Soldering, and joysticks

Some of the time I spent working with Mr. Alessi was actually spent just playing around. I didn't always write business software. Sometimes I would write code to draw graphics, or read BYTE magazines, or play video games on the computer.

Some of these games allowed the use of a joystick, which we didn't have. I decided to build my own. The Apple II+ supports the reading of 2 variable resistor (volume control) knobs. Many joysticks use this to provide x/y positioning.

To plug a joystick into the computer, the joystick needs to have a 16 pin DIP connector. I went to Radio Shack and bought the connector, a cable, and the joystick module preassembled. I had an old radio control car, so I took the steering controller and cut out a hole where the steering wheel was. It had button for reverse, so I used that for button 1 on the joystick. I can't remember if I added a second button. I guess I must have since it would be hard to play games without it.

The joystick came together easily with my limited soldering skills, and it worked! Thinking back on it, Mr. Alessi was remarkably okay with my plugging in a homebrew device like this into his $2400 computer. The only thing about the joystick was that the value of the potentiometers was slightly off. I didn't get the complete range of motion of a properly designed joystick. However it was good enough to play Choplifter and some other games!

My First Programming Job

As well as I can remember (this would have been 1981) I met Patrick A. Alessi when I was 14 years old at NEECO. He was there purchasing an Apple II+ and an Epson MX-100 printer, and he told the sales guy there he needed a programmer to work on some business software. They pointed across the store at me. He told me later that he said, "Who, him? He's just a kid!" They introduced us to each other.

Turns out I knew his son Michael from playing kickball at the park down the street. Mr. Alessi lived a mere 4 blocks away from me, which was the perfect distance. So I began visiting his place. As first we just played pool and experimented with his new Apple II+, and Mr. Alessi made no apologies about sharing his political opinions while smoking different kinds of pipe tobacco.

Since my friend Richard had an Apple II computer I got some games from him, and I made a joystick for the computer out of parts I bought at Radio Shack. I reused the case from an RC car's remote control. I cut out the steering wheel and replaced it with a dual-potentiometer joystick. It was ugly, but I saved some money. ;-)

Mr. Alessi was interested in creating some trend following inventory management software, and he talked a lot about this. Eventually we would begin to write this software, and do a lot of other things as well. This was not going to make me much money in the short run, but I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to learn.