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Rotary
Controller
Matthew Bacon
interviews Nick Turner (Tyrant) at JagFest UK
![[Photo: Rotary controller close-up]](images/rotary1.jpg)
Matthew:
Hi Nick, thanks for letting us interview you.
For readers
who may not know you, please introduce yourself - who is Nick
Turner?
Nick: I'm 22, a programmer, web designer, and all-round techie.
I'm a
big fan of Atari in general, and the Jaguar in particular, I enjoy creating
games as well as playing them, although I haven't as yet managed to learn
any assembly language. Most of the games I've made were done for PCs
using Visual Basic, and while graphically simple, they were great fun,
especially multi-player. In all things I do, I like to make them as simple
and uncomplicated as possible.
Matthew:
When I met you yesterday morning,
you kindly offered me a badge with the slogan "The D-Pad is dead! Long live
the knob!", what was that all about?
Nick:
That was one of those silly ideas
that turned out really well. I had all of these D-pads left over, after
making up rotary controllers for the Jaguar, so I decided I might as well
turn them into little badges to help promote my controllers here at the
JagFest.
![[Photo: Jaguar D-pad badge]](images/dpad.jpg)
Matthew:
Not being a follower of the Jaguar forums, I must admit that
I was unaware of your rotary controller. What is it?
Nick:
During the final days of development on Tempest 2000, Jeff
Minter was handed a hacked-up controller made out of an old 2600 driving controller, and told
to "make it work with this", so he did. The controller
basically allows you to move at a variable speed, left and right, so you can
move faster and with more precision than using a normal D-pad controller.
Twist the knob slowly and you can do precise movements, but if you need
to really move, twist it fast and you'll fly round the web really
fast.
Matthew:
Cosmetically it looks extremely similar to the original Atari
Jaguar controller. How have you built the controller, and what are its main
features?
Nick:
It looks so similar because it was originally a normal Jaguar
controller; I took out the D-pad, and installed a high precision mechanical
rotary encoder in its place, and one of these lovely black anodised solid
aluminium knobs. A lot of work goes into each one, making sure the encoder
has room to fit inside the case, that there is adequate support and
stability, that all the extra wiring is secure, and of course each controller
is fully tested before being sold. All of the parts I use are new, including
the original controller itself, since I was lucky enough to buy a large batch
of them still in shrink-wrap when I first decided I was going to start making
these.
Matthew:
When and why did you decide to develop the rotary
controller?
Nick:
I've always wanted one since I first heard
about them. Like many people here it seems, Tempest 2000 is one of my
favourite Jaguar games, and when I first learnt it was possible to have a
different kind of controller I was really excited. I searched for information
about them for ages, but didn't find all that much. It looked like the only
options were to make one using a 2600 driving controller, which apparently
are very unresponsive, or buy one of the ones a guy called Jedi Jeff made,
but they were rarer than hens' teeth since he had stopped making them and
nobody wanted to sell theirs.
Then one day I decided it was time to sit
down and make one up, shortly after that I decided I should make lots of them
and sell them to other people like me, who wanted one and didn't know where
to go. Since I wanted to avoid using old 2600 controllers, I spent ages
trying to find a suitable encoder, checking lots of companies, in the end I
found this one, and I'm very happy with the feel and precision of it. As you
can feel, it's got a very slight detent effect, making it step gently around,
instead of spinning freely, which makes it much easier to control the menus
and special stages, but doesn't interfere with normal gameplay because it's
very soft and easy to turn fast. Surprisingly, the hardest component of the
whole thing to find was the little plastic disc used to make the hole in the
case smaller. For weeks I had my first prototype finished, but with the
encoder hanging loose out of the hole left by the D-pad because I couldn't
find this one little plastic disc the right size to fit.
![[Photo: Rotary controller full view]](images/rotary2.jpg)
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Great care is taken to present the controller
looking stock. It comes in the
original polythene bag, even
the cable tie is never released
during modification and testing,
and despite the newly protruding
knob, it still fits in
the original Atari box. |
Matthew:
In your
opinion, what are the main benefits of the controller? Is it better for some
games and than others?
Nick:
Well it only works for one game, Tempest 2000. Because of the
way the controller works, the programmer has to write special code to use it,
and as far as anyone knows, Tempest 2000 is the only game that is capable of
being used with one of these, so far. Hopefully soon I'll be helping some of
the people who still write Jaguar games integrate support for these
controllers into their games. Sinister Developments' Asteroids is a good
example of games that could run quite nicely with them, and shouldn't
require
much work to add in support.
The main advantage of these controllers
is the way that you can move at a variable speed with them, in a way that is,
in my opinion at least, much more natural and comfortable. You can quickly
dash across the web to grab a power-up you would otherwise have lost, and it
makes it much easier to attack Tankers and Fuseballs, since you can rapidly
spin left and right, filling several sections of web with fire.
Matthew:
I've certainly enjoyed using one of your controllers here at JagFest
UK during the Tempest tournament, what prompted you to organize it?
Nick:
Well I wanted to get
involved with the organization and help make the event a success, since it
was the first JagFest in the UK, and I wanted to make sure there would be one
every year, and running a tournament seemed a good thing to do. Had I known
quite how much work would be involved I might have reconsidered though, this
interview is the first chance I've had to sit down in ages. The choice of
Tempest 2000 was pretty easy, since everyone loves it, and it gives people an
opportunity to try out my controllers before they buy one. Also, it's
something unique, I don't think anyone has run a tournament using rotary
controllers before, and I love doing things nobody has done before.
So
far the competition has been really fun, there are some incredible players here,
and everyone is adapting to the controllers very quickly. I'd
keep an eye on the Demming brothers, they're just plain evil at this game, I
guess they have a lot of practice, and I expect they'll do very well in the
final
rounds.
Matthew:
Is the development of the rotary controller finished or are
you planning to improve the controller further? If so, how?
Nick:
There's
not really very much I could do to improve it, there have been a few subtle
changes like the type of wire used, but nothing that impacts on the function
of the controller. Also, by making them in batches, I've managed to shorten
the time it takes to make each one, but it still takes 2-3 hours
per controller.
Matthew:
Thank you for letting us interview you, we will let you
get back to the tournament now.
Nick:
You're welcome, thank you for
continuing to produce a great publication each month.
![[Photo: Nick Turner]](images/tyrant.jpg)
Nick Turner, also known as Tyrant, has been an Atari fan since
childhood, and is mainly focused on the Atari Jaguar, for which he makes
rotary controllers, available to buy periodically via eBay, and soon via
16/32 Systems. He
can be found regularly posting on the AtariAge.com Jaguar forum, or contact
him via e-mail
at tyrant@btinternet.com
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matt@myatari.net
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