Playing C64 games with wiimote & balance board

Playing Le Mans

Yesterday we demonstrated a software/hardware combo that allows controlling any game system with Atari connector (C64, Amiga, Atari 2600..) using wiimote and balance board.

It consists of Linux pc software which communicates with wiimotes, Arduino
Duemilanove and software for it.

It's made by my colleague Dr. Dick/Byterapers (HW and Arduino software) and me (pc sw) .

Arduino: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardDuemilanove

The sw supports 1 or 2 wiimotes or balance boards. Wiimote controls work as you can expect, using the d-pad for stick and 2 button for fire. Balance board works by leaning your body to desired direction. Fire can be used by jumping or leaning forward (configurable). Wiimotes can be used for playing any game, but balance board is useful only for slow paced games which don't require fire button much. Our favorite on balance board was Space Taxi. We forgot to test Decathlon, but i bet it will be most fun.

The setup. C128 on left, Arduino board on center, laptop on right.

Arduino board with the Atari joystick cables connected to i/o ports.

The software will probably be released soon in sourceforge or some other location under GPL.