The
Jaguar PowerPad
a
personal Review
It wasn't until 2 or 3 years ago that I heard about the Jaguar
Pad which I soon assumed to be the controller for the Jaguar
console. But then I realized that this type of controller can be
connected to STE and Falcon too.
Most modern games since the mid-90s support this controller on
STE and Falcon. So for me as a game developer it was quite
natural to implement support for it as well as getting a pad
myself.
I did get my personal Jaguar Powerpad (in short jagpad) this
spring to connect and use it with my Falcon. Mine came boxed and
still shrink-wrapped via eBay. A nice black cardboard box with a
sleek, red Jaguar-logo displayed on the outside and of course a
pad inside. Inside there was just the pad - well who had guessed
to find more? It is genuine Atari hardware after all and Atari
console equipment never needed any written instructions.
My first impression on the pad itself was positive. It gave a
rounded feeling of the all black pad with cross shaped main
controls and nice finger grips on the back. Main controls with 8
directions on the left, 3 squared fire buttons labelled A,B and
C on the right, between 2 smaller buttons, labelled PAUSE and
OPTION. Below is a telephone style keyboard with 12 additional
keys. Those keys look rather small and flimsy and I wondered how
they are handled.
I plugged the pad into port A on my Falcon and loaded up Godpey
by the Reservoir Gods to try it out. The pad responded to my
input and simply worked. However none of the buttons nor the
main control have a reasonable click. It feels a bit wobbly all
over, all plastic and even the Atari Logo on top can't help
much.
Game support for the jagpad is sparse although developing. Most
modern games e.q. post-90s productions support the jagpad well.
Titles with jagpad support are Dynabusters, Breakdance, games by
the Reservoir Gods and all modern and upcoming games by
Paradize. This changes when using a Jaguar console of course as
you can only connect jagpads to the Jaguar so all Jaguar games
are played with a jagpad.
From a coder's point of view the jagpad is rather easy to
handle. You have 2 registers, one is an address register where
you select which group of buttons to read and one is a data
register where you can find the corresponding input. For you
GFABASIC coders out there is a ready-to-use routine to poll the
important buttons of a Jagpad in port A on STE or Falcon has
been included and you can find it in the files section of this
issue of Alive or on the Paradize website. Coders in other
languages or in m68k machine code will surely be able to adapt
the source to their needs. Make sure to access the registers in
supervisor and check for STE or Falcon first. Hopefully all
upcoming games for STE and Falcon will support the jagpad in
future if possible.
It is even possible to connect the Jaguar Powerpad to a standard
joystick port even on plain STs. You just need to build yourself
a small adaptor:
15 pin high density D socket 9 pin D socket
14 O------------------------------O 1
13 O------------------------------O 2
12 O------------------------------O 3
11 O------------------------------O 4
10 O------------------------------O 6
7 O------------------------------O 7
9 O----------------*-------------O 8
|
4 O----------------*
|
3 O----------------*
|
2 O----------------+
This works because the joypad and the joystick both work on
"negative logic" - i.e. a LOW value is considered to be TRUE. By
connecting the control lines of the joypad to 0V, all the
buttons are effectively ORed together. For use as a joystick,
this allows you to use UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT and any of the fire
buttons. Several of the other buttons will also mirror these
effects, although that should not cause any problems.
(taken from the great Atari EJP FAQ)
Conclusion
PROs
* genuine Atari controller
* digital control
* lots of buttons
* rounded and hand fitting exterior
* large pad so people with big hands won't get problems
* long connection cable
* possibility to add inlays with instructions
* can be connected to standard 9pin joystick port with small adaptor
CONs
* generic plastic feeling
* no click or noticeable key press
As a conclusion I wouldn't say it is a must-have due to the fact
that game support is somewhat limited on STE and Falcon. Anyway
it is a nice pad and I personally would prefer a click-de-click
feeling of the buttons. If there wasn't that all-plastic
feeling, I'd say "go get it" but as it is you don't really need
to. This won't apply to collectors or hardcore Jaguar fans of
course.
My final comment on the Jaguar pad surely is "The Jaguar plastic
pad".
Simon Sunnyboy / Paradize for Alive, 2005-10-24
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