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Atari 2600 Joystick To USB Adapter Announced

Posted by simoniker on from the classic-controller-lust dept.

TheAlchemist writes "AtariAge and Pixels Past have announced the creation of the Stelladaptor 2600 to USB Interface. This new hardware product allows you to connect standard Atari 2600 joysticks, paddles, and driving controllers to modern Windows, Macintosh and Linux computers. They have worked closely with the authors of the excellent z26 Atari 2600 Emulator, and an updated version of z26 for Windows will be released that automatically recognizes when the Stelladaptor is plugged in and allows you to play joystick, paddle, and driving controller games without any additional configuration. You can also use your Atari 2600 joystick and paddle controllers with the popular MAME arcade emulator, and standard Atari 2600 joysticks will work with any emulators that support standard USB controllers. The Stelladaptor will debut at the upcoming PhillyClassic 5 gaming expo later this month."

2 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm by Predathar · · Score: 5, Informative
    The joystick was awful, I always found it hard to use and that it lacked buttons (only has 1). The paddle however was cool.

    But if you wanted some nice controllers, Coleco had them, the wheel and the pedals rocked, the super sized controllers for the sports games were great (although I kept getting blisters with them) with the little roller, the 4 buttons, and when you used it, it looked like a killer glove to hit someone with, not that I ever did, mind you :)

  2. Atari 2600 by BladeMelbourne · · Score: 3, Informative

    My parents were cheap - we only had 3 games:
    * enduro (car racing)
    * donkey kong (only 2 levels that repeated)
    * tennis

    I would have killed for that centipede game!

    By far tennis was the most lame. We had two joysticks - whoever had the more expensive one (that form fitted the hand better, had more buttons) always won in a 2P game. The cheap joystick was literally like a chopstick sticking out of a box, it didn't even have suction pads to stick to the table surface.

    Most people do not know that inside an Atari 2600 is a variable pot. Soldered onto the PCB is a component with a groove for a flat-head scredriver. It fine-tunes the RF being sent to your TV - if only I had known about it ~20 years ago!

    http://www.mikeskinner.net/