COMCON CONTROL

Frel Ltd has announced its new ComCon programmable joystick interface for the Spectrum. Any key on the keyboard can be programmed, including both shift keys, and there is provision for two independent fire buttons.

The interface has arrays of pins which correspond to the keyboard and six leads representing the four directions and the two fire buttons. To program it you must plug the relevent lead into the pin you want. That can be done with a program running and the keyboard is not disabled. Any joystick with an Atari-style plug can be used. To allow for other add-ons there is an extender card which rises vertically from the front of the board.

The two joysticks that Frel markets are the Flightlink and the Quickshot II which has been adapted to have two independent fire buttons. The joystick usually has an Auto-Fire feature but that has been removed.

At £19.95, the interface is one of the cheapest on the market. The Flightlink joystick costs £10.50 and the Quickshot II is £13.95; a £2.00 reduction on either can be obtained if ordered at the same time as the interface. Further details from Frel Ltd, Hockeys Mill, Temeside, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 1PD.

COMCOCTION

Lloyd Mangram plugs in programs and plays.

The latest spate of joystick interfaces has brought a multitude of different programming concepts on the market ranging from the software selectables to the personalised card systems.

As the Sinclair owner is aware, the Spectrum does not provide a dedicated joystick port (rather odd for a games computer), and the add-on market has been quick to provide various solutions to the problem. Before this however, the software houses have had to make do with the keyboard as a playing ground. The multitude of key combinations used for each and every game meant that whoever would bring out a joystick which catered for all these games, would have to provide a system which used the input port address of the keyboard and could link any of the keyboard keys to any of the joystick controls. With five joystick controls and 40 keys this meant an astonishing amount of combinations and it is with no surprise that some manufacturers chose early on to create their own interface standard, leaving it to the software houses to develop compatible software.

The earliest and most established is Kempston, using a different input port address to the keyboard (input address 31). Fuller went along similar lines, but selected input port 127. Where Kempston was accepted as the joystick standard, the Fuller system suffered from the lack of support from most software houses (except Imagine).

AGF opted for part compatibility by using the keyboard port address and linking the joystick controls to the cursor keys and 0 for fire button. This was met with success too, and the cursor key joysticks (mostly AGF and Protek) developed into a standard.

Much of the software catered now for the Kempston and cursor joysticks and the last thing needed was another standard. Promptly Sinclair launched the ZX Interface 2 which was to provide the Spectrum with two joystick ports and a games cartridge interface to complete the arcade image of the computer. You guessed, a new Sinclair standard was created, with the joysticks operating off specific keys, one off the top right half-row, the other off the top left half-row of the keyboard. Although technically a good idea (each joystick requiring only one keyboard address for fast machine code access), it nonetheless created a further confusion on the market and the software houses had to provide a whole plethora of compatabilities. In exasperation, some programmers provided a soft option by including a 'select your own keys' routing within the program. A new interface was needed, which enabled all the games to be played with a joystick and which provided the user with a fast and easy programming system.

Frel Limited purport to have found the ideal solution with their COMCON interface...

THE HARDWARE

The COMCON comes in a brightly coloured package and impresses by its sheer size of 120mm width and 135mm depth with a sleek profile of 19mm excluding the extension port chimney stack.

Most of the top stack is taken up by a 4 x 10 matrix of two-pin connectors. This matrix represents the Spectrum keyboard and is annotated accordingly with a white legend.

Protruding at the rear are six two-core cables with Molex receptacles which can be plugged into any of the 40 matrix positions. These six cables represent the six joystick controls (4 direction and two fire) and are annotated at the entry point of the cables to the enclosure.

To the rear right is a 9-pin D connector plug, which will accept any Atari compatible joystick.

A vertical extension port is provided at the front of the unit and is protected by a collar which blends in nicely with the Spectrum's rear enclosure. This extension port provides the possibility of connecting the Currah Speech unit or the Alphacom printer, both do not have extension ports (the Alphacom only provides a ZX81 extension port).

Overall the unit looks tidy and professional, the injection moulded enclosure being of good quality and the connectors rugged enough to survive any ill treatment from game addicts.

OPERATION

COMCON operates parallel to the keyboard using the same input port. Each joystick function is represented by a cable which can be plugged into any key position of the matrix. So if the game requires key Q for up movement, the 'up' function cable is plugged into the position marked Q. Simple!

