The Def Guide to Zzap!64

"Bloody joypad! I used to be good at this game!"

Have you thought that too?

Only ever get diagonals when you just want plain up (or down, left or right)?

What's the answer?


Err, I dunno. Any ideas? I used to love my Konix joysticks, they were so accurate. Even if I had to endure premature arthritis to use the "ergonomic" things.

Does anyone know of a joystick available for the PC that's anywhere near as good? Doesn't matter if its USB or Gameport.

Microswitches seemed to be the sign of a quality products. I remember the click click click all the bloody time from the "Speed King" or "Navigator". Irritiating but so, so accurate.

What was your favourite joystick? Quickfire Turbo 2 etc...?

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If everyone looked the same and you didn't know your name, how would you find you?

Well my favourite joystick was without a doubt the Competition Pro Extra Glow (it was the see-thru green version!).

Been searching for an interface to apply you to use C64 joysticks on the PC but all I've found so far is this:

http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ih/doc/joystick/

But you have to do it yourself and it's not an interface, buit a description of how to rewire the joystick itself.

Cheers for that, off to Maplins when I get a chance... (and another C64/Atari joystick)

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If everyone looked the same and you didn't know your name, how would you find you?

Quickshot 2 were rubbish if I recall

After being raved about (in zzap! I think) I bought a couple of cruiser joysticks. A microswitch jammed on one, but all in all, they were damn good.

Used to use a kraft joystick also - very fine. Accurate, but the little stick did take some getting used to.

Die-hard gamers would swear by the square & solid atari joysticks. The rumour was that anyone who could put up with those bricks was a real advanced games player.. I just thought people went out and bought them because of the rumour..

All in all, my cruisers got the most use. Except when playing daily thompsons decathalon, where I gutted the autofire circuits from a quickshot, and used them as auto left-right waggle.. ZOOM!!! Daily would run his lil sprite legs off..

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JSR $2020
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Well, when I got my c128 back in 1986, my parents got me two of those huuuuuuge 'joyballs'. (oo-er) (btw, I think Zzap gave those away when you subscribed around issue 18/22, IIRC)
They were microswitched which was a good thing, but because of their SIZE they were not that 'handy'. Although you could literally bash the two firebuttons because they were very big you couldn't miss them.
Now, I can't image we actually played 'decathlon' with those monsters, but we did.

Later we got ourselves the excellent (microswitched) ARCADE joysticks, those black or creme triangles with the red firebutton upfront.
They did and still do reign SUPREME! I have lots of them, since everythime I come across one I buy them. I'm too afraid I might run out of them one day!

I have also a lot of Competition Pro's in the house (as an alternative) including a 'clearcased' one which looks the part, really, but they are horrible using lots of diagonals. So impossible for IK+ aficionados, and that's a shame.

Btw, only later I found out that the ARCADE joystick manufacturer was based in....Rotterdam, where I live now. I checked it out to see if there was some forgotten or lost 'stock' over there, but now there's a car dealer in that building.
Ta!
Rob

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Once again I emerge from beneath a massive pile of paper which makes my desk groan to bring you the world’s most amazing posts.

i thought most of the joysticks i owned were pretty cruddilly designed myself and delieberatly wasn't built to last, i swear there must have been some deal going with ocean with the releases of daley thompsons olympic challenge and combat school.
apart from that, i made do with the quickshot 2 turbo which lasted the longest with me, i remember having quickshot spare parts all over my room whenever i needed to do a quick repair job.
i remember those atari bricks, they were a bloody nightmare. not only was the stick too small and stiff, atari didn't seem to realise at the time they designed it that there may of been the slightest possibillity that there were left handed players out there as they only included the one crappy little fire button on the left hand side (which was the wrong side for me). i had to practically cross my arms to use the wretched thing.
somewhat totally bemused in the end after breaking too many sticks, i gave up altogether and switched to the sega mastersystem joypad, though they were totally crap for the old waggle games.
anway these multi combo stick/pads you can buy nowadays are a helluva lot more reliable and better all round i think.
regards, baz

Can't beat the Konix Speedking IMO. I didn't get one of my own until I got an Amiga in 1991 though. When I had a 64 I mostly had to suffer with a Quickshot 2 which was pretty horrible. I liked the idea of it at first because of the trigger and the suckers, but eventually realised it wasn't up to much. After some use it got very loose and the travel distance was huge. Only good thing was that with waggler games you didn't have to waggle the stick, you could just hold it by the base and shake it! Even that didn't work too well in practice, to be honest.

Microswitches=good. Leaf switches=bad.

My mate got a Bug which he thought was great, but it was just a bit too weird for me.

I had a couple of Quickshot II's as well, real shit joysticks, went through a stage of using Tac 5's as well but their microswitches were really dodgy. Once I discovered the Comp Pro Extra's there was no going back!

For emulation i would recommend a usb adapter that will let you use a Playstation or Nintendo 64 pad.

I don't know why we ever put up with the kind of joysticks from the c64 era. I look at one now and shudder. I still use Sega and Namco arcade sticks for fighting games on the Dreamcast and Playstation respectively, but they are ultra-accurate and not having to hold them means never accidentally wrestling the thing out of your palm.

Actually for my last year or so of c64 gaming i think i used a Master System or Mega Drive pad.

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but pads are so bad for trying to get diagonals!

Armakuni's got a point with the N64 one, though. It's got quite a nice joystick (as well as a rubbish D-pad). So has the Gamecube, for that matter. But now we're getting silly.

g.

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The Burrow

I recently destroyed a pad in less than 2 hours of IK. Is this a record?

i havent laughed so hard in ages i swear i still have the same callouse on inbeween my thumb and pointerfinger from the old atari brick. i went through several of them.
recently i discoverd that the sega mastersystem joypads ( honeybee and alike ) sqeezed into the atari port which made playing Atari 2600 gaming possible for toddlers (and me also )

by the way i have a brand new ssc64 emulator blister on my thumb from biting it whilst playing with the sound settings>>> i think i might have to start smoking again to come to terms with it..

Sorry but you're all wrong! There's a reason they still make zipsticks even now. Competition Pro's? well practically the same as zips apart from an inbuilt rubber ring that dampened the movement, a few preferred that but most like myself liked the 'clean' clicks of the zipstick.

I and my friends had so many C64 joysticks before discovering the zipstick. They were a bit expensive when they first came out but soon went down as everyone started to get one. By the end of the Amiga days they'd taken over what market was left!

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http://www.mastertronic.net

Bought myself a cms super 8 microswitched arcade stick from anco for £15, excellent basic microswitch stick, even better than the comp pro, but pc gameport compatible (not sure about a usb version though), check out or ring Anco (dartford england) to check for availability

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Where`s my screwdriver, need to replace another 6581 Sniff