Interesting console joystick

kcfreeloader

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Not exactly arcade related, but i was having some problems with the fire button on a joystick i use on my Atari 7800, so i decided to take it apart and see if i could fix it. The joystick is the Slik Stik by Suncom Inc. It was made in the US not sure when. I assume it was actually put out for the Atari 2600. I was shocked when i took it apart. I've never seen such a simple design for a joystick. Just thought some here might enjoy seeing this simple idea someone had for a joystick a long time ago.

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Cool design, A few bent pieces of brass, a tricked out molded plastic and it's still serviceable to boot. You can tell someone spent the time on design. Thanks for sharing.
 
Yep, not much to the inside of 2600 sticks.

If you want to see really simple, pull apart an original Atari stick from the 2600. One board with 4 bubble buttons built in. Many times, after I inevitably busted the stick off of them, I would pull the boards out of the housings and play just by holding the bare board and pressing the buttons.

Commodore 64's used Atari sticks in them. Sega Master System added one button, but used the same basic design.

-Hans
 
I've owned Slik Stiks before; for being so inexpensive, they were a good quality stick. Better than the Tac-2 in my opinion. I think I still have one or two lying around. I've used them on any and all consoles/computers that have had that type of port before... i.e. Atari 2600, Atari 7800, C-64, Amiga, and even Genesis (works with one-button games). The stick itself barely moves, but gives really accurate control while playing a game. The one button got stuck from time to time and/or misfired. I'm sure if I took it apart and adjusted the spring it would be good as new.
 
Many times, after I inevitably busted the stick off of them, I would pull the boards out of the housings and play just by holding the bare board and pressing the buttons.

I bet this gave more credence to the idea of gamepads...
 
I bet this gave more credence to the idea of gamepads...

I think so as well. Not only were pads cheaper to make, they were much more reliable as they didn't have all that leverage coming off of the actual stick.

I can't tell you how many joysticks I broke over the years, pretty much every brand out there, they all died eventually. I've always been VERY rough on peripherals. Only higher end Logitech and Microsoft survive long term.

But yet, I can't remember ever breaking a gamepad.

-Hans
 
I bet this gave more credence to the idea of gamepads...

What did it for me was the 5200. Understandably, people hated the controllers . The 5200 was trying to build a library of arcade games and it made no sense to use an analog controller for that genre. Of course, the pause button was a cool new feature of those, as well as being able to select and reset from the controller. Oh and being able to switch from TV to game, without having to go behind the TV and fiddle with the switch. So many new ideas on that console.......


what was i talking about??


Oh yeah, game pads. Frogger for the 5200 had 3 ways to play.

1. Use the crappy analog control to try to control your frog. Good luck. It wasn't self centering so you'd often end up going some other direction or further then you wanted.

2. Use the crappy analog controller to point the direction you wanted to go, then hit one of the crappy fire buttons to hop. This worked as good as it sounds.

3. Use the 2,4,6 and 8 keys on the number pad to control frogger. This actually worked quite well and made the switch to d-pad seem pretty natural.
 
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