MGE-joy Sketcher
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 11:30 pm
The TRS-80 Color Computer has, by nature, support for single button analog joysticks. Original USA COCOs have the famous black beauties' and the deluxe joystick. The deluxe was auto-centered while the beauty wasn't. Here they are:
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But here in Brazil we didn't have the original COCOs but, amongst many local versions, the CP-400s. It had its own non-centering joysticks, just like the black beauty, the original one. They were not as sturdy as the black beauty when it comes to materials so they happen to be a bit fragile on this time and age. Certainly not something one would take to a retro fest or even let others play around with it.
Enter the efforts of Mauricio Matte and Giovani Gualdi, two of the top notch Brazillian color computer users, and they came up with a nice solution, a modern analog joystick made based on the design of the CP-400 original ones, sturdy and made with quality materials. Here is the original and the new one:

In possession of these two, thanks to the support I received from COCON and these dudes, I now have functional joysticks. It has long been my intention to produce software that takes advantage of the analog nature of them, it is something unique to this machine after all.

But here in Brazil we didn't have the original COCOs but, amongst many local versions, the CP-400s. It had its own non-centering joysticks, just like the black beauty, the original one. They were not as sturdy as the black beauty when it comes to materials so they happen to be a bit fragile on this time and age. Certainly not something one would take to a retro fest or even let others play around with it.
Enter the efforts of Mauricio Matte and Giovani Gualdi, two of the top notch Brazillian color computer users, and they came up with a nice solution, a modern analog joystick made based on the design of the CP-400 original ones, sturdy and made with quality materials. Here is the original and the new one:

In possession of these two, thanks to the support I received from COCON and these dudes, I now have functional joysticks. It has long been my intention to produce software that takes advantage of the analog nature of them, it is something unique to this machine after all.