• E-mail: dtvii@earthlink.net

DTVii

3D & Joystick Controller for DTV/Commodore 64

The DTVii is a wireless tilt controller and joystick for Commodore 64 compatible computers.

The parts for the project are fairly common and were not terribly expensive. A pair of Atmel AVR microcontrollers, each coupled with a transmitter and receiver form the core.

Project Goal

The controller is designed to emulate a C64 joystick, which is a simple digital up-down-left-rignt style joystick. Although this is far below the capablities of the controller hardware, there are thousands of games written for the C64 joystick port (and none written specifically for this mod.) Clearly, a direct emulation of the CBM joystick was the best place to start...

Of course, writing an extended driver for the hardware which would take advantage of the analog joystick and accelerometer would be quite possible.

Both transmitter and receiver use AVRs with full USARTs. This works well, though some might call it overkill--a custom communication protocol could have been written for a UART. In fact, the transmitter uses an ATmega8L, which is a larger device than required (I didn't know about the ATtiny2313 at the time.)

The transmitter is housed in a plastic iPod case, and includes a LDO 3.3V regulator. Since the range of the transmitter is closely tied to the supply voltage, a supply larger than 3.3v was desireable. The regulator insures that the accelerometer supply never exceeds 3.3v--also good for the AVR. With the onboard regulator, a main supply of up to 12 volts is possible without any additional changes.

Two versions of the receiver are planned. The DTV version pictured, and a C64 version, already made but not yet tested.

About the DTV

The DTV is a hardware game console based on the venerable Commodore 64 computer. Several versions of the DTV exist. This mod uses the 'Hummer Road Race' game sold by Radio Shack for the 2005 Xmas season in the US. The other, more well-known, 'C64DTV' was sold in various incarnations to both the US and European market.

Unfortunately, the Hummer DTV doesn't have a full standard joystick port. However, several persistent hackers have converted existing games to the userport address, which the Hummer DOES have. For more info on DTV converted games, see the Links page...

For more info on previous DTV projects, and the early ground work for this device, the Links page includes references to the dtvhacking forum. Much good info can be found there.

Video Clip of Controller

Demo of the basic function of the controller, using a simple sprite demo written for the DTVs' userport. A video of gameplay with the device will follow soon...