Paddle controllers on modern systems

[matmico399]

I have a lot of Atari and other old systems that I have on games from the PS1 forward. It's frustrating because these compilations have a lot of games that require a paddle. I can't play kaboom without a paddle controller even if I have it on my PS2. Does anyone know how to use a 2600 paddle controller from the PS1 forward? Otherwise these games that are meant to use a paddle are unplayable and I don't understand why they put so many of these games on these discs. Any ideas? And lastly I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

[ActRaiser]

I don't have an answer for using the actual Atari hardware but I have figured out how to play Kaboom on my PC/Arcade.

You can get USB spinners.

They work really, really well for these types of games. The PC/Arcade uses Stella as its emulator.

The spinner works as a mouse with only an x axis. In MAME you can configure any game that uses a spinner for it within the settings.

[SpiceWare]

2600-daptor

Play classic console games on computer emulators with their original controllers. These adapters are a USB interface that works with PC, Mac, Raspberry Pi, or game console that supports USB HID (Human Interface Device). No driver needed as the adapter is automatically recognized as a USB joystick/mouse.

Don't know if your consoles will support the 2600-daptor, but if not you could easily play Atari paddle games using Stella on a computer, Raspberry Pi, or RetroN 77.

[Atariboy]

Hamster and Hori are getting together to produce modern track-ball and rotary spinners for current consoles. Still in the early stages where they're trying to decide what form it will all take, but promising news for those of us that love to see classics be emulated and made available on modern gaming hardware.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/ ... ves-series

[k8track]

I'm not sure if this will be helpful today, but many years ago (probably 15-17 years ago), I bought the limited edition of Puchi Carat (PS1) which came packaged with a paddle controller. It was relatively simple and inexpensive to acquire back then, but I have no idea if it's a viable option nowadays. If memory serves, it was compatible with the paddle-based arcade games like Super Breakout, Cutie Q, Bomb Bee, etc. It's possible the Namco NegCon controller might have been compatible with those paddle games as well, but I am not sure.