Introducing: Edladdin Controllers for the 7800

[edladdin]

Hey Everyone!

 

I'm Edladdin from Athens, Georgia. It is incredibly exciting for me to announce the launch of Edladdin Controllers, a company dedicated to delivery of a premium arcade controllers and cool accessories to the Atari 7800 and 2600 community.

 

Right now we are transitioning from prototyping and design to production of the first five products in the line, which will begin to hit the shelves at the end of next month. At this time I am very interested to hear any feedback or questions anyone has about these designs, as well as any potential orders anyone might be interested in placing. Since we offer free customization on joystick ball and pushbutton colors, it will be very helpful to have a sense for which colors need to dominate our initial stocking of the new parts inventory.

 

To follow are the products, followed by some additional information about this venture:

 

Super 78 - An arcade controller built around an 8-position Zippyy ball joystick and two Happ pushbuttons. The controllers are mounted in a factory painted 14" sloped aluminum housing that is equally comfortable in your lap or on the edge of the coffee table. 7 foot long cord for easy reach from console to player. Buttons and stick are positioned for natural ergonomic positioning without bending the wrists. Standard configuration will be with stick on the left and buttons on the right, however we will reverse this orientation upon request at no extra charge. Retail price = $109.00. AtariAge price = $99.00. Status - Finalizing artwork. Ready to Ship: End of October

 

SuperTwin 78 – It’s the Super 78 times two, with two 8-position Zippyy joysticks and four Happ pushbuttons in a single sloped aluminum case. Finally, a controller for Robotron 2084 and Fight Night, or snuggle up to your date for some cozy controller sharing. My dream is that the birth of the SuperTwin will inspire some programmer to port Space Dungeon to the 7800. Retail price = $149.00. AtariAge Price = $129.00 Status - Finalizing artwork. Ready to Ship: End of November

 

Supreme 78’s - These arcade controllers feature a wrist-supporting contoured punched steel control panel that is hinged to allow the player instant access to one of two component sets:

 

v1 - The Omni Supreme 78 uses an Omni2 joystick from Groovy Game Gear, which allows instant no-tools switching of the mechanical restrictor plate between the 4-position diamond and the 8-position square. In seconds you lift up the control panel, rotate the plate using the little black handle, and you are having a no-compromise arcade joystick experience on any Pac-Man or other 4-position game, as well as a much tighter feel on left/right 2-position games like Galaga, Joust, and Space Invaders. All of this without sacrificing the need for an 8-position stick for the vast majority of games in the Atari library. A center stick and duplicate left and right pairs of Happ buttons allow the user to switch hands as desired.

 

v2 – The All-Leaf Supreme 78 is designed for die-hard leaf switch enthusiasts, employing a Leaf-Pro True Leaf Switch joystick with user-tunable leaf switches, as well as left and right pairs of CLASSX pushbuttons equipped with old-school True Leaf Pro switches.

 

Both versions of the Supreme 78 are housed in a handsome custom-made oak enclosure. With the steel control panel, these controller are substantial pieces of equipment that are completely stable on the table or comfortable across the lap. Retail prices for both versions of the Supreme 78 = $169.00. AtariAge price = $139.00.

Status - Cabinet maker is in-process building first run of oak cases. First 12 steel panels on hand. Finalizing artwork. Ready to Ship: End of October

 

Seagull 78 - An adapter unit that will allow the player to use any Sega Genesis gamepad controller with the Atari 7800. The unit will be a small plastic box with a male DB9 connector for the Sega controller on one end and a short length of controller cord and the female plug on the other. Buttons "B" and "C" are the live buttons on the Sega gamepad. The rest are not used. Retail price for this unit will be $24.99. AtariAge price = $19.99. Status - working prototype in hand. Production PCB in design. Ready to Ship: End of November

 

Ball and Button Customization - Initially we plan to have Super 78’s and Omni Supreme 78’s in stock and ready to ship in the red/red/white and blue/blue/white color combinations, however we will also stock Happ pushbuttons in white, black, orange, yellow, green, and purple, as well as joystick balls in a variety of colors. The CLASSX buttons are available in all the same colors except purple. We will be happy to build any controller with any combination of button colors and/or joystick balls at no additional cost. You can check out the ball selection options at the bottom of this page on the Omni2 at the Groovy Game Gear site: http://tinyurl.com/lpgvbax.

 

About Me - It sounds like something Grandpa Simpson would say now, but I bought my original Taiwan Light Sixer in 1981 after working all summer for $1 an hour in the family ice cream shop at age 11. I had been begging for an Atari since the department store demo displays appeared somewhere around 1978 or 1979, but my mom insisted I would value the Atari more if I earned it. She was right! I still have it today along with 13 of my original collection of carts - the core favorites that got saved over the years, each one tied to a specific birthday or holiday in my memory.*

 

As a teenager I jumped to the 5200, which I thought was great system even with the non-centering but extremely responsive sticks. But when I went off to college my consoles stayed at home and for many years my gaming was limited to the few arcades that survived into the late 80's and early 90's, plus computer games - lots and lots of computer games from the KayPro2 to the present. During that era my Atari gaming was almost all on Stella and then a Flashback 2 I received as a gift.

