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Bally Astrocade

Overview

The Bally Astrocade application is an emulator for the Bally Astrocade home video game console.

Bally Astrocade

BIOS File

In addition to Bally Astrocade ROM files, a Bally Astrocade BIOS file must be specified globally within the feed (See the Feed Properties Dialog and Bally Astrocade Feed Properties sections).

File Hash (MD5)
astro.bin 7d25a26e5c4841b364cfe6b1735eaf03

Controls

The Bally Astrocade hand controller features an integrated joystick, a trigger button, a paddle (rotary knob), and a 24-key keypad. The keyboard, gamepad mappings, and keypad interaction are listed below.

Keyboard

Name
Keys
 Comments
Move
Fire
Keypad 0–9 - Direct keypad key input.
Show Keypad Displays the on-screen keypad. See Keypad section.
Show Pause Screen

Gamepad

Name
Gamepad
 Comments
Move  or 
Fire  or   or   or  Default mapping. Can be changed via the Mappings tab in the editor.
Paddle Right analog stick controls the paddle/knob. Direction and invert can be configured.
Show Keypad Not available for Xbox and not recommended for iOS (see alternate)

Press the Menu (Start) Button. See Keypad section.
Show Keypad
(Alternate)		  and  Hold down the Right Trigger and click (press down) on the Right Thumbstick.
Show Pause Screen  and  Hold down the Left Trigger and click (press down) on the Left Thumbstick.
Show Pause Screen
(Alternate)		  and  Hold down the Left Trigger and click (press down) on the Right Thumbstick.

Keypad

The Bally Astrocade hand controller includes a 24-key keypad. An on-screen keypad display allows interacting with these keys using a gamepad or mouse.

On-screen Keypad Display

Gamepad (Virtual keypad)

Name
Gamepad
 Comments
Show Keypad Not available for Xbox and not recommended for iOS (see alternate)

Press the Menu (Start) Button.
Show Keypad
(Alternate)		  and  Hold down the Right Trigger and click (press down) on the Right Thumbstick.
Choose Key  or 
Press Key The key will remain pressed until the button is released.

Keyboard (Direct mappings)

Name
Keys
 Comments
Keypad 0–9 -
Keypad .
Keypad -
Keypad /
Keypad =
Keypad + +
Keypad × +
Keypad % +
Clear Entry (CE)

Pause Screen

The Bally Astrocade application's pause screen provides access to application settings.

Pause Screen

Astrocade Settings Tab (Session Only)

Field Description
Analog Direction Whether the right analog stick maps to the paddle horizontally or vertically.
  • Horizontal : Right analog X-axis controls the paddle
  • Vertical : Right analog Y-axis controls the paddle
Invert Analog Inverts the paddle direction.

Display Settings Tab

Field Description
Screen size The screen size to use when playing a game.

Options include:
  • Native : The application's native resolution
  • 16:9 : Widescreen resolution
  • Fill : Fill the entire contents of the screen
Bilinear filter The type of bilinear filter to apply to the output display.

Options include:
  • Sharp : Applies a sharp bilinear filter
  • Soft : Applies a soft bilinear filter
  • Off : Disables bilinear filtering

Feed

This section details how Bally Astrocade application instances can be added to feeds.

Type

The type name for the Bally Astrocade application is retro-mame-astrocade.

Type Cheats Shaders Retro
Achievements		 Low
CPU
retro-mame-astrocade ⭐ x ✅ x x

Note

The alias astrocade also currently maps to this application. In the future, the astrocade alias may be mapped to another Bally Astrocade application (different emulator implementation) if it is determined to be a more appropriate default.

Feed Properties

The table below contains global Bally Astrocade feed properties. These properties must be specified in the props object of the feed's Feed Object.

Property Type Required Details
astrocade_bios URL Yes URL to the Bally Astrocade BIOS file or a zip file containing it (see BIOS File).

Item Properties

The table below contains the properties that are specific to the Bally Astrocade application. These properties are specified in the props object of a feed item.

Property Type Required Details
rom URL Yes URL to a Bally Astrocade ROM file or a zip file containing one.
controlMode Numeric No The control scheme to use. Defaults to 0 (Standard).
  • 0 : Standard (single player with analog paddle)
  • 1 : Dual Controller (one gamepad drives two players — right analog controls player 2's joystick, B and RB act as player 2's fire)
  • 2 : ICBM Attack (left analog moves the crosshair; X fires the left base, B fires the right base, Y fires the center base, A starts the game)
analogDirection Numeric No The axis used for the analog paddle. Defaults to 0 (Horizontal).
  • 0 : Horizontal (right analog X-axis)
  • 1 : Vertical (right analog Y-axis)
analogInvert Boolean No Whether to invert the analog paddle direction. Defaults to false.
mappings Map of Strings (key-value pairs) No

Game-specific mappings of Bally Astrocade actions and keypad keys to the gamepad.

The simplest way to determine these mappings is by creating a Bally Astrocade item in the Feed Editor and exporting it.

The following is a simple example of a set of mappings. The key is the gamepad controller button and the value is the Astrocade action (fire) or keypad key label (0–9, ., -, /, =, +, ×, %, CE, C, ↑, ↓, MR, MS, CH) that it is mapped to.

{
    "a": "fire",
    "b": "fire",
    "x": "1",
    "y": "2"
}
descriptions Map of Strings (key-value pairs) No

Custom display names for Bally Astrocade keypad keys, shown in the on-screen keypad display and controls screen.

The key is a keypad key label (matching the value of a mappings entry or a keypad key label) and the value is the custom name to display.

{
    "1": "Fire Missile",
    "2": "Drop Bomb"
}
zoomLevel Numeric No A numeric value indicating how much the display image should be zoomed in (0-40).

Example

The following is an example of a complete feed that consists of a single Bally Astrocade application instance (type value of astrocade).

{
  "title": "Bally Astrocade",
  "props": {
    "astrocade_bios": "https://<host>/astro.bin"
  },
  "categories": [
    {
      "title": "Bally Astrocade Games",
      "items": [
        {
          "title": "Galaxian",
          "type": "astrocade",
          "props": {
            "rom": "https://<host>/galaxian.bin"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

References

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