[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Dubious Joystick Enhancements

May 21st, 2007 by Benj Edwards
Joystick Add-Ons from The Fun Group

Straight from “The Fun Group” comes these wonderful 1983 joystick add-ons. The FYRE-BALL is a bulbous knob that fits to the top of your Atari 2600 controller — genuinely useless, unless it gives you a psychological thrill to pretend you’re using an arcade joystick instead of a handheld controller.

Another add-on, the EASI-GRIP, turns your Colecovision controller into a flight-stick style joystick. You know, for all those incredible Colecovision flight simulators out there. They were almost there with that one, but they had to put the obnoxious finger grooves on it.

The third add-on is not as useless as the first two — glue a giant “Sorry” game piece to top of the abysmal Intellivision controller, and you’ve got something way better than the original. But pictured next to it is the QUIK-FIRE, a flaky-looking button attachment for the same controller which probably broke in the first hour of play time. I find it hard to believe that adding any more pieces of plastic to a controller can allow you to press the buttons faster.

If you use this image on your site, please support “Retro Scan of the Week” by giving us obvious credit for the original scan and entry. Thanks.



8 Responses to “[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Dubious Joystick Enhancements”

  1. Torgo Says:

    Hey hey now, the FYRE-BALL would have been something I’d have bought! You see, in 1983, I was 9. A year or two before that, I’d had this great idea to make a paper-mache joystick head and put it on my 2600 joystick, because it would make it like I was playing in the arcades.

    Being 7 or so when I had the idea, it was quickly forgotten and never implemented. This would have been right up my alley.

  2. Moondog Says:

    I had another company’s “improvement,” a sleeved stick handle with a spring-loaded button on top that pushed the regular button on the joystick. It made the normal button unusable and wouldn’t stay in place.

  3. Mark Says:

    it says that it also fits Sears “super video arcade” any body have a clue what this one was like?

  4. Mark Says:

    that game console not the joystick

  5. Benj Edwards Says:

    I believe I do. I think it was a redesigned Atari 2600 clone (officially licensed from Atari) that Sears released in the early 1980s. I might be able to get a scan of it for you from a Sears catalog I have.

  6. Nightstalker Says:

    LOL. i had the intellivision one. it was useless, it broke off constantly and the center of gravity was kinda off so if you ‘moved forward’ it would fall out of your hands!

  7. The Player's Edge Says:

    I had something very similar to the FYRE-BALL for my 2600. It was called “The GRABBER” and was a black ball with a sticker going around the ‘equator’ of it with a Pac-Man eating dots on it.

    I sold it with my 2600 at my game store two weeks ago.

  8. mannomch Says:

    I also mail-ordered the Intellivision joystick. The metallic plate covering the disc came unglued within minutes of attaching the “skil stik”. Not only that, but the stick was too small to hold w/ your hand, yet too large to comfortably control using your thumb.

    There’s $4.50 I’ll never get back.

Leave a Reply