My introduction to the 7800 came in spring of this year after I went looking for a way to get some high quality arcade ports into the home without the expense of a full-fledged MAME machine. While I loved the games on the 7800, I was shocked to learn what a wretched turd those guys at Atari Corp/GCC wrought with the Pro Line joysticks. I was then shocked again to learn that no third party manufacturers ever released a good stick for the 7800, that my only option was to play the games I could play with my CX-40, order a set of the poorly-reviewed CX-78’s “Europads” from Best Electronics, or try to build something myself.

 

Well, in real life I own a boutique electronics manufacturing firm called BETAR USA - a company that builds and installs vibroacoustic sound therapy systems and brainwave entrainment devices for spas, resorts, and a variety of "alternative" minded healers and body workers. We've been in this and other product lines since 1978, with a production facility and a staff of technicians already in place. It struck me that I could deliver the kick-ass controllers that have never been commercially available for the 7800.

 

About Our Prices – The retail prices for all of our controllers are definitely more expensive than a gamer with the right skillset could build for themselves, even without the benefit of semi-bulk pricing on components. The premium above the sum of the parts reflects all of the extra costs associated with delivering a ready-to-use controller to the marketplace, such as labeling, packaging, and the labor cost for the assembly and order fulfillment staff. Above those direct costs are the need to be able to share a cut with any distributors who want to sell our products, and the ability for me, Edladdin, to realize a little profit from all this effort.

 

However, in order give back to the AtariAge community that has supported my years of lurking and Stella downloads, all of our products will be discounted to all AtariAge members as noted in the product descriptions. To support the builders, as each product is finalized and released, I will also publish the parts lists and material sourcing information for every part in every controller. Likewise, the drawings for the Seagull 78 PCB will be published and I will make the naked boards available for $5.00 each.

 

Thanks very much for your consideration and feedback! If you told the Atari-obsessed 11 year-old me that I would be in the Atari business 33 years later it would have BLOWN MY MIND.

 

Kindest wishes,

 

Edladdin

 

* Anyone that is interested in seeing my current Atari game collection and wish list can find it at: http://www.betar.com/edladdin/atari-list.pdf

 

---------

 

Note: The coupon codes that facilitate the "AtariAge Prices" mentioned above will be discontinued on January 4, 2016. We hope everyone that was interested was able to utilize these deep introductory discounts.

Edited December 16, 2015 by edladdin

[gambler172]

Looks great.....,

Greetings Walter

[Trebor]

Being honest...account created two days ago and no history outside of "lurker" and download "Stella" leaves me somewhat pessimistic and distrusting. The timing is also pretty coincidental with another member (Since 2008 though ) looking to supply a similar, albeit perhaps less options solution, recently. Competition is always good though - I think.

 

My positive feedback is nice layout and support options. Well thought out, and I'd be lying to say I'm not interested in at least one of the full blown joysticks:

 

1. Super 78 - Least expensive, but still pretty sweet $99

but then again...

 

2. SuperTwin 78 - Dual joystick action - but no pics yet - so hard to make a stronger argument for one, outside of loving the dual joysticks for Robotron and perhaps T:Me Salvo. $129

And yet...

 

3. Seagull 78 v1 - Ergonomics and easy panel access, including left and right handed player support along with a quick fix/switch between 4 and 8-way gaming - Love all of that, for $139 though, hmmm....

 

I would also be lying to not notice the appeal for a $20 adapter solution for a Genesis controller. Easily see me buying two of those.

 

However, at this time I will try to remain cautiously optimistic and watch how this plays out for a while. That's some considerable chunk of change towards someone's products who is a complete newcomer - lurker previously or not. No offense, wish you the best, and truly hope this is all legit.

 

Question: Presuming shipping costs are not included in these prices, what do you estimate is the range of weight and cost to ship the various controllers and adapter?

 

Last question, since you are the first in a long while to promote a 7800 adapter on these boards for an already manufactured controller, while also stating "delivery of...cool accessories"...

 

Any thoughts to ever creating a 7800(/ColecoVision) adapter for this?:

http://www.xgaming.com/store/arcade-joysticks-and-game-controllers/product/x-arcade-solo-joystick/

$59.99

 

It could then be used for the aforementioned 7800/ColecoVision also 2600, Atari 8-bit and Commodore computers to say the least. X-Arcade them-self has claimed not enough interest/customers for such an adapter to be made (They do make adapters though for every Playstation, XBox and various Nintendo consoles - not 8/16-bit though) for the same joystick. Finally, it works out of the Box for the PC/Mac. Again, another benefit.

