What's this hacked Atari controller for?

[Atari Rescue Group]

It's got a 20 pin female connector that has a 2 position switch on the side.

[Stingray]

That's an interesting item. Where did you find it?

 

-S

[Atari Rescue Group]

It was in a game shop in a box of controllers. I picked it up because it was cheap.

 

I'd like to ebay it but if I can target it towards the proper user group it's more likely to sell.

[Ze_ro]

I tried doing a web search for "Alpha Joystick", and the only information I found that sounded at all relevant seemed to suggest that the joystick is meant for the TRS-80 (this TRS-80 page has a program on it called "Alpha Joystick Demonstration", written in BASIC... and this page, which is documentation for an Amiga-based TRS-80 emulator, claims that software written by "Big 5" (Creators of Miner 2049'er and Bounty Bob Strikes Back I believe), looks for an Alpha Joystick). Now, as far as I knew, TRS-80's generally have two round 5-pin (?) joystick ports, so perhaps this is some non-standard joystick that plugs into a different port on the machine?

 

--Zero

[Atari Rescue Group]

Thanks for doing that digging. I went to the bigfivesoftware site and found a reference to a modified joystick they made as well call a Trisstick.

http://www.bigfivesoftware.com/company/company.htm

[Goochman]

It appears that is a connector to allow the Atari joystick connect with the TRS-80.

[CincYnoTi]

http://www.bigfivesoftware.com/trs80/trs80main.htm

 

there is a photo of the print ad for the trisstick on that web page. if you read the fine print, it mentions

 

a molded plastic interface module that simply plugs in to your computer

 

pretty cool site for big five

[Brad2600]

You might want to submit that picture to the controller rarity guide at Gamerzuniverse.

[Atari Rescue Group]

I can do that. They want photos of hacked stuff too?

[Bruce Tomlin]

It's not really a hack... they were sold that way. I seem to remember them being sold via mail-order from magazine advertisements back in the day.

[Atari Rescue Group]

The joystick casings have "CO...." part numbers so maybe they got them from a supplier with Atari stuff. There's not much to the adapter. It's a small piece of metal folded in half which covers a small board attached to the adapter plug.

 

Thanks for the help all -- this thing is on ebay. Hopefully it will find a good home.

[jhd]

Now, as far as I knew, TRS-80's generally have two round 5-pin (?) joystick ports, so perhaps this is some non-standard joystick that plugs into a different port on the machine?

 

The Tandy/RS Colour Computer (and a few models of the 1000-series PCs) used the round joystick ports. This joystick is for the TRS-80 Model I/II/IV series.

 

These were mainly intended as business-class computers, but they were very popular in schools (the very first computer I ever used as a TRS-80 Model III) and some decent games were written for them.

 

I remember hearing that a joystick was available, but this is the first I have ever seen. Looking at the connector, I would guess that it connects to the printer port.