Our new Joystick Adapter Firmware v3.3 is now released!
It’s the version you were wating for. We improved latency response -A LOT- !!!
Bench tested with GAMEPADLA;
We were at 13.64ms average we now are at 5.5ms average!
We also fixed mouse movements for mouse firmwares.
See our GutHub page for firmware download:
https://github.com/retronicdesign/USBJoystickAdapter_v3.3/releases/tag/v3.3
It’s compatible with all 3.x adapters.
Retronic Design just released a new version of its Amiga External Floppy Adapter. We decided to build a batch of our open source design because of its termendous success!
This board allow to connect all type of floppy drives to the Amiga external D-Sub 23 floppy connector;
It can operate as DF1, DF2 or DF3, jumper selectable.
Onboard logic makes all drive to be seen as 880K standard Amiga floppy drives.
Power cable included!
This year Retronic Design will give away 8 USB joystick adapters and 4 video adapters. Other prices from many other retro Amiga providers will also be give away.
Checkout; https://www.amiwest.net/raffle2023/
AmiWest DevCon October 12th-13th
AmiWest Show 13th-15th
Here is a list of Amiga personalities you can expect at the show:
*Trevor Dickinson, MD A-Eon
*Garry Hare, former CEO of Amiga Inc and featured banquet speaker
*Doug Compton, of 10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast
*Alex Perez, of Rabbit Hole Computing
*RJ Mical, of Amiga Legend and Master of Mischief
*Steven Solie, of AMUC and ExecSG
*Matthew Leaman, Owner of AmigaKit and MD of A-Eon
Again this year, Retronic Design will be part of the largest Amiga annual gathering in America!
AmiWest 2022 gathered a whole bunch of Amiga important figures that developped the platform and others that keeps it alive!
There was a surprise presentation from Kiki Stockhammer of Newtek and Video Toaster fame…
This year is expected to bring even more Amiga lovers in Sacramento!
Some Retronic Design goodies will also be given away in the raffle;
Buy your tickets here.
See: https://amiwest.net/
As our effort to bring more and more Amiga stuff Open Source, we now add another design from 2017 to our collection.
This module can swap an internal DF0: drive with an external DF1: floppy drive in order to boot from an external device, such as a Gotek Floppy Emulator.
First module fits under the MOS 8520 Even CIA.
Second module is inline with the internal DF0: drive.
A small CPU detects two fast consecutive resets (CTRL-A-A twice). This will activate or deactivate the floppy swapping.
A piezo will emit sounds when the swapping is activated or deactivated.
This device will fully support external booting from any 880K disks, while still permitting the use of internal DF0: as DF1: (hardware fix).
This board might be going into production if enough requests are made.
This board can also be seen on our Github. It can also be manufacture at PCBWay.
Please Share and Donate! Cheers!
Back in 2017, we designed an external floppy adapter for the Amiga line of computers. This board permit to connect many types of floppy drives such as original “Shugart” drives, Gotek drives and IBM-PC 720KB/1.44MB floppy drives. All theses are seen as standard 880K Amiga floppy drives.
We decided to open source the hardware and its schematic on GitHub like many of our other projects. It can be built by yourself or have it manufacture by companies like PCBWay.
We might have it manufacture in small batches in the future but not for now as we are working on other projects .😉 Please share and donate if you use it! Cheers!
We’ve started a new retro project to bring back the Amiga into the musical world of MIDI. This project is different from others in a way that it’s a fully Open Hardware one. We might make a small prodution of it but still you are free to make your own!
See our Github page: https://github.com/retronicdesign/amigamidi
Note: Use KiCad 6 to edit the schematic and PCB. A released zip file of the gerbers is also provided to have it sent to PCB production like PCBWay.
Our collaborator KeighnMcDeath helped us to correct our Fairchild F controller firmware. It’s now fully working on its 4 axes; X,Y,Z and Rx. Would be the perfect tool to edit 3D models… just a though…😉
We are proud to announce that all our previous production is almost sold out!
Production resumed and we will have a new batch of v3.2 “Dark Helmet” USB joystick adapter for sale pretty soon.
