24Jan2008
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Links | Gamelink II | Gamelink I | Multijoy | a8maestro.com/atari |
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| GAMELINK II [TOP] |
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| Gamelink 2 was the braintrust of the AGDA Group. After developing the joystick port Gl1, they went on to develope an SIO port version with the ability to boot 7 computers from a master system that includes a disk drive. A number of people made/make adapters for this purpose, not all are compatible, but games made for SIO networking should be playable with any set of compatible adapters. Some are multi player adapters with limitations discussed below. Developing and transporting games to GL2 is fun and will continue for some time. |
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GL2:Maze of Agdagon(AGDA Group)
 Moademo (ARC 14K)/(ZIP 11K) 27DEC01.
Moamulti (ARC 24K)/(ZIP 19K)27DEC01.In this game, 2 to 8 players seek out the others to 'kill' in a maze(or run around a demo maze). Three 'kills' and you are dead. Last one alive wins. I have played this with 4 computers quite well. |
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GL2: Multi Dash(Bewesoft)
Multidash (ARC 47K)/(ZIP 44K) 27DEC01. Multidash TXT, 11K 27DEC01.In this game, 1 to 8 players seek out the others to 'kill' and crystals to collect in an underground mine. Watch out for bombs, fallings rocks, cave-ins, and little green men. Last one alive wins! Multi-Race and Multi-Worms are newer games available. These are XL/XE only. 
Here is the site for MultiDash. |
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| INFO |
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Here is a photo of the first method to connect two cables together using paper clips: A note from Andreas M. brought up the idea that you can easily modify an SIO cable for two players by opening up one connector and swapping wires 3 and 5. Then close up the connector. |
Here is a photo of the first multi player adapter RLD made around 1991: If it went into production, it would have had a printed circuit board. It uses two 7417 chips and was powered by the first slave. Its problems are cost, and if the owner leaves the ring, everyone is done playing! |
The first linkable adapter RLD designed around 1993, but scrubbed, allowed 8 players, 2 each unit, using up to four plugged together to make a ring, but RLD decided it was more complicated than it needed to be. A PCB with half an SIO cable coming out two opposite sides, the other two sides had molex three pin connectors for the extension bus.  |
Here is a photo of the final and current single player adapter RLD makes, designed around 1993, using a 7417 chip. Uses audio cable and "Y" adapters to connect:  This one is simple to make and much less expensive than the others. This adapter is designed for connection with up to 7 others, so can handle the load and cabling. A master cable is still being tested and built. |
Here is a schematic of the single player adapter:  (right click/view to enlarge) |
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| GAMELINK I [TOP] |
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| Gamelink 1 was the braintrust of the AGDA Group. The intent was to develop a method to play two user games on two systems. The result was a method that uses one joystick port from each system, leaving one other for the joysticks. Developement of GL2 created a much better system so further work on GL1 has stopped. A wiring diagram is HERE. |
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GL 1:Battleship (ARC 11K)/(ZIP 8K) 27Dec01
GL 1:Util (ARC 35K)/(ZIP 28K) 27Dec01. |
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| INFO |
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05Dec98 {AGDA}. This is the first version. Uses two joystick connectors, one for each of two computers.
I converted modem Battleship, and planned to do more...convert Modem chess, and a new game..ESP. But have decided that supporting GL2 even for 2 player games is much more efficient. Would make converting a game for up to 8 players easier. |
Here is a photo of the adapter RLD makes: |
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| Multijoy [TOP] |
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| Not strictly part of Gamelink, but still an exciting multiplayer system. A czech group has produced a joystick adapter for 8 computers called Multijoy. I got word from Mathy that this is not to connect 8 computers, but to have one computer use 8 or up to 16 joysticks( Mathys' site). Would make an interesting game with this many.Also, he has let me know that there are two more games for the Multijoy...Card Grabber(pull a card from the stack-grab if on list, else lose points). And Sheep Race(herd sheep in the right direction). Here is the construction site. 24Jan08:And, there has been a request for more info on building this, so I have created a circuit pictoral. It fits on a 6 x 8 in perf board with holes on .1" centers, available from Radio Shack. - JPG(300K) - HiRez BMP(3M). |
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| LINKS [TOP] |
Faqs.org info on multiplayer games. |
copyright 2008 by Rick Detlefsen