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From: peck@ral.rpi.edu (Joseph Peck)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Help: *@$#%! Joysticks....
Message-ID: <`42^3D|@rpi.edu>
Date: 15 Jan 91 15:16:27 GMT
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Lines: 35
Nntp-Posting-Host: ral.rpi.edu

I was wondering if anyone could give me a hand before I hunt down the
guy at Commodore who wrote the gameport.device and commit some 
illegal act..... Oh wait, that goes in .advocacy.  Look there for a
companion article soon.

I am writing a two player game, and I would like to use both gameports
for joysticks.  Sooooo, I look in the RKM's for some help.  It says that
I should check if the gameport unit is in use before I run off and
change it to my desired type (absolute joystick).  Well, it also says
that unit 1 (the mouseport) is normally in use already as type mouse.
Is there a nice way to steal the port when I run my game, and then 
return it when either the game is paused or quit?

I tried being nasty in several different ways: Simply pretending that
it is not in use and setting it to whatever I want.  Checking what it is
currently being used as, stuffing the new type in, and then changing it
back to what it originally was when I exit.  Reading the hardware 
directly.

So far, the only thing that has worked has been reading the hardware
directly.  The other methods work occasionally, sometimes reading the 
joystick like a joystick, and other times completely ignoring the
port.  They do either screw up the port when the program ends, or crash
the machine (one of those times it was a very pretty blue display :)

I am hoping that I simply missed something in the RKM's, and that this
will be easy to fix.....  I am *attempting* to be multi-tasking friendly
and not do anything that will trash other programs running in the 
background.  (Geee, where's Mike Farren when you need him?  I think
the February BADGE meeting should be moved to Troy, NY.  A possibility? :)

Anyhow, thanks for your help,

Joe Peck
peck@ral.rpi.edu