Posted By
MIK
on 2015-02-15
11:01:48
 |  Re: Joystick ports broken ?
If you know the brand of your stick and fully know it's for C64 then all well and good, however not all sticks and pads that work on a C64 are 100% compatible with the 264 series. The stick might be for an Atari, Amstrad or something else which will cause problems...
If there are any genuine faults with the joyports on a Plus4 it normally means the TED chip is damaged and will need replacing.
The easy way to test the ports is to see what characters print up on the Basic screen it's self. Press Up, Down, Left, Right and again holding Fire down doing the same thing... If any direction prints random garbage on the screen then the TED chip is faulty. If your not sure what each direction should be printing and don't have a spare machine then try a C16/Plus4 emulator such as Yape and set the joystick options to the arrow keys. Joyport 1 & 2 will be a option and you can flick between the two via emulation.
The Joyports in the 264 series are wired directly to the TED chip and are not shielded in any way meaning if you put the wrong type of controller in such as a Megadrive pad and use it then it will cause permanent damage to the joystick controlling side of the chip. Machine code games may fix the fault temporarily but the fault will still be there in the background and sometimes you will feel it stutter as you move in any direction for a while.
Make sure your joystick is 100% compatible first, a proper stick designed to run on a C64 before worrying about changing the TED Chip. Find out the brand, a picture of it's box ect... A good chance it was for C64 as most were but better to check for peace of mind.
|