 

It would save money and resources for all, and if you could do the adapter in the same price range as the Genesis one, ~$20) a $79.99 option would/may be a highly appealing joystick to the community and perhaps yourself included; in addition to 2600, ColecoVision and C64/Atari 8-bit gamers as well.

 

Going crazy with an adapter concept for the above line, you also have dual joysticks options, and dual joysticks with a track-ball too.

[Stun Runner 87]

Cool.

Keep us updated on progress.

Purhaps, i may purchase.

But i think you should make the colrs of your product red and black so it looks more official for Atari consoles.

Edited September 12, 2014 by Stun Runner 87

[edladdin]

Hi Trebor!

 

Thank you so much for sharing your feedback and your concerns about Edladdin Controllers. Its absolutely true that I have zero track record as an active member or a trustworthy vendor in this community. Regarding the former, I have always been a little on the shy side, so I never felt I have had anything much interesting to share in the forums. I DID make one post as "sgtedrock" back in June to share what I had found about the 7800 adapters sold at Best Electronics, but I decided to launch this venture with the "edladdin" username that better fits this mission. I have been saying for years that if I ever won the lottery I would assemble my own coin-op arcade and call it "Edladdin's Castle", a reference to the Midway chain of arcades where I spent endless tokens as a kid.

 

As for the latter, I absolutely understand the concerns you and the others might have. All I can say... I plan to win the confidence of this community a single sale at a time! Very soon we will have the site "www.edladdin.com" up and running, with all sales taking place through a proper e-commerce portal. I will not ask you to send money directly to me!

 

I am also happy to share references from my core business at BETAR USA, where we have been building and selling sound therapy equipment for decades. Our most recent new product there was our brand new Pro 700 amplifier, a two year long development effort that cost us nearly $100,000 to deliver to the finish line. (You can see a flier for this system at the BETAR web site, located here: http://www.betar.com/images/pro-700-flier.pdf ) This weekend I am driving to Austin, TX, to install a Portable Edition BETAR system at a mental health facility there.

 

 

And one more possibility for a reference... FWIW, you are also welcome to pull my ebay feedback as "sgtedrock" and see that I have 100% positive feedback with membership dating since 2000. My most recent purchases there have been some 2600 games and a second 7800 console to use as a test machine at our shop, as well as sales of old/orphaned electronics parts inventories from the same.

 

You are correct about shipping; all prices are before postage. I will have to report back on the shipping weights, as I don't have a shipping scale at my home office. The "Supreme" controllers are definitely going to be heavy due to the oak enclosure. I will post some weight and $$$ estimates next week when I return from Austin.

 

Finally, we are definitely interested in exploring other cool toys for this product line after we get these first items up on their feet. I think that adapter is a great idea. Hopefully the Sega adapter will give us a reality check on how much market there really is for these products. Between paying the engineer and covering the first production run on the Sega adapter PCB, we'll have spent about $650 to get that first one in our hands.

 

Thanks again for your comments! I really appreciate the opportunity for some honest feedback.

 

Best wishes,

 

Edladdin

Edited September 12, 2014 by edladdin

[edladdin]

Ugh - the correct link to that amplifier sales flier is here: http://www.betar.com/images/pro-700-flier.pdf

[fiddlepaddle]

Cautiously interested. Also curious about potential Colecovision applications...

[toiletunes]

or 5200...

[Shawn]

$100 and $129 is just too much for what it is IMHO. Nice looking products for sure don't get me wrong. I personally think they would be more realistically priced at half what your asking considering what it costs for a beveled project box, arcade controls and getting paid for your time. The Genesis adapter sounds interesting if it's housing is clean in the retail verson.

[edladdin]

$100 and $129 is just too much for what it is IMHO. Nice looking products for sure don't get me wrong. I personally think they would be more realistically priced at half what your asking considering what it costs for a beveled project box, arcade controls and getting paid for your time. The Genesis adapter sounds interesting if it's housing is clean in the retail verson.

 

Shawn - thanks so much for your kind words on the appearance of my prototypes!

 

You are definitely correct that a gamer can build these controllers for much cheaper than I can do it commercially in the kind of small volumes that we are expecting. Here is a link to my actual estimate on producing the Super 78 with one stick and two buttons, including part numbers and sources. There are a couple of unknowns shaded in yellow where actual prices have not been nailed down.