We also built new Amiga to Components adapter. They are up for sale too.
We want to thank everyone for your enthusiasm on theses project!
Our friend Christian from Hamburg Germany pointed out that our ColecoVision firmware had timing issues since the latest 3.2 revision. We’ve corrected that, thanks to him! Never hesitate to contact us if something is not working or you have a sensational idea!
Like always, it’s downloadable from our download section.
Play with your CD32 original gamepad on the A500 mini! All buttons working as the gamepad that came with it, except the menu button that is replaced by the power button (quick press). Feels like the real thing for those who has big hands like me! See our download section.
Using the Retronic Design’s USB joystick adapter with the A500 mini and WHDLoad has been demystified!
You must first update your A500 mini with firmware v1.1.1 available on the Retro Games LTD. website. This new firmware enables new features like ADF support and the option to switch physical controllers in game, just to name a few.
Use the original gamepad to start the game in the main menu. Once the game started, press and hold HOME and then press X. This will swap your controller and enable the Retronic Design joystick adaper instead of the gamepad. Don’t forget to update the firmware of your adapter to support A500 mini. See Download section. Voilà!
See Senses.se website at https://www.senses.se/amiga-500-mini-recension/
Note that the website is in Swedish language but can be traduced with google translate easily.
Retro Box Room made a nice review on our Joystick Adapter on YouTube.
We built a new firmware to work with A500 mini. It’s dually improved to place buttons in the correct order and reduce the USB latency. Firmware can be downloaded here: https://www.retronicdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/Firmware_3.2a/Atari_C64_Amiga_Joystick_A500minimod_v3.2a.rar
After TheC64 mini, TheC64 maxi, now there is the A500 mini! Our joystick adapter is compatible to all of the above, using our adapted firmware. See our download section to download this firmware.
In Perifractic’s 2nd part video of his K.I.T.T. Tesla conversion, he is using our USB joystick adapter to connect his Atari Joysticks and play Asteroids. Real cool!
Our joystick adapter is standard HID USB compatible so it’s Tesla entrainement center compatible too!
Perifractic transformed a Tesla3 into a real life Knight Rider, how cool!! Our joystick adapter will be part of their next video. Yes, our joystick adapter is Tesla compatible!!!
| D-Sub 9 Pin number | Name and functionality |
|---|---|
| 1 | Up |
| 2 | Down (Select = Up and Down) |
| 3 | Left |
| 4 | Right (Run = Left and Right) |
| 5 | not connect |
| 6 | Button A |
| 7 | Button B |
| 8 | Shoulder button |
| 9 | Ground |
Here is a sample we created using an Amiga 2000 with our new sound sampler of the funny song “Raining Tacos”. Using a simple iPhone earphones output and Audio Master IV, we recorded an IFF mono sample at 53KHz! You can listen to it here, converted in MP3:
As you can hear, quality is impressive for an 8-bit audio stream! You can also download the uncompressed IFF original file:
We hope to have a working pre-prod by March 1st. PCB design is completed. It will fit INSIDE a D-SUB25 hood!
It’s an old new project to bring back a sound sampler for the Amiga. Back in 1993, Francis Gradel from our team designed an Audio Master IV compatible sound sampler using an ADC0820 with a small LM324 preamp. Audio was awesome for an 8-bit 22KHz ish system. As time passed, Sound Blaster cards and other sound cards on PC replaced theses little boxes. Samples produced mostly been used in music trackers like MED or ProTracker, mostly in the MOD format. For music creators back then, theses were the most advanced piece of equipment available on the market. It inspired a whole generation of music makers; See theses interviews with Clavin Harris and Kayne West!
That being said, we are looking for a 2022 way to bring back these little boxes to the masses and maybe inspire another generation of music makers and bring back the fun of sound editing on Amiga.
Fast ADC chip are now integrated in nearly every MCUs. Their precision and speed are now many times what it was 30 years ago. So, why should we not take advantage of this? Our prototype is using an ATMEGA chip with 8x 10Bit ADC inputs. Using Arduino Serial Tracer, we tested it sucessfully with a simple iPhone audio output.
