?s about first version(?) CoCo joysticks

[BassGuitari]

To my knowledge, the earliest version of the Color Computer joystick had a tapered metal stick that was a bit thicker than those of later versions (long skinny metal and short black plastic). The cords were also gray instead of black. As seen in a Radio Shack catalog:

 

Does anyone have any information about how their performance rates compared to later versions of the CoCo joystick, or their rarity and how much I could expect to have to pay for one?

[AtariLeaf]

I have a couple of these and they seem just like the rest. I don't see any kind of performance improvements over the later models. I have no idea if they're rarer or more desirable though, never thought about it actually.

[JamesD]

I had a set of these. They had dead spots in a few places. Very cheap pots. They still worked for games that required analog joysticks.
The deluxe joysticks were the best option for analog sticks though.
BTW, I've had the Wico red stick analog joystick and it's more durable but it isn't any better.
If you want to play most arcade games you were better off buying or building a digital joystick adapter.

[BassGuitari]

BTW, I've had the Wico red stick analog joystick and it's more durable but it isn't any better.

Wico made a Color Computer joystick? I never knew that.

 

I've got a Tandy Deluxe and it is the best by a wide margin (those were made by Kraft, right?). I like collecting the early CoCo stuff, though, hence my interest in these joysticks.

[+sm3]

Are all CoCo joysticks interchangeable? I often see these black type joysticks for sale on eBay, however, the white version which I think would have been sold with the CoCo 2&3 seem kind of rare?

[JamesD]

The Deluxe Joysticks were a lot more expensive. I think the pair of black ones was around $20 and the Deluxe (yes Kraft made them) were more like $40 each.

[MarkO]

I have more than a few Digital, Wico Joysticks for the C64.. I would love to get an Analog Wico for the Tandy CoCo, ( or try it on the Apple ][ ).

 

MarkO

[AtariLeaf]

I bought this on ebay a few years ago and it's a surprisingly good stick. I've seen these for atari and apple ii but never for the coco before.

[RangerG]

Do Tano Dragon joysticks work on a CoCo? There are a few interesting looking controllers for the Dragon. If you look on various European Ebay sites, you'll see some, but the with the shipping costs it would be nice to know if they are fully compatible?

 

I use a Tandy deluxe stick, if I don't use the Wico/Atari combo, and I like the deluxe joystick a lot.

[JamesD]

Do Tano Dragon joysticks work on a CoCo? There are a few interesting looking controllers for the Dragon. If you look on various European Ebay sites, you'll see some, but the with the shipping costs it would be nice to know if they are fully compatible?

 

I use a Tandy deluxe stick, if I don't use the Wico/Atari combo, and I like the deluxe joystick a lot.

They should, the joystick ports are the same.

[simbalion]

Only issue I have had with CoCo joysticks are that it seems the earlier ones had a thinner, more tapered plastic sleeve around the connector end. Those work great on all the CoCos, but the later ones did away with that taper, making them hard to get plugged into a CoCo 1.