{"id":131,"date":"2006-05-15T11:47:12","date_gmt":"2006-05-15T16:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=131"},"modified":"2006-07-28T18:56:04","modified_gmt":"2006-07-28T23:56:04","slug":"retro-scan-of-the-week-epyx-500xj-joystick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/131\/retro-scan-of-the-week-epyx-500xj-joystick","title":{"rendered":"<span id=\"retro_color\">Retro Scan of the Week:<\/span> Epyx 500XJ Joystick"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"caption\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/epyx_joystick_large.jpg\" target=\"new\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/epyx_joystick_small.jpg\" alt=\"Epyx 500XJ Joystick\" class=\"centered\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption_text\">This is from a late-80s Epyx catalog.  The Epyx 500XJ joystick is actually my favorite Atari 2600-compatible joystick. It uses microswitches exclusively (instead of conductive rubber pads or metal &#8220;domes&#8221;), making it responsive with a great tactile feel, and yet rugged to stand up to lots of playing.  The design of the stick&#8217;s base is very ergonomic, fitting perfectly in your left hand.  The only awkward thing about it is the button placement: repeatedly hitting the button by &#8220;curling&#8221; your index finger upward can get painful fast.  Still, if you build up your finger muscles, it&#8217;s a gem of a joystick.  I&#8217;d love to get a NES version of this stick just for novelty&#8217;s sake.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure many of you are also familiar with the Epyx Fast Load Cartridge, which is also on this catalog page.  Feel free to share and discuss your memories of your C64 past&#8230;while I unpack more computers.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is from a late-80s Epyx catalog. The Epyx 500XJ joystick is actually my favorite Atari 2600-compatible joystick. It uses microswitches exclusively (instead of conductive rubber pads or metal &#8220;domes&#8221;), making it responsive with a great tactile feel, and yet rugged to stand up to lots of playing. The design of the stick&#8217;s base is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-info-and-history","category-video-game-info-and-history","category-retro-scan-of-the-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}