Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!killer!tness7!tness1!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Joysticks
Message-ID: <2251@sugar.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jul 88 13:08:45 GMT
References: <890@esunix.UUCP> <1656@vu-vlsi.Villanova.EDU> <347@uwslh.UUCP>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 32

In article <347@uwslh.UUCP>, lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Fish-Guts) writes:
> 1) First joystick was an Atari 2600 joystick.  It lasted maybe four
> months after being used for many tense sessions with my brother and
> father.  I am sorry to have seen it die...it just wasn't built strong
> enough. 

I buy Atari 2600 joysticks about every 6 months. They're agony to use, and
don't last long, but they're responsive.

> 2) Second joystick was called something like a Specta Video bugger.
> It had suction cups on the bottom, and a very comfortable hand grip.
> Lasted less than a month.  Too bad, but it was built worse than the Atari.

My Spectravideo joystick has lasted a couple of years now. It's very
comfortable, as you say, and great for shootemups. For games where some
degree of precision is required (Say, Tracers (plug) or Rockford) it's
got a little too much play. For them, you're better off with the Ataris.

>      A little trivia: there was once a joystick on the market that
> used mercury switches instead of mechanical ones.  I never did get
> one, and I bet they were not that responsive, but I also would bet
> they *never* wore out.  Did anyone here ever own one of these?

Le Shtick: I didn't own one, but I had an opportunity to play with one for
a while. It didn't have a base at all, just mercury tilt switches. It was
pretty responsive until you got excited, then you suddenly notice that you're
holding it horizontally... back to the problem of too much play (like, 360
degrees). It was a lot of fun for Star Raiders.
-- 
-- `-_-' Peter (have you hugged your wolf today?) da Silva.
--   U   Mail to ...!uunet!sugar!peter, flames to /dev/null.
-- "Running DOS on a '386 is like driving an Indy car to the Stop-N-Go"