Quite often see people asking on the forums how to convert their joysticks to have two independent fire buttons. This is a very simple task to do as I will describe here...

The following is a description of how I convert my old Competition Pro joysticks so that both the main fire buttons are independent of each other for those games that need or allow you to use 2 fire buttons. It should apply to almost all old Amiga joysticks of any brand though...

You will need either...

Some 7 core cable of the length you require & a 9 pin DSub male connector...

or alternatively an old cable from a mouse which usually contains at least 7 cores (open up the old mouse and check first)...

The wiring diagram is very simple as can be seen below... with the joystick opened up and overturned the microswitches should be laid out as shown. It's now just a simple case of removing the old cable (it may need desoldered) and then wiring up your new (or old mouse cable) as shown in the diagram below...

(it's up to you how you connect them... ie: by soldering or crimping)...

NOTE: The wire colours are only for the purpose of this tutorial and will be different on your own particular choice of cable but the principle is simple. Just make sure you follow this chart...

On the 9 Pin Dsub Connector...

Pin 1 = UP (connect to the UP microswitch)
Pin 2 = DOWN (connect to the DOWN microswitch)
Pin 3 = LEFT (connect to the LEFT microswitch)
Pin 4 = RIGHT (connect to the RIGHT microswitch)
Pin 6 = LEFT FIRE BUTTON (connect to the LEFT FIRE BUTTON microswitch)
Pin 8 = GROUND/ EARTH (connect to ALL microswitches)
Pin 9 = RIGHT FIRE BUTTON (connect to the RIGHT FIRE BUTTON microswitch)



Hopefully you can see from this just how easy & simple it is to convert any 2 button joystick so that each fire button is now independent of each other...