360 Kempston Atari joystick mod

by Richard Mitchell { Feb 21st 2007 at 9:30AM }

360 Fanboy reader, gtpunch, sent us a link to a project he's been working on. He has successfully integrated a Kempston interface into an Xbox 360 controller. Essentially, this means that the controller has been modded to accept standard Atari controllers. The mod was created to make retro games such as Paperboy more fun to play (the 360 d-pad isn't exactly the best). What makes this mod particularly interesting is that the joystick port has been attached directly to the controller. The best part is that the whole controller still works (minus the d-pad, of course). We'd share the instructions with you, but they contain a lot of techno-babble about soldering and transmogrifiers and whatnot. Hit the "read" link if you can comprehend such things.

See also:
Atari joystick mod brings back memories

Tags: atari mod, AtariMod, hacks, kempston interface, KempstonInterface, mods

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Josh @ Feb 21st 2007 9:42AM

There is no reason that you couldn't get the joypad to work, too.

xhumanterrorx @ Feb 21st 2007 9:44AM

you'd have to have too much time on your hands, and love crappy atari to even fathom an idea like this. what a waste of time.

Virtua Fanboy @ Feb 21st 2007 9:45AM

Mods are cool and all, but I just don't have the time, and well...dignity lol. Anyway I wish I knew one of these guys personally that does this cool shit cause I'd probably pay em a pretty good chunk of change for somethin like this.

Tony @ Feb 21st 2007 10:04AM

I'd like a joystick to use, but I never liked the Atari 2600 ones I had. They always felt way too stiff.

Dapper Dan @ Feb 21st 2007 10:36AM

lol...transmogrifiers.

calvin and hobbes was the best.

gtpunch @ Feb 21st 2007 11:45AM

Josh - true the D-pad could have been kept, but there wasn't really anywhere else convenient to get at those signals- cramped little double-sided PCB. The joystick replaces the D-pad anyway, so it seemed natural to get rid of it.

xhumanterrorx & Tony - it's not just for 'Atari' joysticks, that's just a common name used for that style of 9-pin joystick connector: http://pinouts.ru/Inputs/JoystickAtari2600_pinout.shtml
Any of the Quickshot/Kempston/Competition Pro joysticks from the C64/AtariST/Amiga days would work fine.

Virtua Fanboy - now you know me personally, how big a chunk of change are we talking about?

Virtua Fanboy @ Feb 21st 2007 12:25PM

Where ya live bro? Because if it's driving distance where I can just give ya $60-$70 ($20-$30 w/my existing controller)that would be sweet. But the chances of that are pretty slim. I'm from North Texas by the way.

Hey, now that I'm thinkin. When I was younger I pluged in a Atari controller into a Sega Genesis (same 9 pin port I guess) and it worked on Sonic the Hedgehog. You could use that to sell you some units when Sega gets off their lazy asses and start puting some classic Sonic on Live Arcade. Just post back on here I guess.

P.S. I almost left that last part off seeing as you could make more money off it but what the hell, I'm sure you would've came across it anyway. LOL

gtpunch @ Feb 21st 2007 12:45PM

I'm in Canada, a little far away. Unfortunately this mod is a bit too labour intensive to be worth doing for a reasonable price. It wasn't too complex though, maybe I'll try putting up some more detailed instructions instead.

A Sega Genesis Controller might work as is, not sure if it would need the +5v on pin 5: http://pinouts.ru/Game/genesiscontroller_pinout.shtml

With a bit of extra work the 'Select' and 'Start' buttons could be used too, although the 'B' and 'C' buttons would require quite a bit of extra electronics to multiplex the signal.

notsonic @ Feb 21st 2007 1:26PM

"The mod was created to make retro games such as Paperboy more fun to play"

but paperboy wasnt even on atari. nor was it controlled with a joystick.

the original arcade controls were a set of bike handlebars.

gtpunch @ Feb 21st 2007 1:51PM

"but paperboy wasnt even on atari. nor was it controlled with a joystick."

Paperboy was released for the Atari ST, as well as being published by Atari. On home computers it could be controlled by a joystick. I wasn't trying to replicate the feel of using an arcade, just a home computer joystick.