6502wrangler

It’s harder because the centering is done by a spring and needs to be calibrated (which is why the Apple II joysticks you mentioned had those little trim adjustments on the bottom). That’s why the Apple’s analog stick was pretty wonky from game to game (and most games ignored it anyway). The 5200 joysticks are almost trivial to deal with. They are essentially two paddles (one for X and one for Y). I suspect Atari’s engineers realized (wisely) that needing to trim controllers on a game console wasn’t compatible with the target audience. In addition, the spring is yet another thing to break and given how unreliable the 5200 joysticks were already, it’s probably a good thing they weren’t self-centering.

The analog joystick wasn’t a feature, though. Along with cost, that joystick is part of the reason the 5200 failed. A self-centering analog joystick is a much harder peripheral to interface than the joystick that came with the 5200. I don’t have any specific information but I suspect Atari tried but couldn’t make the joystick self-centering.

I am a huge fan of De/Vision. Have listened to them for over 25 years. I immediately went searching for that image. They are extremely influenced by Depeche Mode for sure. In my opinion DM has drifted and since maybe 2000 or so De/Vision is what DM should be.

What happened to the Amico forum? It appears to be gone. I just saw Tommy Tallarico’s final post inviting people to the Amico Facebook group. Maybe that was against policy? If this isn’t a glitch, why nuke them rather than lock them?

It was a general video game (and home computer crash). Lots of platforms disappeared, lots of arcades and software houses went under. For instance, Colecovision and ADAM collapsed, TI-99 collapsed, HESware (big early game publisher) collapsed and so on. It was bad and way beyond Atari. Even Amiga pivoted from a games console to a home computer. On the other hand, I really enjoyed getting tons of 2600 and C64 games super cheap. I did not really understand what was going on. The golden age for flea markets was 1990 to 1995. I built my collection for a song. My big win was a 5200 and 15 games for $25. And the controllers weren’t even broken!

That sucks. Do you have a copyright on it?

I was a big 7800 and 2600 guy in those days (got the 2600 in ‘81 and the 7800 I think in ‘89). I wish I had known about this newsletter at the time. How did you find out about it? I’m wondering if I should buy the book.

And now they release some new 2600 carts… but they are way overpriced and the project so far is hopelessly incompetent. That’s Nutari for you.

Yep. Let’s see. In a year maybe we will all be staying in Atari Hotels, playing Atari video games, wearing Atari speaker hats, and getting rich off AtariCoin. Or maybe it won’t happen. We will see.

Put down the crack pipe and let’s see in a year. Either the VCS will take the world by storm, with a strong media presence, corporate partners, and blockbuster sales. Or it won’t. Only time will tell.

Why would they need more systems in place? They aren’t selling all the ones they have. They’ve been in stock at the Microcenter near me since release without selling out. Microcenter even reduced the price. The fact that, even in the supply shortage, they can’t sell the small number of units they’ve managed to build is worrisome.

5 bucks it’s our Cat friend.

Why do you keep trying to change the subject? This is an Atari VCS thread.

https://republic.co/intellivision-amico