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Where Are the Joysticks For Retro Gaming?

Posted by Soulskill on from the ch-flightstick-pro-was-aces-for-x-wing dept.

Doctor O writes "With all those nice emulators for classic gaming around (such as MAME, VICE or Stella) I want to establish monthly retro gaming evenings with some friends. The problem is I can't find any good joysticks for that purpose. There's a new version of the legendary Competition Pro, but judging from the many one-star reviews on Amazon, it's terrible. I found the USB version of the classic Atari Joystick, but it doesn't seem to be available and would have prohibitive shipping costs to Germany anyway. So, Slashdot to the rescue — where are the suitable USB joysticks for retro gaming?"

1 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. I hear ya.... by cormandy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How timely, as I have been asking the same question... I used to have an Apple //c, and although I have indulged in retro Apple // gaming on various emulators over the years, it was never quite the same without using a traditional Apple analogue joystick. I have since decided to tackle this obvious problem with some electronics hackery. I recently (as in last week) purchased an original Apple // analogue joystick at auction on eBay, and I plan on building an Apple-joystick-port-to-USB-human-interface-device adapter circuit using a microcontroller such as the Microchip PIC. Should be straight forward, and if I am successful I will publish a how-to online, with schematics, parts list, microcontroller source code and Gerber data for the PCBs. Wish me luck!