Input¶
The Input tab maps your PC's keyboard, joysticks/gamepads, and mouse onto the emulated Atari controllers. Use Save for your global defaults or Save for ROM only [*] to apply the bindings to the selected ROM.
The tab is split into views, selected from a sub-menu:
- Player 1–Player 4 — each player's controller.
- UI Input — the emulator's own actions: Exit (quit kat5200), Back (return to the GUI), Fullscreen, Screenshot, Debugger, and State Load 1–9 / State Save 1–9 for the quick-state slots.
- A800 Keys — the 8-bit computer keyboard.
Binding a control¶
kat5200 binds controls by capturing real input rather than by typing device numbers:
- Open the view you want (a player, UI Input, or A800 Keys).
- Click the control you want to bind (a stick direction, button, keypad key, UI action, etc.). This opens that control's action menu.
- Choose an action:
- Change — replace the current binding.
- Add Entry for control — add an additional binding, so the control responds to more than one PC input.
- Delete — remove a binding (available when the control has more than one).
- In the Input Capture dialog, provide the input — press the key, button, or move the axis on your device — then release all inputs to continue. The captured binding appears next to the control.
Press Esc to cancel a capture.
Multiple inputs can be assigned to the same emulated function. This lets a keyboard, mouse, and game controller all drive the same Atari control, and it also supports useful combined setups. For example, the Castle Crises Setup preset maps mouse left/up to 5200 left and mouse right/down to 5200 right, which improves paddle control when the useful motion is in the lower-left part of the screen.
Device enables¶
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Joystick Enable | Allow joystick/gamepad input. |
| Use Specific Joystick | Bind this player to one particular device. Opens a chooser that lists each detected device's ID, Type (Joystick or Gamepad), Name, and S/N, so the right stick is used when several are connected. |
| D-Pad Enable | Allow D-Pad (hat) input. |
| Keyboard Enable | Allow keyboard input as a controller. |
| Mouse Enable | Allow mouse input. |
| Show Disabled | Show controls that are currently disabled. |
Mouse¶
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Mouse Speed | Pointer/translation speed (range 1–5; 3 is the moderate default). Lower is finer, higher is faster. |
| Mouse Optimize for | Cursor mode feels more precise for games such as Missile Command, Centipede, and Bug Hunt. Paddles mode has a more floaty or gliding feel for games such as Super Breakout and Kaboom. |
Auto fire¶
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Auto Fire | Repeatedly trigger the fire button while it is held. |
| Auto Fire Speed | How fast the auto-fire repeats. |
Analog tuning (5200 stick / 8-bit paddles)¶
These apply to emulation of analog controllers and are key to making many 5200 games playable with a modern stick or D-Pad.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Joy Deadzone | Deadzone of your analog controller. Lower = wider analog range but possible jitter; higher = less jitter but reduced range. Default is 20%. Aim for the lowest value with no jitter. |
| Joy Sensitivity | Range of emulated Atari pot values. For games like Gorf, Missile Command, and Super Breakout, ~50–75% with an analog stick can play better. |
| Analog To Digital | Treat analog input as digital (direction rather than position). |
| Digital To Analog Enable | Simulate an analog stick from digital input (keyboard, D-Pad, or digital stick). This is the former Simulate Analog option. It makes D-Pad/digital controls change analog velocity instead of jumping directly to an axis position, which helps position-critical games such as Gorf and Super Breakout. |
| Digital To Analog Speed | How quickly the simulated analog position moves when using digital input. |
Tip
The fastest way to set up the 5200's tricky analog titles is the Setup window's game presets, which apply known-good bindings and analog tuning for specific games.