What joystick/control pad do you use for your 2600?

[edladdin]

This prototype Supreme 78 is my go-to controller for most joystick games on either 2600 or 7800. Tied for second place are the venerable CX-40 and an Epyx 500 XJ.

[Crashvector]

 

 

always loved these :) I still have two of em...one for me and one for my older brother that we always used.

[Clint Thompson]

This prototype Supreme 78 is my go-to controller for most joystick games on either 2600 or 7800. Tied for second place are the venerable CX-40 and an Epyx 500 XJ.

 

Ooooo, fancy! That's rather nice!

[edladdin]

 

Ooooo, fancy! That's rather nice!

 

 

Thank you! I appreciate your kind words!

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

I actually use a ColecoVision Arcade Controller made by Grips03, which works great with the 2600..

That and I also use a Genesis controller, depending on the game.

Edited July 9, 2015 by SiLic0ne t0aD85

[keilbaca]

I use a flashback 2 stick.

 

The stick itself is wrapped in electrical tape, because somehow the plastic cracked near the top of the stick.

 

It's the very stick that I did all of my Berzerk marathon runs on, and currently on the Atari 2600 HSC.

 

Eventually I will be modifying my Street Fighter 4 TE version 2 to be a universal arcade stick, with an octagon restrictor plate. When that eventually happens, that will be my stick I will be using.

[Zonie]

Either a CX-10 or a very old and sloppy shorty CX-40 with a 1" wooden ball painted red on the top that I modded in 1979-ish...

Edited July 13, 2015 by Zonie

[Lord Innit]

I mainly use the CX-40 for most games that use a joystick, but for H.E.R.O. I use a Konix Navigator as it works better for those moments when you need to fly under the magma blocks at the bottom of the mine.It also gets used for Ms. Pac-Man and Q*Bert.

[BrianC]

I use the CX40, Competition Pro, and Genesis pads.

[mikey.shake]

Used to use a NOS CX-40, but accidentally scored a pair of great-condition CX-10s and they were like a revelation. I thought people were just being elitist snobs about them since they're rare, but good lord do I like the smoothness and throw. Not perfect for every game, so I keep the CX-40 on standby, but 90% of my playing is spring-loaded now. It's like somebody took everything I LIKE about the classic Atari joystick and got rid of all the problems.

[AW127]

Is it 100% safe, to use a Megadrive (Genesis) controller on a Atari? I ask, because on C64, a Megadrive-pad can kill the CIA. This is because 5Volt on one pin, which the normal Atari/Commodore joysticks dont have? So i only use Megadrive-controllers on Atari/C64/Amiga, when an adapter is plugged between who has a pin-protection, how the 64JPX-adapter has it. Maybe only C64 can be harmed by Megadrive-controller, but i want to be sure, that nothing on my Amigas/Ataris can be damaged, so therefore an adapter between.

[+grips03]

I use Genesis or NeoGeoX modded CV controller

[Crispy]

I stumbled across the Suncom Slik Stik years ago at a Toys R Us, and have been using them ever since. Brand new, out of the box, they are the most responsive, best feeling joysticks I have ever used. Unfortunately, they get rather sloppy after a couple of months of use. I wish I would have bought a couple hundred of them when they were still being made.

 

[+DrVenkman]

Most of the time I use a WICO Command Control bat stick just like I used as a kid. Bought this one NOS last summer. For Centipede, Millipede, or Missile Command, I use a CX-22 Trak-Ball. And let me add, the Missile Command-TB hack plays GREAT with a real Trak-Ball!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hillelr]

My favorite joystick for retro gaming is the kempston joystick of the zx spectrum

it looks like competition PRO for the amiga but its better the movemnet is much more fluid in my opinion.

i have some wico joysticks, one with a ball(my favorite) and two with regular stick(like pictures shown before in this thread)

these joystick are realy goods as well.

 

i have some original atari 2600 joysticks which are nice. - i play some atari games with them

and some competion pro joysticks.

[ave1]

I stumbled across the Suncom Slik Stik years ago at a Toys R Us, and have been using them ever since. Brand new, out of the box, they are the most responsive, best feeling joysticks I have ever used. Unfortunately, they get rather sloppy after a couple of months of use. I wish I would have bought a couple hundred of them when they were still being made.

 

This has been my experience with the Slik Stick as well.

[Amityville315]

I love the Slik Stik as well. It came with a lot that I bought and I had it as a kid. It was just as awesome as I remembered. Pity I couldn't make it jive with the 5200!!!

[edladdin]

While this question is specific to joysticks and their ilk, I was a thinking more about the broader question and realized that my choices were specific to solo play.