 

www.betar.com/edladdin/super-78-cost.pdf

 

The TL:DR summary is:

 

$52.45 - Actual Parts (does not include postage from each vendor to me)

$25.00 - Labor Estimate ($20.00/hr for 1.25 hours)

$ 6.04 - Artwork Estimate + Box for Shipping

$83.49 Total Edladdin Cost

$15.51 Edladdin Profit @ $99 sales price

 

Notes:

1. That labor estimate includes direct labor $ plus taxes/benefits ($15.00/hr + 33%). The time is to punch the holes in the case, assemble, wire, test, clean, and pack for shipping. Frankly, I expect the labor cost to be higher until we get practiced and smooth at building and wiring. The prototype took more like 2.5 hours to build.

2. Another wild card is the 9' cord. For the prototypes, I bought game extension cords off ebay for a delivered price of $9.79 each. My $2.00 estimate assumes I can get these from China without any foolishness. That vendor's published minimum is 500 pieces to get that price. I have a query in for purchase of only 200 cables, which will most likely lead to either rejection or a higher unit cost.

3. Generally speaking if we were going to build 100's of these controllers at a time we could probably cut 1/4 to 1/3 of our parts production cost, plus reduce labor by having cases pre-punched by Hammond.

 

So with all that said, the builder/gamer should be able to build a no-artwork "Super 78" for something in the ballpark of $55 to $65. The extra $ to buy from me is the convenience of being able to take a finished controller right out of the box and go play Atari.

 

Thanks again for your comments!

[Trebor]

Looking forward to what the "artwork" entails. Making a solid first impression thus far, edladdin. Really appreciate the transparency; especially the itemized parts lists in the linked PDF.

For convenience regarding those who don't want to open the link separately:

 

 

Hoping to see some 'final' products soon.

 

Gleaming upon some of my first thoughts/ideas, you too can do the reverse with this joystick (or any other), built for the 7800 specifically, and use this adapter.

 

Now the 7800 specific joystick also makes an excellent arcade joystick for MAME or any other emulator (MESS, Stella, etc.) under Windows/Linux/Mac.

[Shawn]

The cases seem to be where you're getting a lot of overhead for these. I would see if you could find someone willing to sell at $10 a pop for those cases. If you buy 50 of them there is no reason some company wouldn't jump at $500. $9 on the joystick is pretty steep too. Again, bulk would make it better I'm sure. I'd pay right around that for a single unit let alone 50. Real shame there is not a company or companies looking to give you a deep discount.

[SRGilbert]

I'm not sure about the controllers, but I would definitely be in for a couple of those Seagull 78 Genesis adapters. With those I could finally have 2-button compatibility with my Battlestation II controller! Will being keeping an eye on this.

[Stun Runner 87]

I hope someone steps up a creates new atari 5200 controllers.

I hate mine, lol.

[linville]

My $0.02 -- all this low-balling and nickle-n-diming about the price is why there aren't more things made for retro platforms. It is disheartening to put something together only to hear about how it should be sold for half the price in quantities you'll never see...

[Bill Loguidice]

I'm most interested in the "Seagull 78," as that would provide maximum versatility for my particular needs for both the Atari 7800 and ColecoVision.

[+Gemintronic]

I'm interested in the "Seagull 78" as well. Only because it seems to be the only joypad option in your roundup of products. I'd gladly pay for enthusiast craftsmanship rather than an eBay scalper for a CX78.

[Bill Loguidice]

I'm interested in the "Seagull 78" as well. Only because it seems to be the only joypad option in your roundup of products. I'd gladly pay for enthusiast craftsmanship rather than an eBay scalper for a CX78.

 

I dislike the CX78 as well as most NES gamepad-to-7800 conversions. I pretty much have them all. I think as long as it's a digital system (does not use analog controllers), then adapting Genesis stuff is the best bet. Those controllers are plentiful, varied (gamepads and joysticks), and they're still being made today.

[linville]

The SMS joypad is relatively easy to hack into a 7800 joypad, and it doesn't have any extra buttons to aggravate anyone's OCD... :-) It does, however, bring along whatever guilt is associated with killing something vintage to make something new/retro...

[+Gemintronic]

The SMS joypad is relatively easy to hack into a 7800 joypad, and it doesn't have any extra buttons to aggravate anyone's OCD... :-) It does, however, bring along whatever guilt is associated with killing something vintage to make something new/retro...

 

Aye. But, I haven't had tiny hands in over 30 years

[Hyperboy]

A couple seagull 78's for me as well.

[jongolo]

Very interested in a Seagull 78 too!

[coleridge]

I'm interested in the Seagull 78 as well. I'd be down for 2 most likely.

[+GoldenWheels]

Count me in the Seagull 78 "I want one" club. (I do agree with Shawn though that I that want something with a clean housing. Doesn't have to be pretty but I don't want it to look like ass....judging by your other photos I doubt that is a legitimate worry. Your stuff looks very nice.)

[David Alexander]

Hi, interested in the Seagull 78, but will need 2 of them