Gary Kitchen Game Maker Question.. Did the cover joystick exist?

[imstarryeyed]

Greetings I was looking at my copy of Gary Kitchen's Game Maker this weekend and saw the iconic hand holding a red joystick with a metal shaft and yellow fire button.

 

Does anyone know if this joystick actually existed?  It looks like an interesting joystick but I could not find any information on it on Google or the internet after about 2 hours of searching.

 

I want to think it was a real product sold at one time from a distant memory but it's so stylish (my opinion) I would not be at all surprised if it was just a mock up for photos.

 

It definitely has the red color and top white button a Wico joystick would have back in the day.

 

While the joystick was tiny on the front cover I figured it was to illustrate the whole "you are the creator" type thing.

 

 

Here are a few pix to help show what I am talking about.

 

 

 

It would be interesting to find it if this actually was a joystick back in the day as I would love to own one!

 

I owned a C64 back in the day but I know it was available for Apple as well so I posted the same question on that forum as well.

 

 

Thank you!

[carlsson]

If it a real product, it must be quite rare as it is not seen anywhere in Atari Compendium's list of controllers, last updated August 3, 2024. Indeed they mostly (only?) list DE9 type controllers that are compatible with the Atari 2600, so there is a chance it is for some oddball system like Apple II.

Edited August 5 by carlsson

[KG7PFS]

It may be a real joystick repainted to avoid copyright problems or something.

[imstarryeyed]

Those are good observations,  it's funny I never really have it much thought until I saw the box this weekend and thought.. hey that would be a beautiful joystick to place on my shelf with my commodore. 

 

Yeah I can imagine if it ever existed or may have been a repaint job

 

I should drop a line at audacity games and see if Dan or Gary Kitchen might be able to answer it. I met Dan a few weeks ago at the classic game fest in Austin,  he was super nice. 

 

[carlsson]

To be clear, none of the pictures in the compendium even remotely looks like the joystick on the cover. But it might be a non-Atari/Commodore compatible model which that site not really covers.

[imstarryeyed]

I sent an email to Audacity Games via their website asking if they can get the question and link to this thread to Mr. Kitchen.  I will be sure to let you all know anything if I find it out.

 

[+OLD CS1]

I always thought it was just a mock-up of a joystick, made to resemble something which existed but to look different, like the idea of a program to make games.

[imstarryeyed]

Gary Kitchen's Game Maker was my most favorite program i bought at our local Toys 'R Us here in South Texas back in the day.  I freaking loved working on it as it had it all.

 

Built in Music, Scenery, Sound, Sprite Maker & language that was super fun and easy to use.

 

I found this guy on Youtube that I have been watching not only for his Game Maker how to videos but for a lot of other retro tech videos.  He is pretty informed and a bit entertaining.

 

 

In any case I am glad we can still use our programs and create stuff that is not bogged down with heavy OS's and other things, when I can create and just have fun.

 

[carlsson]

For fun, I tried an Google Image search of the joystick cleared from the surrounding text and ended up with this thread.

[garrykitchen]

I actually do not know the answer as I wasn't at the photoshoot for the cover. However, my educated guess would be no, it's not a real joystick.

 

Glad you enjoyed my GameMaker product.

 

Best.

Garry Kitchen

[imstarryeyed]

Ha ha I can imagine we have officially covered the topic than any other page on the internet..  It's a nice joystick and I guess my desire for it to exist outweighs the reality haha.