Naturally if the program caters for diagonals, the joystick will automatically provide these as the diagonal movement of the joystick simply is the equivalent of pressing two keys simultaneously on the keyboard. As the interface operates on the same input port as the keyboard, there is no problem of incompatibility as regards to other peripherals. It goes to say that joystick and keyboard can be operated together without any electrical collision and that therefore multi-key games such as Flight Simulation etc can be enjoyed with the joystick and keyboard combined.

COMCON also provides two independent fire or special function actions (six cables). Frel Ltd market for this purpose a modified Quickshot 2+2 joystick, which incorporates two independent trigger buttons on the grip (F1 = index finger operated button, F2 = thumb operated button) at the expense of the very little used Rapid Fire option. Also available from Frel is a special Flightlink joystick with two independent fire buttons, which also makes full use of the fire actions on COMCON. The extra fire function proves to be very useful with arcade games (Cavern Fighter or Full Throttle should prove its potential!).

Any Atari compatible joystick can be connected to COMCON (Kempston, Quickshot 1, Sumlock etc) although the second fire option will not be available.

The review team of CRASH has been operating COMCON for over two months and has had no compatibility problems so far. The major benefit of the unit is its ease of programming, beating any other system for sheer simplicity and speed. The possibility of programming the joystick functions during loading or even in the middle of play is invaluable. In fact most of the times the game is loaded first and the programming is accomplished after reading the operating keys in the screen instructions.

COMCONCLUSION

COMCON proves to be a perfect solution to the problem of joystick incompatibility with the Spectrum. Any program can be catered for. At £19.95 the unit is very good value for money. The choice is left to the Spectrum owner, whether to go for a two or three standard interface such as the RAM Turbo or Kempston (catering for Sinclair, Kempston and Cursor) with the added bonus of the cartridge port, or to be truly independent from any standard and gain an extra fire function!

EPILOG

Frel has informed CRASH that the latest Cambridge Computing joysticks have a revised pinout an the D connector affecting the 2nd fire action. Frel provides the service of modifying the COMCON interface to suit the Cambridge joystick 2nd fire function at a charge of £3 all inclusive.

At the same time the company offers to upgrade any Quickshot 2 joystick to the Quickshot 2+2 spec with two independent fire actions with the loss of Rapid Fire at a total cost of £4 all inclusive.

STICKING TO THE BEST

Zap in style. John Lambert juggles with joysticks.

Joysticks are the most popular add-on for the Sinclair computers, not just for playing games but also for drawing, cursor control in word processing packages and for moving anything around the screen. The keyboard can be used for all of those things but it is so much easier with a joystick.

Choosing a joystick from the hundreds available is not an easy decision, but this guide will show you what to look for, and how to connect it to a Spectrum or QL.

Joysticks are generally all the same. They may be different shapes and sizes but they all contain a number of simple switches which get turned on or off as the stick is moved. That type of digital joystick was first used on a home computer by Atari and, therefore, is sometimes known as the Atari standard. All Sinclair machines use this type of joystick interface.

The switch used can vary a great deal. The cheapest joysticks, such as Quickshot 1, us a bubble which when compressed by the stick makes contact. Those can wear fairly quickly and cannot stand up to heavy use.

Next in price and strength are leaf spring switches where the stick causes two pieces of metal to make contact. Finally, the most expensive joysticks use microswitches. Those will last a long time and can easily be replaced should they go wrong.

Generally, you should buy the most expensive joystick you can afford as that way it should last a long time. Try to get one with a metal shaft in the handle - plastic ones break - and, if possible, try it out in the shop. The feel of a joystick is very important, some are sloppy and others require a lot of movement before they register.

it is within the interface that the complications arise. All interfaces have at least one Atari standard socket where the joystick is plugged in, but those vary in how they tell the computer when the stick has been moved.

Which type of interface you buy will depend on what software you want to use with it. The most common method is known as Kempston - named after Kempston Microelectronics who invented it. What that does is to configure the interface as part of the Z80 I/O map so that it can be read - to find what position the joystick is in - using the instruction IN 31.

Another method is for the interface to emulate the cursor keys - five to eight plus zero as fire. For obvious reasons that is known as Cursor.

The third method is known as Sinclair and emulates the six to nine keys, with zero as fire. That is based on Interface 2 from Sinclair. Why Sinclair wanted to bring out yet another method is anybody's guess!

The problem is that until you but the software you have no way of knowing which of those three methods it will use. Many programs give you a choice but unfortunately not all. The way to get round that is to use a programmable interface.

