Input Devices
Commodore produced joystick controllers for the Commodore 64, largely compatible with Atari joysticks, as well as paddles (which were not Atari compatible). Commodore's paddles were originally intended for the VIC-20, and few C64 games could take advantage of them. Commodore's joysticks were often derided because they were not particularly robust, especially for extreme gameplay. Many gaming enthusiasts preferred third-party joysticks, while some enthusiasts even built their own joysticks and controllers for the Commodore 64, or modified controllers from other systems to work on it. While the Commodore 64 only had two joystick ports for use, a few different kinds of joystick adapters were constructed by enthusiasts, which allowed up to four or eight joysticks to be used on the Commodore 64, with appropriate programming. Only about 20 games (by 2011) can take advantage of these however.
Commodore had two models of computer mouse, namely the 1350 and the 1351. These were used with GEOS as well as software such as Jane and Magic Desk. The earlier 1350 was only capable of emulating a digital joystick, by sending rapid 8 directional signals as it was moved, and thus was not very useful. The later 1351 used a more traditional proportional mode, sending signals to the computer that indicate amount and direction of movement. The 1351 also supported a mode identical to that of the 1350. CMD's SmartMouse was compatible with 1351-aware and also included a third button and a built in real-time clock module as well. The NEOS mouse also existed, but it was not compatible with 1351-aware software as it was simply a joystick emulator.
Sveral Companies produced Lightpens with its own drawing software for the Computer, e.g. the Inkwell light pen which was compatible with GEOS.
The Koala Pad, an early form of touchpad was also available, came with its own paint software, and was compatible with GEOS as well. Suncom's Animation Station was another graphics tablet for the C64.
Read more about this topic: Commodore 64 Peripherals, Input/Output
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