Adding a parallel port to the device and connecting it to an Amiga 2000 running AudioMaster IV, sound rendition is above all expectations!
Sampling and editing 22KHz real-time audio in stereo as fun as it was in 1991! Not as complete as Audacity but easy to save and add to MOD wavetables. At least, important sound effects are available.
We aren’t sure if this project will ever be in production but we would like your input on this, whether or not you would be interested in owning one. Approximate price would be 50$ cad and all integrated in a small DSUB-25 hood.
Happy new year!!!
We at Retronic Design whish you a happy new year full of retro rediscoveries!
We finally released version 1.0 of Mr.Switcher that works with all new 3.2a firmwares that we built and the upcoming 3.3 version later this year.
New Atari, C64, Amiga 3.2a joystick firmware is taking advantage of the integrated MCU hardware interrupts to deliver an even better performance. We also modified the firmware to be compatible to the new PiMiga2.0 released few weeks ago. Woot Woot!
With USB joystick adapter running firmware 3.2a, Wico Joystick, Tank Mouse and PiMiga2.0, it definitely feels like home!
P.S. I know, my tank mouse needs retr0bright… Looks even more yellowish with the PI400 aside!
We had a feedback from Steve Guidi on our Atari Driver Controller support. Per his suggestion, the firmware was converted to be recognized as a “one axis” mouse instead of a joystick. This improves the compatibility with emulators like Stella and Vice. You can download the new firmware in our download section.
Our collaborator Andrew Morgan questionned the precision of the Amiga mouse firmware when used with a paint software like DPaint IV. Sometimes, the mouse was jumping too fast between pixels in an erratic way. We analysed the situation and found out that the way of reading both axis, in polling mode, was infact innacurate.
We rebuilt a new software that take advantage of the hardware interrupts of the CPU chip.
This gives a near-perfect operation, even with more sensitive trackballs or “laser type” mouses. This also made us update the whole fork build for other mouses like the Atari ST and the Mac Mouse. All theses new firmwares are available for download in our download section.
Retronic Design is proud to be part of Amiwest 2021! We will be presenting a small video on our products and history. You can also participate to the raffle and have a chance to win a pair of USB joystick adapter or an Amiga RGB to components adapter!
We finally have a fully functional firmware for Vectrex joyscticks! Special thanks to our community collaborator from France, Eric Andreani. Many issues were fixed. This joystick is a totaly different beast because it is entirely analog on different pins than other joysticks and paddles. All 4 buttons with dual axes are seen by the host computer. Time to fire up your Vectrex emulator or try it on your favorite game!
We will soon receive our D-SUB 23 shells from our manufacturer. All pre-order customers will be fullfilled and we will maintain pre-order prices until may. After May 31st, prices will resume to normal so hurry! We also offer D-SUB 23F connector and shell combo. See our pre-order page.
We’ve recently figured out that there is two Intellivision Flashback controller types with different pinout! It’s either AtGames or Dollar General version. We built two different firmwares to suit your controller on your favorite emulator. See our download section.
New beta firmware shows the versatility of the USB adapter by simulating keypad directions from a standard D-SUB 9 pin joystick. This works on almost any equipement or emulator as a keyboard is a very standard HID device. Works perfectly on WinUAE/Amiga Forever and C64 Forever. We now target set-up boxes and other OS limited devices. If you want to submit a request, we are open! Beta firmware can be downloaded here.
Some people asked us to integrate both joystick and paddles firmware together because they are switching often between both type of controllers. This is now a reality and works very well for Atari and C64 controllers while interpreting joystick moves. It auto-detect what kind of controller is connected and report it accordingly. Give us some feedbacks on it! See download section.
New hardware of our joystick adapter, version 3.2 (Vador), offers more analog compatibility. It now enables Apple ][ joystick (using a gender changer) and the Vectrex. You can download these firmwares in our download section.
Our partner Jeff Birt sent a DB23 connector to Adrian’s digital basement for review. Note that the DB23 case will be available real soon as first batch will be received in a week or two. ?
