Help with NES stick by Gravis

[figgler]

Preface - sorry that my camera is not working, or I would post a pic

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I found this really cool arcade type stick at Goodwill Saturday. Base is made of clear plastic, with a grey stick and black rubber grips with a thumb button. Two more red buttons on the base, with a small button between them and Start, Select up top.

Here's where it gets interesting - there are 3 dials on the side and I am not quite sure what they do. Autofire maybe, but I can't figure it out. Between the 2 big arcade buttons on the base is that small button I can't figure out either. Maybe it's programmable or something, but I'm not even sure controllers like that were made for NES. The really cool thing is that the whole thing is rigged with a dial / wheel on the bottom that you can turn to adjust the resistance of the stick to 7 different levels. So, you can play wth a really tight, bouncy joystick, or a much looser feel for good 360 movement.

 

Is anyone familiar with this controller? I've never seen another one before, and never seen one with these features either. Plus, I am hoping someone knows how to use it properly and can tell me what all those dials and buttons do..

Edited August 16, 2006 by figgler

[figgler]

nobody?

[BassGuitari]

I had a black one many years ago for PC, I was quite young. I remember being able to adjust the stick's tension, and I remember the dials now that you mention it, but they didn't seem to do anything so I never bothered with them. I don't think mine had anything between the two big buttons though. Is there a manual scan for this out there anywhere?

 

Just throwing this out there, but maybe two of the dials control the sensitivity of the stick's X- and Y-axes, and the third controls the rate of automatic fire after you activate it with the small button located between the two larger buttons? I'm not sure if "axis-sensitivity" adjustment is even possible (I'm not an expert on the workings of joysticks), but I've got no other ideas.

 

It was a really nice joystick, I'd like to find a 2600-compatible one..

[JB]

Just throwing this out there, but maybe two of the dials control the sensitivity of the stick's X- and Y-axes, and the third controls the rate of automatic fire after you activate it with the small button located between the two larger buttons? I'm not sure if "axis-sensitivity" adjustment is even possible (I'm not an expert on the workings of joysticks), but I've got no other ideas.

It's possible. You usually don't see it because on an analog controller it's probably gonna limit the range you can use, and on a digital controller it just increases the dead zone.

 

 

 

My old Gravis PC stick had a pair of switches under the base buttons to change which of the 4 buttons they mapped to(Always wished there was a control to remap the top-of-stick buttons, since the trigger was duplicated by one of the 2 buttons on top of the handle and I'd've rather had 3 buttons up top).

The wheel in the middle was the throttle axis.

 

 

I've really got no idea what they'd be for on an NES stick. I'd guess mode switches for normal/turbo/auto-fire, but that's a random guess. Could use the throttle wheel as a rate control, if the previous guess was right.

 

And the small button wasn't present on the PC version.

Slow-motion?

 

 

 

Of course, it wasn't an arcade stick anyways. It was more of a flight stick.