Those allow you to let each stick direction and fire represent a key on the keyboard. All games have a keyboard option and you just set the interface to the keys it uses. That also gets round the problem of game that do not use any of the three normal methods - Psion is very bad in that respect.

Unfortunately, programmable interfaces tend to be the most expensive, and in some cases can be very difficult to set up. For playing arcade games a Kempston standard interface is the most useful, and the cheapest. Some interfaces combine more than one method in the same box, but the more facilities it has the more expensive it will be.

Some joysticks offer extra facilities and you should take care when buying those. Although it is popular to have two fire buttons on a joystick, in many cases they are joined electrically and perform the same function, so it does not matter which one you press. Some joysticks, however, have two, independent, fire buttons and some interfaces can take advantage of this. That type of joystick can also be used with interfaces which normally only expect one fire button, and so are particularly worth considering. Care should be taken, though, as pressing the used button on some interfaces, will cause the computer to crash.

Another common extra is auto-fire, giving an auto repeat on the fire button.

In order to make their interfaces more attractive some companies add extras which are not related to joysticks. The best known is probably the Nidd Valley Slomo which lets you slow down the computer so that - in theory - the games are easier to play. Two other products, the Opus Discovery 1 disc drive, and the Mikro-Gen Mikro-Plus include Kempston compatible interfaces.

As far as the QL is concerned life is much simpler. The two control sockets on the back are already wired to emulate either the cursor keys and space, or the function keys. All you need to plug in a joystick is an adaptor which fits the control socket at one end and a standard joystick at the other. Joysticks are available which plug straight into the QL - ones that have a QL style plug rather than the Atari standard. The problem with those is that when you upgrade to a different computer you will have to buy another joystick, as it is unlikely it will fit the new machine.

Buying a joystick and interface can be a harrowing experience. Don't be afraid to try out half a dozen in a shop - and don't buy from a shop which won't let you experiment. Ask your friends and, of course, read the reviews in Sinclair User.

Comcon
Company: Frel
Telephone: 0584-4894
Price: £19.95

Programmable interface which, although it may not look too good, is easy to program using leads plugged into a matrix. Can run joysticks with two fire buttons.

HARDWARE WORLD

With ever-increasing amounts of peripherals available for Sinclair computers, users are finding it more and more difficult to know what to buy. We present a buyer's guide to joysticks, keyboard and printers and review the best of the rest from the 1984 add-on market.

Joysticks are a popular addition to the Spectrum and many people find it essential for zapping aliens or flying a simulator. In the last year there have been a number of interfaces and joysticks launched, some with more success than others.

Nearly all joysticks have accepted a common standard, that of Atari which was the first company to add joysticks to a computer. The style of the joysticks may vary but the connection to the interface remains the same.

To use a joystick some form of interface is needed. One, or more, of three standards are normally used. 'Cursor', sometimes known as 'Protek', simulates the four cursor keys for the directions with 0 as fire, 'Sinclair' allows for up to two joysticks and simulates keys 1 to 5 and 6 to 0 respectively and 'Kempston' which does not simulate any of the keys but uses a port address. The most common of those is the Kempston but it is by no means universal.

To overcome that a programmable interface can be used which allows you to use any key for any direction or fire. The method of programming varies, some need a tape to be LOADed, while others require you to press a key and then to move the joystick in the direction which that key will simulate; some have physical connections which must be made to signify the key and others simply use a stored memory of which keys are to be used.

GRANT DESIGNS & EEC

Two designs combine the interface and joystick in one. The Grant Designs Spectrum Stick and a similar one from EEC clip to the Spectrum keyboard over the cursor keys and use a mechanical system to press the keys.

Inside the Spectrum Stick there are two frames which move independently up and down, and left and right; to those are attached ramps which push little feet onto the relevant keys.

The EEC joystick is more substantial. The casing is a one-piece moulding which fits snugly onto the Spectrum case. Inside that the stick is securely joined to a shaped plate which presses on one or more levers which in turn depress the key.

Both are priced at £9.95 and are far cheaper than anything else on the market. Provided they are used with restraint they are better than nothing.

RAM TURBO INTERFACE

The RAM Turbo interface from Fleet Electronics is what the Sinclair Interface 2 should have been and was not. As well as having two joystick ports, it has a ROM cartridge slot. Moreover, one of the joystick ports can be used for Kempston compatible games and the other can be used as a Protek compatible port.

