Joysticks

[anephric]

It needed a specific interface and games had to support it directly...

[Tom Salter]

I gathered that much. But why!??!?!

[anephric]

I dunno - *research* because it didn't map directly to the keyboard like other joysticks: it was bespoke and hence had to be directly supported by the game.

[babs]

I always had a kempston stick and interface with my spectrums, I never knew anything else. I remember wiggling it in the back of the 48K to get it just right

[Willei]

This puppy on the Amiga:



Only really any use for shooters because of the button placement, obv. All microswitched, so clicky clicky clicky.

Unfortunately, also breaky breaky breaky. I've no idea how many I got through.

I had one of those for the Atari ST.


It broke...

[Pistol]

The Quickshot II Turbo did indeed look cool, but broke a lot. The Zipstick was the best joystick I ever owned, robust as hell, clicky buttons, the travel was just about right - all good.

I always liked the look of the Competition Pro's, but whenever I actually tried one it was rubbish - the stick was stiff as anything, no discernable clickage, and the buttons were soft and unresponsive. I like my sticks to have some kind of feedback so's you know when you've made your move!

[Ady]

It was all about the Quickshot Turbo for me.

[djjimbob]

Rock solid for Speedball2 sessions.

[dataDave]

Rock solid for Speedball2 sessions.

...and it had adjustable stick looseness!

I had the all-black edition.

Did anyone ever use the suckers to stick them to a desk or whatever? I always held my stick.

[djjimbob]

I'm sure the Quickshot 2 was a leaf joystick???

[Psyduck]

Most spectrum joysticks were just wired up to press the number keys - 8 for down, 9 for up, 7 for left, 9 for right, and 0 for fire (though they could be a little off), kempstom were "proper" joysticks...
I always remember them being much better than the others, though I used to prefer using keys anyway cause they always seemed to break...

[Jay]

The Kempston interface was one of the first released, caught on and became pretty much standard.

"The Arcade"




This stick is amazing, I spend thousands of hours with that thing in my hand and it never wore out.

Never a truer word spoken. THE joystick. I still have mine two decades on and it's still going strong. Second place has to go the standard Atari stick. Class. Leagues ahead of the competition's controllers - both Coleco and Intellivision controllers were terrible.

The Speedking was awful - diagonals were almost impossible. Quickshot 2 also - leaf switch hell and travel enough to make Alan Wicker jealous.


Jay

[gizmo1990]

Easy peasy. The Competition Pro was THE joystick back in the day. All the others were just poor imitations or straight rips offs. Just check out some of the previous posts images.

And just to prove the point...

USB Comp Pro

...you can still get it today!

[Shez]

I'm surprised at the plaudits being handed to the Atari joystick.

I totally destroyed every single one I owned - The rubber used to cover the actual stick part didn't last very long in our house.

I think I still have the remains of a couple of Atari sticks that have just the base left - I know there was a time I used to have to use my fingers to make the movements because the sticks had broken and had been pulled out.

The quickshot 2 was also a dire piece of kit. Play a few rounds of Daley Thompson, and see how it stands up

[charlesr]

http://www.ntrautanen.fi/computers/other/o_joystick.htm

Nice list

Check out the maximum awesomeness of the ergonomics on the one called "joystick"