 

Whenever my wife is also playing we are most commonly using paddle controllers thanks to our mutual love for Circus Atari. Of those I have three sets - one vintage with new pots from Best Electronics, one vintage with pots disassembled and cleaned, and one brand new set from a Deluxe Flashback. Only the new ones are rock solid. The others each have one of the pair with vary degrees of jitter - enough to make Circus Atari of either of the Breakout games a drag to play. I need to rearrange the pots so I have one good set amongst them.

[Mef]

I usually don't like to participate in treads about preferences, but couldn't resist sharing the attached image.

My cat joins me in approving the Competition Pro.

 

[Opry99er]

I have two brand new looking controllers that have a button on each side and a rainbow stripe down the center, with a large raised "ATARI" logo on them.

 

Never used them, but I have them.

 

I think when I got them, I didnt like the way they felt in my hands... Buttons not real "bouncy" and I am not a huge fan of side buttons.

 

Anyone know what these are? Got them in a lot many many yeaes ago.

 

My preference, WICO bat.

[Mef]

AFAIK these were pack-ins for Juniors and 7800 Hence the matching rainbow plate.

Think these were also available separately as "Pro Line Joystick". Pretty shitty to be honest. The knob cuts into your fingers and it feels mushy, since inside these are just dome contact switches pushed by a soft plastic "cross". Pro, my ass. Look cool thanks to the decor tho.

Edited August 9, 2015 by Mef

[Opry99er]

Yep... I think I got them with my Junior lot... Sold the Junior with some junky sticks and kept the nice Atari ones, thinking someday they might be worth something.

[ScaryD]

I enjoy the original Atari joysticks but can't believe the number of controller options there are for the Atari.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

It's been nearly a year and a half since I last posted in this thread back on the first page, and for as long as I've been playing Atari 2600 I've never felt entirely satisfied with any of the factory produced joysticks available for the system. To me Atari has always been about bringing the arcade experience home, and while the games have been great I never really felt like I was getting an arcade experience from the joystick options available. I tried the CX-40, the Flashback 2 rebuild of the CX-40, the Wico Command Control, Competition Pro, Suncom TAC-2 and just about every other popular Atari 2600 joystick option out there, but to me they all came up lacking in one way or another. For a long time I was pretty satisfied with swapping between the Wico Command Control and Competition Pro (depending on whether the game I was playing required 4-way or 8-way movement respectively) but I always wished I had one joystick that would be perfect for all the joystick controlled games on the Atari 2600 and really give me that arcade control experience.

 

So, after many years of dissatisfaction with the factory produced Atari 2600 joystick options I finally decided to build my own joystick that would give me an authentic arcade experience and control just the way I wanted it to. It took a little over a month to build and no small amount of help from some friends, but the end result was exactly what I had been looking for!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weighing in at a hefty 7 pounds and measuring 15.75" long by 9" deep and 3" high, this is a controller that I can actually lay across my lap without having to squeeze my knees together. The ample amount of control panel real estate genuinely makes it feel like I have my hands resting on a proper arcade control panel when operating the joystick and button, and both the joystick and button are real arcade components that have had their performance perfectly tuned to my liking with a variety of custom parts.
The Atari 7800 Pro-Line Joystick may have been a bit of a design failure, but I couldn't be happier with my Atari 2600 Pro-Line Joystick.


Parts List
Hori Tekken 5: Tekken Tenth Anniversary Arcade Stick (PlayStation 2) housing
Black 1/16" thick plexiglass top cover laser cut & engraved by Tek-Innovations
Atari 2600 wiring harness assembly built by Kosmic Stardust
Sanwa JLF-TP-8Y-SK Joystick
Sanwa LB-30 N-S Black Bat Top w/ 6 mm to 10 mm thread adapter
Paradise Arcade Shop Light Gray Anodized Aluminum JLF Shaft Cover
Sanwa JLF-CD Dust Washer
Paradise Arcade Shop GT-O JLF Circle Restrictor Insert
Paradise Arcade Shop 0.5 mm Oversized JLF Actuator
Paradise Arcade Shop 1.5 lbf Custom JLF Spring
Industrias Lorenzo Black PSL-H Short Stem Pushbutton Barrel
Industrias Lorenzo Red PSL-H Concave Short Stem Pushbutton Plunger
Zippy 20g Ultra Light Touch Pushbutton Microswitch

Edited October 18, 2016 by Jin

[oyamafamily]

I use Edladdin Super 78 and Sega Master System controllers for console sessions. One of them I won from HighScore.com official competition by being the top worldwide trophy cracker on 2016 Summer contests.

Tomorrow I will provide my photo just to let members know.