Joysticks
Amiga/Atari Joystick
Competition Pro
Suncom
The Arcade
Zipstick
Wico
Quickshot
Konix
Homemade Joystick (FoxJoy)
ACS Microtechnica
A greek joystick, made in 1985. It's a fully metallic construction and it sports a second pass-thru joystick port on the backside, so that Amstrad CPC (who had only one joystick port) users could connect a second joystick to their computer.
Spyros Paraschis is the only KOA player known to use this joystick.
Albatros
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An Italian Joystick very popular on 80s and early 90s.
Tomahawk
The Tomahawk is one of the sturdy greek arcade joysticks that were very popular in late 80s. It shares an almost identical design with the Pacman and Starfighter joysticks.
Joyboard
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Homebuilt in 1989. It uses the popular Q A O P and SPACE keyboard combination within a joystick. One of two still in use today by Stainy, who is the only known player to use this. It is rumoured that there is a larger joystick-hybrid version of the Joyboard used by Ely - but this has not been seen for some time.
PC Joysticks
The Greek Stick
Made by Greek company CMS. There is also an Amiga version available.
Competition Pro USB
A classic Joystick revived for modern Personal Computers. This is the replica of the original Competition Pro joystick from the 80's. The new SPEED-Link Competition Pro is fitted with a USB connector, features four buttons and an autofire function. The shaft is made of metal and extremely robust. This joystick is suitable for any PC game that supports digital input devices. The Competition Pro is certainly the perfect joystick for emulators, e.g. VICE, UAE, WinUAE or MAME. Also available in transparent-blue design.
Features:
Digital joystick with micro switches, four digital buttons with micro switches, two digital axis, autofire function, USB connector, robust shaft, transparent blue design, compatible with Windows 98/ME/2000/XP.
Amiga/Atari Joystick adaptors for modern PC
This adaptors let the old arcade joysticks for Amiga/Atari ST work on every modern PC. To use two joysticks under Windows95/98/ME you have to add a second joystick device (2-axis, 2-buttons). Using Windows 2000 you cannot install two seperate joysticks; instead, you have to choose the Two 2-button joysticks on a y-cord option. Windows XP users have to set up an custom game controller with 4 axis and 4 buttons.
USB adaptors
Parallel port adaptors
Prior to use this adaptors you'll need to install the PPJoy (Parallel Port joystick) drivers.
Get it here: PPJoySetup.zip
4 Player Adaptor
This parallel adaptors are also known as "Amiga 4 players adaptors" as they work also to let 2 more joysticks work on the amiga through its parallel port (is it possible to play with 4 joysticks also with Kick Off 2). On the modern PC the 4 player adaptor make 2 Amiga joysticks work with WinUAE and Kick Off.
Analog PC Game port adaptors
This adaptors let the Amiga/Atari joysticks work into all the PC Game port that usually are available on the sound cards. The PC gameports are designed for the usage of two analog joysticks with 2 buttons each. Analog joysticks are excellent for flight simulation but have too long reaction times for arcade games. If you once used a C-64 or AMIGA computer you certainly have a joystick but can not be plugged to the PC gameport. To make this possible Thre're appropriate interfaces. So you can use your old joystick for Kick Off On WinUAE or play arcade games with M.A.M.E.. The interface converts the digital signal to analog, using discrete ohm values depending on the joystick switches. This is basically the same way joypads work on the PC. It's all hardware, no software drivers needed.
Useful Links
- Vesalia Computer - Big reseller of Amiga Hardware and software including USB replica of digital Joysticks.
- RETRO-USB eBay shop - reseller of USB and Parallel port adaptors for Amiga/Atari Joysticks
- Arcade controls - Buid your own arcade controls FAQ
- Amiga Stuff - Reseller of Amiga joysticks and PC adaptors
- centsible - Amiga & Commodore Joysticks and Analog PC Game port adaptors
- Amiga Deals - Arcade Joysticks and adaptors
- Computer City - On-line shop with a lot of Commodore Hardware & Joysticks
- PC-Competitor - Arcade Joystick interfaces for PC Game Port.
- CMS Computers - Greek reseller of the Greek stick
- PPJoy - Parallel Port joystick driver for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
- paraschis.gr - Homepage of Spyros Paraschis, featuring an article on rewiring an old greek Amiga metallic joystick
- The Hardware Book:Amiga 4-player adaptor - Schematics to build an Amiga 4-player adaptor