With the rise of the gamepad courtesy of several generations of game consoles, the joystick has become an almost forgotten peripheral, it has moved into the world of flight simulators, and its design tends to mimic aircraft joysticks. Classic joysticks of the 8- and 16-bit era were much more functional devices, Space Invader Than Microsoft Flight SimulatorAnd this is one of them [Rob Smith] Rebuilt in 3D printed form.
The design he came up with carries a strong resemblance to the gypstick, a classic stick that he already had. It is a fairly simple device that uses a microswitch for all contacts and thus very difficult. He made a 3D-printed shaft but did not believe in its power, so he copied the original using a metal shaft with a pair of circles. We think of our gypstick as a steel shaft; He replaced that with aluminum. A simple jig and a hacks also allow him to make grooves for the circuses, resulting in a sturdy ZipStik clone that can satisfy any retro gamer.
The stick is wired to an Amiga and has a 555-based fast-fire circuit, but that’s not the end of the electronics because he also created a USB interface for the Amiga joystick to go with it. Not everyone has a classic machine, so now everyone can enjoy the retro peripheral experience! Both builds can be seen in the videos below the break.
This isn’t the first Amiga joystick we’ve brought to you, but it’s more sophisticated than some of the previous designs.