Retro gamers will know that all joysticks are not the same; different consoles use different pin-outs – despite having the same connector – and lots of 80’s/90’s joysticks are rubbish or thrashed. Until recently the only one that I had was a very broken original Atari – off to eBay again.
After lots of auction stalking, I got lucky with a bid on a very sorry Atari 2600Jr, which included several joysticks and an Atari keypad – luckily none of these were shown in the first picture; which was of the very sorry-looking Atari. For only £16 including postage I had an Atari 2600 Jnr, 3 * Speedking joysticks, 2 * generic sticks, and an Atari 2600 Keypad. In another auction, I also picked up a chunky Quickshot Joystick QS 138F, which it turns out supports multiple console standards – and rather uniquely – two players.
When they arrived the pictures hadn’t done justice to the level of dirt that was covering it all – there was nothing else for it but complete deconstruction and soap and water.
I dismantled all of the joysticks and washed thoroughly, along with the Atari.
After drying and reassembly the only thing left was for some testing…
With the exception of one, which I’m guessing isn’t an Atari stick, they all worked perfectly. I especially like the features of the Quickshot and the styling of the SpeedKings. I don’t have any games to test the Atari keypad with, so I guess that’s a job for another day.
I quickly tried the Atari console, it has power, but the picture is garbage…. part 2.