Lesson P1 - Joystick Reading on the N64 lets look at reading from the joystick on the N64

N64_JoystickExample.asm

Reading the joystick

We're going to read in from the Joystick ports. We'll load in 64 bytes from the serial controller - there are 8 bytes which will be returned from each of the four joysticks. In the screenshot shown UDLR have been pressed on all four controllers Each controller returns the button states and analog data
The N64 controllers are connected via the so called 'PIF' chip (Peripheral Interface?) The base of the PIF registers is at address 0xBFC007C0 To initialize things we first write 0x8 to the status register at 0xBFC007FC
We're going to use the serial interface (SI)  to send data to the PIF, This is basically a DMA copy, which sends a block of data. We need to prepare a 96 byte block of data to send to the PIF to initialize things. We also define 8 bytes to get back the results when we do a read!
OK we need to use the SI to Send the INIT code to the PIF The SI registers are at 0xA4800000+ We need to calculate our source address (PIF_Init) - but we need the true 'hardware address' we can get this by ANDing with 0x1FFFFFFF We send the source address to 0xA4800000 (SI_DRAM_ADDR_REG) We want to transfer to the PIF ram at 0xBFC007C0 (PIF_RAM_START) - we also AND this with 0x1FFFFFFF We write the destination to the write register at 0xA4800010 (SI_PIF_ADDR_WR64B_REG) - this write also starts the transfer
OK Let's actually get the keypresses from the joypads! This time we use the SI to READ from the PIF. We need to calculate our destination address (PIF_JoyState) - but we need the true 'hardware address' we can get this by ANDing with 0x1FFFFFFF We send the destination address to 0xA4800000 (SI_DRAM_ADDR_REG) - this is the same as the address for writing This time we want to transfer FROM to the PIF ram at 0xBFC007C0 (PIF_RAM_START) - we also AND this with 0x1FFFFFFF We write the source to the read register 0xA4800004 (SI_PIF_ADDR_RD64B_REG) - this write also starts the transfer
As a test we dump with our memdump sub There are 8 bytes returned, the first 4 are status, the next 4 are directions and buttons in the format: %ABZSUDLR --LRUDLR XXXXXXXX YYYYYYYY AB - A/B Buttons ZLR  - Shoulder buttons / Triggers UDLR - Digital Directions UDLR - C Pad XXXXXXXX YYYYYYYY - Analog stick S - Start

The SI makes getting the directions east! We're defining 'PIF_JoyState' in our ROM, but it's changed during the program, that's because the ROM is actually copied to RAM at execution time by the firmware, so it's actually changeable at run time!

Lesson P2 - Joystick Reading on the PSX lets look at reading from the joystick on the Playstation

PSX_JoystickExample.asm

Reading the joystick via the Bios

The easiest way to read in the joypad is via the Bios functions. Here we're pressing the buttons on Joypad 1, and showing the results to the screen. In theory Joypad 2 should be shown as well, but it seems maybe there's an issue with our emulator which stops them working.
We're going to execute the bios functions at address 0xB0 (the so called 'B functions') We need to call this with a function number in T1 - Here we use 0x12 which is 'Init Pad' This takes 4 parameters in A0-A3 A0 is the address of the buffer for joypad 1, A1 is the size (Should be 0x22) A2 is the address of the buffer for joypad 2, A3 is the size (Should be 0x22)
Once we have Initialized the joypad we can start the read process. We use Bios function 0x13 'Startpad' - which takes no parameters. This will automatically fill the buffer with the joypad data.
Here is a crude test program, to read in the raw joypad data and show it to the screen! The direction buttons have the following bits Bit 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Byte 1 L D U R Start R3 L3 Select Byte 2 Square Cross Circle Triangle R1 L1 R2 L2

Reading the joystick Directly!

If we're feeling masochistic we can read from the hardware directly! We'll need to use various hardware ports to control the hardware. 0x1F801040  JOY_DATA 0x1F801044  JOY_STAT 0x1F801048 JOY_MODE 0x1F80104A JOY_CTRL 0x1F80104E JOY_BAUD
We point T1 to the base address of the controller ports. First we reset the control port, via 0x1F80104A We have a small delay to ensure the hardware has time to process the change.
Next we set the Baud rate and mode We then select  a joystick via the CTRL port.
We send and receive a total of 9 bytes from the joypad We need to send two init bytes to the control port... 0x01 and 0x42 We use JoyWait to wait for a reply, and MonitorJoy to show the returned data and status flags.
JoyWait will read in from the status port, and wait for bit 1 to equal one, this implies a response from the joypad. MonitorJoy is for our testing, it shows the returned data in A0, and status byte in A1 to the screen.
We can now read back the data bytes. We repeatedly send a 0x0 byte, and read back the response, this will be a set of digital buttons or an analog axis.