Retro gaming enthusiasts take note: this joystick is what you need to play any Atari game on the original console. It plugs right into the original console hardware and removes the need to choose the joystick, paddle, or keypad controller separately. You just leave this puppy hooked up and move your hands to the set of controls used on each game.
[x2Jiggy] built the thing from scratch. The enclosure is a wooden box from the craft store. He holds it closed with a couple of magnetic latches like you might find on old fashioned kitchen cabinets. The buttons of the keypad are mounted on a chunk of protoboard but he did take the time to give it a coat of matching paint so that it doesn’t look out of place. Inside you’ll find some more protoboard and point-to-point soldering to complete the rest of the connections.
You can see a fast motion video of the build process after the break. This reminds us of the universal controller built for Project Unity.
Heh, the joystick lever is from a HORI stick such as the EX2… I’m a bit of a joystick nerd.
He forgot the Trackball!
I was about to say the same thing.
It didn’t do anything, I don’t think, on the 2600. It had 2 modes, trakball, and joystick-emulation. The second mode translated your spinning into standard joystick moves, so you could play almost any game with it. The native trakball mode only worked on certain software, and I don’t think any was released for the 2600. A few programs for the Atari 8-bit computers could use it in it’s native mode, but that’s all.
Please don’t call me a hater or a troll, but I seem to remember doing the same thing for my C64. I even included the light pen.
You got that on a web site, I’ed like to see it.
Great project!
The only missing controller is the driving controller, which is required for the game Indy 500. (yes, it’s different than a paddle controller)
Nice, but incompatible with the xe series (atari fault – joystick/paddle socket is localised too deep).
If this could connect to 2 joystick ports, it’d be a great interface to the 2600 version of Star Raiders.