We just finished to integrate Inteliivision flashback controller firmware in RAW reading mode. This enables to properly read the controllers keypad with special combination keypresses. A KBD file written by Joe Zbiciak (Author of jzIntv) is also available to properly interconnect to his emulator. See our download section.
This new flash tool is more easy to use with the new USB Joystick Adapter v3.2. It has the possibility to trig the bootloader of an adapter while in use and change its functionality in few clicks, without the need of doing the manual bootflash procedure. Available for Windows 10.
See: Download Section
We released a new revision of our Joystick Adapter firmware on this last day of 2020. It adds an interesting functionality that permits to reflash the adapter while connected. No need to push the button while inserting the USB connector anymore. It uses some clever code that trigs integrated bootloader to come up*. Use this link to download. Retronic Design Team wish you an Happy New Year!!!
*Works with black 3.2 version only (Vador)
After sucessfully kickstarted and produced DB23F connector for Amiga computers, we launch a new pre-order for DB23 hoods that matches these connectors. As they are rare and pricey on different selling platforms, we found that it would be better to start from scratch and have some new ones produced again. See our pre-order page.
ETA for shipping should be around March 1st 2021.
| Quantity | Price (Hood only) | Combo Price (Hood+DB23F) |
| 1 | 2,60$ USD | 7,40$ USD (Value price!) |
| 2 – 9 | 2,47$ USD | 6,88$ USD (Value price!) |
| 10 – 49 | 2,34$ USD | 6,36$ USD (Value price!) |
| 50+ | 2,21$ USD | 5,84$ USD (Value price!) |
We are very excited today as we received our first production batch of the new DB23F Amiga video connectors!!! You can order yours now as we will offer a 10% off the regular price until January first 2021. See side bar to order.
We are very pleased to announce that we are expecting the first production run of the NEW Amiga DB23F connectors to arrive in North America mid-December of 2020. It has been an incredible amount of work, creating mechanical drawings, finding the right manufacturer, getting the tooling made, testing the first sample connectors and then finally getting them into full production. But, encouragement from the community saw us through the struggle.
Once the shipment is received, we’ll begin filling preorders. There are still a few weeks left to get your pre-orders in at the special preorder pricing. Remember if we reach our pre-order goal everyone will get 10% more connectors for free. We have had some folks ask about adding more connectors to their pre-order. If you wish to do so let us know as soon as possible.
1980’s to 2000’s Arcades and Video Games have one point in common; they all use a CRT as their primary display. Most of them output their video signals directly in RGB + sync at 15KHz, like the Jamma and MVS standards.
Those CRT are becomming less and less common these days, replaced by LCD TVs and monitors that can be purchased at low prices with excellent quality. Nevertheless, the RGB + sync signal cannot be connected directly to these new TVs. Retronic Design’s new adapter is there to answer this need by converting theses primitive signals to components (YPbPr). With this adapter connected in between an Arcade board and an LCD TV, you can easily replace any CRT.
Classic Arcade and Video Games use 15KHz horizontal sync video output. This corresponds to today’s standard 480i. But there is also a common but not-so-well known mode called the 240p. This mode do not have odd and even line scanning. It uses the video standard in full 60 fps instead of 30 fps. It permits sprite “transparency” and induce a blank scanline pattern that charaterize most Arcade games. New LCD TVs are not equally supporting this 240p mode. But for those that supports it, a replacement can be operated in your old cabinet.
This adapter does not resize the original image like most competitive solutions does. It only operate a color space conversion and integrate the composite sync to the Y (green) signal. The best resizing/reformatting device to keep original image quality and effects is integrated in your LCD TV. Analog to digital conversion should only be done once; inside your TV.
Note that 240p and 480i are NTSC video modes. PAL/SECAM have their equivalent 288p and 576i modes, also compatible with this adapter.
Universal RGBS to Components adapter is currently sold on our website at 49,99$ CAD + shipping.