It is similar in size to the Interface 2 but the rear connector is full Spectrum-size as opposed to the Interface 2 ZX-81 size. The area surrounding the joystick port is large enough to take a standard joystick connector. Users who have either built their own joystick or use the Flight Link joystick will have found problems with Interface 2 as the left-hand, most commonly used, port is too near the raised ROM slot.

In order to prevent users fitting the interface with the power on (the surest way to blow up your Spectrum) it incorporates a 'Spectrum Protect Adapter', a loop of plastic which covers the power socket on the Spectrum so that the lead must be removed before fitting.

If you are considering the Interface 2 then think again; the RAM Turbo interface is better designed and better value for money, costing £22.95.

PROTEK INTERFACE

The new switchable interface from Protek can be configured for all three of the standards by using a switch on the back. The interface is dead-ended, so it must be the last add-on fitted. As with the Turbo interface, it is liable to crash if used with a twin fire button joystick. Its main drawback is that in the Protek position the top row of keys is disabled, while in the Sinclair position only the 6,7,8,9 and 0 keys are disabled, which could make some games difficult to play. The switch would have to be moved, the key pressed, and the switch returned to its original position.

Despite the above problems, which should not affect most users, the interface is easy to use and covers most games on the market. It is priced at £19.95.

ELR INTERFACE

The programmable interface from East London Robotics for the Spectrum has the distinction of being the cheapest on the market at only £10.00, if bought together with a Trickstick.

The interface, as ELR would be the first to admit, was designed to be 'cheap and cheerful' and it is, even to the extent of being uncased. In order to program it small metal clips are used to connect pins which represent the various rows and columns of the keys on the keyboard. That is fiddly and time consuming if you need to reprogram it, but has the advantage that once programmed it is usable from power up. If the interface is purchased separately its price is £15.00.

COMCON INTERFACE

Frel Ltd market the ComCon programmable interface. Any key on the keyboard can be programmed and there is provision for two fire buttons. To match the interface Frel also markets two compatible joysticks.

The interface is of simple design and to program it you have to plug the relevant lead into the pin you want. That can be done with a program running and the keyboard is not disabled. Any joystick with a standard plug can be used and if that has only one fire button then the F1 lead is used. To allow for other add-ons there is an extender card which rises vertically from the front of the board.

The two joysticks which Frel markets are the Flightlink and the Quickshot II which has been adapted to have the independent fire buttons, F1 on the trigger and F2 on top.

At £19.95 the interface is one of the least expensive and the ease of programming should ensure steady sales. The two joysticks are £10.50 for the Flightlink and £13.95 for the Quickshot, both less £2.00 if ordered with the interface.

CCI INTERFACE

The interface from Custom Cable International needs a software tape to program it. It can accept any standard joystick; there is no extender card, so it must be the last add-on plugged in.

Programming the interface is straightforward. In all, only 10 keypresses are needed plus two to confirm everything is order. The program is written entirely in BASIC which makes it very easy to customise.

This is a good interface and competitively priced at £15.00, but it could have been even better if the instructions had been more detailed.

PAGE & RAINBOW

The Page and Rainbow interfaces are of the kind where you must push a key, move the joystick, release the joystick again for the four positions plus fire, again for the diagonals, again for the diagonals plus fire and finally the fire button on its own. All of that can be done with the game running as the keyboard can still be used. Some people will find that time consuming and fiddly.

The one really useful feature of the Page interface is a rapid fire switch. When that is in the up position it simulates the fire button being held down, very handy for the 'zap everything in sight' type of game. The Rainbow interface includes a beep amplifier.

With the Rainbow interface at £24.00 and the Page one at £26.00, they deserve consideration provided you do not mind the time and hassle of programming them.

FOX ELECTRONICS

The programmable interface from Fox Electronics, on the other hand, is probably the easiest of all to program. You only have to flick a switch once you have told it which keys to use.

When the switch is up a menu is displayed on the screen. You have the option of creating a new key set, from any of the forty keys or selecting, with a single keystroke, one of the sixteen sets already created. Pressing the E key exits to Basic to load the game and programs the joystick. If necessary the key sets can be saved on tape. Leaving the switch down enables the Spectrum to ignore interface.

Inside the interface is a RAM chip and a small ni-cad battery, and on power down it retains the information in its memory for a minimum of six months.

