Category Archives: Tankstick

iCade Mobile controller for $5 on Amazon

I just used some points I earned on Swagbucks to order a discontinued iCade Mobile controller for less than $5 (with Amazon Prime shipping). Currently, the price has gone up to $9, but either way, it’s a deal if you want an iCade circuit to mess with:

Yes. It's pink. Pink was cheaper.
Yes. It’s pink. Pink was cheaper.

iCade Game Controller (Pink) – Amazon link

I chose the pink one because it was a buck less than the other color. Of course, now it’s going to seem mean to dissect something that “cute.”

The iCade devices, which I have written about before, started out as an April Fool’s joke at Think Geek in 2010. They act like a Bluetooth (or USB) keyboard and some games were written to interpret certain key presses as joystick buttons. Ever since iOS 7, Apple has added official support for game pads so the iCade format is pretty much dead. Still, there are a ton of old apps (over 100) that still support iCade (including Atari’s Greatest Hits and a few other retro emulators).

I plan to dissect mine and use it inside a cheap arcade-style joystick I have, thus allowing me to have something like a Tankstick for iOS (for games that support it), without having to spend any money. I am especially interested in using it for Pinball Arcade and plan to add some buttons on the sides to act as flipper buttons.

I just thought I’d share this, since it’s cheaper to buy this and gut it than to get a cheap Arduino Leonardo type device to hook up via USB adapter cables like my Atari joystick project.

If you get one and hack it in to something, let me know. I’d love to see what you come up with.

P.S. Since 4/15/2014, I have earned over $1419 in Amazon gift cards (and PayPal cash)! Sign up using my link and I get credit: http://swagbucks.com/refer/allenhuffman (Ask me for the tip/howto doc.)

X-Arcade Tankstick

20130225-171025.jpg
(photo from xgaming.com)

There is a popular set of arcade style joysticks made by a company called X-Arcade. A friend of mine owns one, and he was kind enough to send me a few links with information about these joysticks, and I thought I would share them here.

First, there is an online (Java-based) test program that shows the Tankstick buttons working:

http://www.xgaming.com/support/questions/4/Test+Your+X-Arcade%E2%84%A2+First%21+-+Online+Test+Utility+Program

And this page shows what the various buttons map to:

http://www.xgaming.com/service/images/Layouts/PC-MAC.htm

Of particular interest to me is the realization that Tankstick doesn’t appear as a USB joystick at all. Instead, it appears as a keyboard, and sends key presses for the joystick directions, buttons, etc. For models with a trackball (Tankstick+, for instance), I am guessing the trackball appears as a mouse. So, Tankstick is a keyboard/mouse, as opposed to an analog or (as I previously expected) digital joystick.

This means a third layer of support will be needed to create a conversion between Tankstick keyboard presses and the iCade sequences. This would be a very simple Arduino script since it removes any need for reading digital input pins or USB status bits. It does complicate things for me, however, since now I have to learn what it takes to expect data from either a keyboard or joystick (hopefully without requiring the user to switch). My ultimate goal is to have my code “just work” whether the user is wiring up their own controls to the digital inputs, or using a USB host shield and plugging up an analog or digital joystick, or keyboard device like the Tankstick.

Incidentally, the Tankstick still supports the “ancient” (by computer standards) PS/2 style keyboards as well, and those could be read on an Ardunio (or Teensy) using very little add-on hardware and digital pins. It seems a Tankstick-to-iCade converter could be done very easily, so maybe I can spin one of those off as well.

More updates when I have time to get back to this…