diagnostics test
If its not set, then you can tick the DrawBridge Config… button and tick the Drawbridge Plus Option
Disk Errors or disk’s not working
Trial and error is sometimes required to get a successful disk written, the most common errors are caused by bad floppy drives, dirty drive heads or bad / perished floppy disk, remember that most disk are now around 30 years old and the magnetic disc inside may have deteriorated, if in doubt try a different disk or clean the drive heads, also using the “Perform several track erases before write” this can also help with some deteriorated disks.
Writing protected game disks required a drive with the correct rotation speed, clean heads and a reliable disk, if you have issues changing the drive used for a different brand or trying different floppy disks can solve many issues, fully formatting the disk before writing can also increase success.
Using High Density Disks
The Amiga standard drives are designed for DD or Double Density floppy disks, as these disk were discontinued before the HD High Density PC floppy disks its sometimes easier to find high density floppies in good condition, some sellers still sell sealed old stock boxes of high density disks, they may not be as reliable long term as standard double density but they can be used with the Drawbridge Controller if modified, you will need to tape over the HD hole with tape or a sticky label for the disk to work with the drawbridge controller.
Convert a HD floppy disk to detect as a DD
How to Configure the FloppyBridge Plugin in WinUAE to use real floppy disks
Loading Amiga Floppy Disk’s directly into WinUAE Amiga Emulator
To load disk’s directly into WinUAE, you need to download the Floppybridge plugins, then copy these inside a folder called “Plugins” in the WinUAE Directory
You will need to make a new folder first called “Plugins” then copy the contents of the floppybridge zip inside the folder, this will enable the USB interface to load disk directly by selecting the “Floppy Drives” under the hardware list on the left. Then in the floppy disk window select the disk type for the drive you want eg DFO in the example below – by clicking the drop down menu showing the disk type the default will show “3.5 DD”, select this option
Click the window shown below, a drop down menu will now show option “Configure FloppyBridge” at the bottom of the list, this option allow setup of the interface as a disk drive for the emulator
The PS/2 Keyboard adapter, requires no soldering or software to work, it just pushes onto the keyboard connector pins of the A500 or A500 Plus and provides a standard PS/2 PC keyboard socket
Ideal if you need an external keyboard on your Commodore Amiga or if you have installed your Amiga motherboard into a desktop or tower style case
Its recommended to use a keyboard with TWO windows keys, this then allows the Amiga soft reset combination to be used by holding down CTRL + Left Windows + Right Windows
One of the first widespread computer mice aimed at the home computer market in the UK in 1985 was the AMX Mouse by Advanced Memory Systems
The mouse features 3 buttons and used mechanical rolling ball and optical sensors, available for Amstrad, Sinclair Spectrum and the Acorn BBC Micro these mice used an interface, the BBC Micro version used the 20 pin “user port” and also requires the AMX rom chip to be installed.
USB flux hardware can allow any modern PC to read and write back ANY floppy disk drive regardless of protection or format, these devices can also be used to write back download disk images in a multitude of disk image formats such as adf. ipf, hfe and scp
These devices ignore the disk formatting structure of the specific system eg Amiga or Atari ST and read the raw magnetic flux data from the disk
This means that all data is captured along with the protection See Image below it shows a representation of the flux data from an Amiga game – captured from a 3.5″ Double Density Floppy Disk game
Our compact Archimedes mouse adapter allows computers that use the Round 9 Pin Mini Din type socket either on the computer or keyboard to use the majority of wired PC USB Mice and even some modern wireless models from Logitech & Philips
No Drivers or software required, just plug in you will get 3 button support the scroll wheel button acts as the middle mouse button.
Archimedes Wireless Mice
The Logitech M330, Philips M200 and all Logitech Mice that use or include the unifying USB receiver are compatible eg MX
Modern optical mouse connected to Archimedes keyboard
ArcMouse USB Mouse adapter from TruMouse connected to the A3000 Mouse Port
Logitech MX master connected to Acorn Archimedes A310 Keyboard
Mouse adapter’s for the commodore Amiga have been available for some time, the first adapters usually used a Microcontroller that did not contain a USB interface and relied on the mouse being PS/2 mode, many shapes and sizes of adapter were available some were very large and stuck out of the rear of the socket due to using through hole components requiring a long circuit board.
The latest mouse adapters such as TruMouse were designed to be as small as possible and offer a high compatibility with most USB mice and even some wireless models from philips and Logitech
The TruMouse got its name as it’s a True USB adapter the dimension are just 30mm in Length and only 20mm Wide, its really tiny and fits ALL Amiga Models including the tightly spaced ports on the Amiga 600
TruMouse Amiga USB Mouse Adapter
The TruMouse adapter is heat-shrinked to protect against static, various colour options are available, the image above shows the adapter with transparent shrink. The adapter is compatible with ALL Models of Commodore Amiga and the Amiga CD32 Console.
The TruMouse does not need any drivers or software and works when plugged in like any standard Amiga mouse, its supports 3 mouse button left click, right click and middle mouse button, this is the scroll wheel button on most PC mice
Wireless Mice on the Amiga ?
TruMouse supports most Logitech and the Philips M200 Series wireless usb mice from covering a range of budgets, starting at the Logitech M170 right up to the MX Master series
Checkout the Demonstration Video of the TruMouse Mouse Adapter from the Amiga Retro Cast on YouTube Channel
The TruMouse adapter is also available for ALL models of the Atari ST and Falcon 030
Logitech MX master connected to Acorn Archimedes A310 Keyboard