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Jaguar
Multitap
Shiuming Lai
tries some four-player gaming
This
year's Worms tournament at JagFest UK had a
nice surprise in store. You may remember Stephen
Moss and his JagStick interface from last year
- this time he came with yet another interesting
prototype device for the Jaguar controller ports,
using it to excellent effect in his tournament.
Four Jaguar controllers, each with a nicely
made coloured overlay for the keypad, connected
to a professional looking box (with CNC machined holes
- this man certainly takes pride in his work),
which was effectively a more advanced version
of Atari's own Team Tap interface.
![[Photo: Coloured overlays]](images/multi01.jpg)
Selection
of the active port is player-controlled,
and a row of LED indicators on the box (currently
only green, not blue, partly for minimal current
drain) shows which port is active. It even works
with games not specifically designed with Team
Tap support. Another use could be to have different
controller types permanently connected, to save
swapping controllers and, more importantly,
wear and tear on the Jaguar's ports.
At
the moment the Jaguar Multitap does not require
an external power source, it's powered by the
Jaguar.
![[Photo: Jaguar Multitap]](images/multi02.jpg)
During
the tournament I found the device to work very
reliably and I chatted with Stephen about putting
it into series production as soon as possible.
I also showed him the MultiJoy8 interface for
the 8-bit Ataris (issue 16, February 2002, http://www.myatari.net/issues/feb2002/multijoy.htm).
How about an 8-player adapter for the Jaguar?
shiuming@myatari.net
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