Fresh PCBs For The Quickshot II And II Plus Joysticks

The Quickshot II was released by Spectravideo in 1983 for the Commodore 64 and compatible systems, with the Quickshot II Plus following the next year. After decades of regular use, it’s quite understandable that these old-timers may be having some functional issues, but as long as the plastic parts are still good, [Stephan Eckweiler]’s replacement PCBs may be just the thing that these joysticks need to revitalize them for another few decades.

What may be a matter of taste is that these replace the nice tactile clicky switches on the QS II Plus with SMD push buttons, but compared to the stamped metal ‘button’ construction of the original QS II, the new board is probably a major improvement. As for the BOM, it features two ICs: a 74LS00 latch and NE555 timer, along with the expected stack of passives and switches, both through-hole and SMD.

The PCB contains break-off boards for the switches within the joystick itself, requiring a bit of wiring to be run to the main PCB before soldering on the DE-9 connector and connecting the joystick for a test run to a Commodore 64. All one needs now is a 3D printable enclosure version to create more QS II joysticks for some multiplayer action.

13 thoughts on “Fresh PCBs For The Quickshot II And II Plus Joysticks

  1. I was coming from a summer camp home to new c64(czech rep.,so some time after famous 1989),the c64 was there for about 4 days,mother had already broken original commodore joystick i think on giana sisters(leg snapped),i had another joystick then,but on my birthday later i got quickshot,boy that was solid,you know,when there is a lot of action,you just have to force it,the leg of quickshot was hard,no matter how hard i played :)

  2. Ha! Have some of those meself. The domes for the original tactile switches could (can) carefully be peeled off and replaced, holding them in place with Sellotape (or whichever generic sticky-tape is at hand). I think I hijacked a cheap calculator to get more triangular domes from it’s keyboard to replace the ones worn out from serious gaming back in the day.

    Just to add: I think Spectravideo made these joysticks mostly for their own [Spectravideo SVI 318/328](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SV-328) and then later MSX SVI 728 machines, and the fact they seem to have become so popular with other home computer brands was just a bonus (especially seeing as the SVI318/328 etc. didn’t seem to get that much traction in the end).

  3. The failure of a Quickshot 1 in my primary school years lead me to open it up. I can remember looking at it, and seeing how simple it was. It could be “fixed” for a short while by re-bending the metal dome switches.

    From the experience of opening the joystick, I realized how simple it was, I THEN took a wire and worked out the pinouts for my C64 joystick port, working out what pin did what, and THEN I took the controller mechanism of a broken R/C car and wired it up to the C64 and used it as a joystick. I wish I still had it!

    This design looks so much better than the stock Quickshot board. Unfortunately, I don’t have mine anymore.

  4. I’m glad we had a Competition Pro with our Amiga. It didn’t look as cool as the Quickshot, but it was much more robust. It’s probably still working today, but I think all my friends who had a Quickshot had tot replace it eventually.

  5. Never a fan of the quickshots, I am righthanded but hold the stick with my left hand i found buttons on the stick never a good idea much preferred them on the base, like a zipstick or similar with adjustable stiffness :-) that was mans stick!

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