Atari 2600 Joystick Adapter for Odyssey 2

[+sixersfan105]

I picked up this joystick adapter recently for my detachable joystick model Odyssey 2 and it works perfectly. Highly recommend it to be able to use any Atari 2600-compatible controller with my Odyssey 2 and hard to beat the $16 price inclusive of shipping. Much to my surprise, they even included a second joystick adapter free of charge, though it's unclear to me if that was intended or not. 

 

https://sadgirlsrecords.com/products/atari-2600-to-magnavox-odyssey-2-controller-adapter-converter

[eebuckeye]

Very cool! I had no idea this existed but I've only seen O2's with attached joysticks.. It seems the detachable are somewhat rare.

[+sixersfan105]

6 minutes ago, eebuckeye said:

Very cool! I had no idea this existed but I've only seen O2's with attached joysticks.. It seems the detachable are somewhat rare.

Yeah, the detachable joystick model is harder to find but they're certainly out there. Legend has it that that Magnavox got a lot of customer complaints about joystick failure and their repair department was swamped with joystick repairs, and since Magnavox felt the joystick failure was due to customers repeatedly yanking the joysticks out of the rear ports of the console, they revised the console to make the joysticks permanently attached. 

 

Good rule of thumb is if the joysticks are silver in color, they are part of an early model detachable joystick console. The revised console with attached joysticks are always black with red fire buttons. Also, the bottom of the front of the console box of this early model will always say "The Ultimate Computer Video Game System...by Magnavox" NEVER "Odyssey 2. The excitement of a game. The mind of a computer." Note that that the former slogan being on a console box does NOT guarantee detachable joysticks, it's just that detachable joysticks will always have that slogan. Further, it's possible that resellers may pair early-gen consoles with later-gen boxes, but that's the general rule of thumb. Here's one example (not my listing).

[+sixersfan105]

@eebuckeye btw another great option for detachable joystick O2 models is RetroGame Boyz's NES-style gamepad. It's great: https://retrogameboyz.com/products/odyssey-2-joystick-controller-gamepad-joypad-db9-style-plug-for-db9-ports-only

[scotty]

I actually have 2 O2 joysticks modified to work with any DB-9 port like the C64, 2600 or Atari 8-bit

 

[+sixersfan105]

10 hours ago, scotty said:

I actually have 2 O2 joysticks modified to work with any DB-9 port like the C64, 2600 or Atari 8-bit

 

That's kinda neat. I'm not a huge fan of the original O2 joysticks but to each their own!

[scotty]

On 9/28/2022 at 8:50 AM, sixersfan105 said:

That's kinda neat. I'm not a huge fan of the original O2 joysticks but to each their own!

Not a HUGE fan...   But I live in a very small condo (with wife and son) and even though I have a lot of real hardware (most of it is in storage lockers) I like to use real controls with emulation or on the MISTer when I can.