36 years ago I bought an Atari Video Touch Pad (with Star Raiders game) at Zellers with a goal of trying to read it on the Commodore 64. I was not successful then, but I finally managed it now. I also show some of the other cool stuff I got from Zellers over the years.
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Links:
Zellers closing: https://www.blogto.com/fashion_style/2020/01/zellers-toronto-close-early-massive-lineups/
Download my work disk: http://8BitShowAndTell.com/downloads/tmptouchpad.d64
Index:
0:00 About Zellers
1:13 Stuff I bought at Zellers
4:41 Star Raiders
6:56 Video Touch Pad
8:06 Continuity testing with Joystick
9:19 Reading the joystick in BASIC - doesn't work for Touch Pad
10:50 Continuity testing with Touch Pad
12:11 Reading the Touch Pad in BASIC - some success
13:24 Final BASIC proof of concept
17:11 The assembly language version
24:52 Using the ML version with a BASIC front-end
25:50 IT WORKS - finally
25:55 Walk-through the BASIC code
28:46 Thanks to my patrons! http://patreon.com/8BitShowAndTell
Super Secret Lyrics:
Star Raiders was just $2
In a big clearance bin
at the Zellers store in 1984
It even included a controller,
The Video Touch Pad
Such a great deal, I had to buy two
Though I didn't even own an Atari 2600
I just hoped I could somehow make the controller
work at home on my Commodore 64
PEEKing and POKEing location 56321
Trying to read the 12 buttons on the face
But it never responded, though I tried for days
So for four dollars I got 2 game cartridges
and two controllers I couldn't play
But it also included the Atari Force comic book issue #3
Eventually I collected the whole set
Atari Force is the best.
#Zellers
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