When switched on the interface pages the Spectrum ROM and jumps to the program held in its RAM. The program then transfers itself into the Spectrum RAM, pages the ROM back in and puts the menu on the screen. On pressing the E key the program transfers itself back into its own RAM, sets up the joystick and clears the Spectrum memory. Any new key sets created are therefore saved in the process.

All that sounds clever but it also has two beneficial side-effects. When the switch is down, the interface causes a hardware reset; in other words, if you have a game running you can jump out of it without pulling the plug - a saving on plug wear.

Secondly, details are available from Fox for a machine code programmer to adapt the interface as a pseudo ROM. Often used routines such as toolkits, printer driver programs or complete character sets could then be loaded at the flick of a switch. At £28.95 the interface is excellent value.

TRICKSTICK

One of the more unusual joystick devices launched in 1984 was the long awaited Trickstick from East London Robotics. In fact, to describe it as a joystick is misleading. It is a 7in long black cylinder with six touch sensitive pads which simulate the four joystick movements, plus two fire buttons.

The Trickstick comes with an interface, up to eight of which can be plugged in at any one time, and has the option to give proportional movement on specially written games. It simulates the Kempston joystick so there are many games available on which it can be used.

The touch pads use your body as an aerial to pick up mains hum. That is converted by the electronics to simulate the key press. As some people are better aerials than others the sensitivity of the stick can be altered by a small screw near the top. A minor fault is that the lead from the interface to the stick fouls the power lead.

It takes some getting used to unlike a joystick, but once mastered is just as useful. As it has no moving parts it should stand up to wear and tear and it is quicker than most others. It costs £34.50.

Nineteen eighty-four has been a quiet year for standard joysticks with only two given much publicity.

DELTA 3S

The Delta 38 from Voltmace has two independent fire buttons, one of which is doubled up for left or right handed players, and rotary switches are used on it. Those switches give it a light action and it can be comfortably held in the hand. At £10.00 the joystick is good value, its solid construction should ensure long life.

SUPER CHAMP

The Super Champ, currently marketed by Dean Electronics, is unusual in that the cable is held in the base. For use the cable is pulled out and, when you have finished, rotating the stick winds the cable inside.

The stick is very long and thin and has two fire buttons, one on top and one in the trigger position; those both operate the same switch. The base is, as expected, larger than usual and has four rubber suckers underneath.

Because the stick rotates there has to be a certain amount of play in the pivot. That makes precise control difficult unless you hold down the centre. Despite that the joystick works tolerably and the convenience of not having the wire lying around almost makes up for it. The Super Champ is priced at £12.95.

RAT

Finally, if the advertising is to be believed, the age of conventional joysticks is past and the future belongs to the RAT and its offspring. The RAT (Remote Action Transmitter) operates in a similar fashion to TV remote control handsets; you simply wave it in the general direction of the screen and press the touch-sensitive movement and fire buttons.

It is sold with a receiving unit that connects to the Spectrum and is compatible with most popular Spectrum software. The RAT is powered by a normal PP3 battery which fits into the underbelly of the handset.

The first of its kind, the RAT suffers minor teething problems and can cause excessive handache but, like the Trickstick, you will soon grow fond of it. The price is £29.95 from Cheetah Marketing and high street stores.

Grant Designs, Bank House, Reepham, Norwich, Norfolk NR10 4JJ. Tel: (0603) 870852.

EEC, 1 Whitehouse Close, Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire SL9 0DA.

RAM Electronics (Fleet) Ltd, 106 Fleet Road, Fleet, Hampshire GU13 8PA.

Protek, 1A Young Square, Brucefield Industrial Park, Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland.

East London Robotics Ltd, Gate 1, Royal Albert Docks, London E11. Tel: (01) 474 4430.

Frel Ltd, Hockeys Mill, Temeside, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 1PD.

Custom Cables International Ltd, Units 3 & 4, Shire Hill Industrial Estate, Saffron Walden. Essex.

Page Computing, 28 Burwood Grove, Hayling Island, Hampshire PO11 9DS.

Rainbow Electronics, Glebe House, South Leigh, Witney, Oxfordshire OX8 6XJ.

Fox Electronics, 141 Abbey Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 9ED. Tel: (0256) 20671.

Voltmace Ltd, Park Drive, Baldock, Hampshire S67 6ES.

Dean Electronics Ltd, Glendale Park, Fernbank Road, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 8JB.

Cheetah Marketing Ltd, 24 Ray Street, London EC1R 3DJ. Tel: (01) 833 4909.