Exciting news here today at Soigeneris and Retronic Design! We received the first DB23F prototypes out of the factory. This means we are close at hand to fullfill our pre-order customers! It is not too late to order yours here.
Our next step is to made them pass a bunch of stress tests and see how they behave in overheat, mechanical torsion and electrical discharges.
Soigeneris.com and retronicdesign.com teamed together to bring back the DB23F Amiga video connector!
This is a story about Francis and Jeff, the Amiga community, and the quest for an obsolete connector. Francis and Jeff are vintage computer enthusiast who, unbeknownst to each other, both set off on a quest to find the fabled DB23F video connector for Amiga computers.
Their trek took them around the globe searching for the rumored long-lost connector molds. They encountered many dead ends and false leads, at times things seemed hopeless. There was even a villain who, when realizing that Francis and Jeff were unaware of each other’s quests, devised an evil plan to lure them into a trap. Luckily for our duo, and the Amiga community, a mutual friend Arizona Doug arrived just in the nick of time to help foil the villain’s plan and save the mission!
Now having joined forces Francis and Jeff ventured forward with renewed determination and certainty that their crusade was just. After many months of hard work, they found a manufacturer in the far East who had the skills to reproduce the fabled DB23F connectors in exactitude. A connector so perfect it is indistinguishable from those made back during the reign of Queen Amiga herself. A deal was struck, and the craftsmen are now hard at work producing the tooling to bring the long lost DB23F connector back to life.
An interesting experiment has been performed by Christian Simpson aka Perifractic from Retro Recipes to compare latency between an emulated C64 and a real C64 from 1984. Results shows latency induced by the software/hardware abstraction layers on an emulated machine.
New USB joystick adapter version 3.2 (Vador) has arrived, with its stylish black look.
It is retro-compatible with version 3.0 and 3.1 series of firmwares. Also adds compatibility to two analog joysticks: Vectrex and Apple II. Bootloader poping up at bootup with some joysticks is now fixed on this version.
We are currently in full shipping of this new version. Order yours now!
Unfortunately, we are out of stock. ETA end of March.
Some news from the flight deck; 2020 will be a big year for Retronic Design as we will roll out a new joystick adapter with better capabilities and compatibilities. This new adapter is backward compatible with 3.0 and 3.1 versions. It will support Vectrex and Apple II joysticks. Release date is Q2 2020.
We issued a price drop on the FlashFloppy emulator. It is now 36,99$CAD. This emulator is supported by a vast community of retro-enthusiasts and still the best selling in its class to this day.
All the Amiga Components video adapters in stock were sold quickly! Some new ones just came out of production. You can order them at the same price of 49,99$ USD. We ship next-day. Current owners are happy campers as they can now play their Amiga on the living room large TV.
Other new products are in developpement. We signed a partnership with a new manufacturing provider. Software developpement is also taking new avenues as we started a new combined programming tool that allows to swap between different controller more easily.
Stay tuned!
We received our gifts in advance this year at Retronicdesign! Doug Compton from 10 minute Amiga retro cast did a torough review of our Amiga Component adapter. As you will see, our adapter gives the best render on a modern TV that is possible. The only downside is 240p compatibility that not every TV are capable of. 10marc blog is a very complete review blog for modern Amiga enthusiasts.
New firmware released for all adapters today. This makes all joystick, gamepads and controllers compatible with the new C64 mini. It also implements a new hidboot for firmware update. Improved version of the Intellivision controller firmware using raw readings from the keypad was also added, thanks to Joe Zbiciak from jzIntv! All adapters shipped from this date will have this new firmware programmed prior shipping. v3.1 is compatible with v3.0 hardware.
With some hard work, we managed to make our adapter recognized and used by the C64 mini. It mimics a USB gamepad with a borrowed VID/PID. Code to be released but you already can download the firmware for ;
v3.0: Atari_C64_Amiga_C64minimod_v3.0.hex
v2.1: Atari_C64_Amiga_C64minimod_v2.1.hex
We will be at MEGA expo Montreal gaming arcade november 9,10 and 11th 2018 at Marché Bonsecours. Come see us! https://mega-mtl.com/en/
