atari 2600 trackball controller?

paul · July 7, 2001

i was at the thrift store the other day and noticed a couple atari 2600's behind the counter. next to them was a plastic bag of joysticks & paddles, and something i haven't seen before, a blue and yellow trackball controller. when i asked how much, the cashier told me was part of a set being sold (w/ an atari 2600 console) and was $66.00, i passed on it. but now i'm curious, it that blue and yellow trackball and atari 2600 controller, or something else just mixed it?

paul · July 8, 2001

yes, that's the right one. i assume it works with games like missile command? maybe i'll go back and try to get them to sell it seperatly, this thrift store is usually not willing to negotiate price. i once found several 2600 cartridges there, all but one was priced 99 cents. the q-bert cartridge was priced $2.95 for some reason and the cashier wouldn't come down on the price to match the others. i might give it try though.

Eckhard Stolberg · July 8, 2001

No, the unroller controller is nothing more than a normal joystick that has a bowl for the control instead of a stick. They might be alright for some of the 8-bit applications that supported joystick input to move a 'mouse pointer', but for games they are pretty uncomfortable.

And as a serious word of warning, whatever you do never try to use the unroller controllers for a competetive game of Decathlon. I think the pair that a friend of mine won from a magazine still has the bloodstains on them from the one time when he thought that it would be a good idea not to use his good joysticks for this game anymore.

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

BigSurUser · July 13, 2022

I once played pole position with one those controllers it was no walk in the park but was the only controller I had at the time. The original Console Era long long long before the internet, and there was also the Arcade Era if only I could live Again I would do that Again. lol