Chinnyvision Joystick review

[CraigsBar]

OK a good review except for one small oversight....


You missed what is clearly the best of all 8bit era joysticks... the Konix Speedking (Especially the GX4000 versions)


I have one of those Quick Shot Maverick Sticks, the ABCD switch is used to map the buttons correctly for various different systems...


A: Atari 8bit / Commodore C64 / C128
B: MSX
C: Amstrad CPC / GX4000 / Plus
D: Sega Master System


Interestingly C: also disabled the Autofire circuit so that if Autofire is turned ON by mistake then the fire buttons still work.





Craig

[EgoTrip]

The Amsoft JY-1 was the best joystick ever.

I actually hated joysticks and still do. Give me keyboard or a gamepad controls any day. I had a Plus pad for my CPC classic I borrowed from a mate at school, that was great but it had to go back eventually.

[ZbyniuR]

My favourite was Python with rubbers. I hate noisy clickers, and I hate joystick without fire on lever. Anyway now I prefer pads without analogs.

[MacDeath]

speedking, to me the most precise and ergonomic one... (unless you're left handed of armless)

well, not good if one button one and need to use keyboard...

perfect for rick dangerous or tthight shooters and slick platformers...

[sigh]

The sinclair joystick was indeed horrible. There was no decent feedback regardless what game you played. The bug was also horrible for me as it would cramp my hand after about 5 minutes of use. Too small for my hands and the stick itself was uncomfortable to use.

I liked the zip stick and pro 5000.

[VincentGR]

My first computer was a cpc 6128 and the joystick was a quickshot, like that on at the bottom right of yt thumb.
After the destruction of it  I bought a CMS.

Later I ended up with one of these:





Which is still working and I have an armada of them now 

A Greek Pac-Man/Tomahawk joystick made by Anerousis.

[roy bates]

any joystick without microswitches is rubbish...

suckers dont generally work on wood anyway.

plus,joysticks are personal preference like mice..so most will have a biased opinion on preference of make and model.

[remax]

It's wrong that the pads were only sold bundled with gx4000/cpc+

Proof : Official Amstrad GX4000 Controller Original Very Rare Boxed Collectors Item |

[CraigsBar]

My first computer was a cpc 6128 and the joystick was a quickshot, like that on at the bottom right of yt thumb.
After the destruction of it  I bought a CMS.

Later I ended up with one of these:





Which is still working and I have an armada of them now 

A Greek Pac-Man/Tomahawk joystick made by Anerousis.

now *that* ha some serious microswitches.

[VincentGR]

Yes very strong. It makes noise but I love it!!!

[chinnyhill10]

OK a good review except for one small oversight....


You missed what is clearly the best of all 8bit era joysticks... the Konix Speedking (Especially the GX4000 versions)


I have one of those Quick Shot Maverick Sticks, the ABCD switch is used to map the buttons correctly for various different systems...


A: Atari 8bit / Commodore C64 / C128
B: MSX
C: Amstrad CPC / GX4000 / Plus
D: Sega Master System


Interestingly C: also disabled the Autofire circuit so that if Autofire is turned ON by mistake then the fire buttons still work.





Craig

Problem is I can only review what I have. It's not like a game review where you can go online and grab an image and then load it in via the HXC. With joysticks you need to own them and I didn't want to talk about stuff I didn't have to hand.


I did briefly used a Konix back in the late 80's and couldn't get on with it. In fact the Speedking nearly put me off buying a Cheetah Bug! I do however have the Speedking on my wishlist along with a Quickshot 2 Turbo.


Thanks for the Maverick info. Seems they all came with stickers underneath saying what selection did what but mine was in such a terrible state when I got it (cable missing etc) I'm not surprised the sticker was long gone!

[chinnyhill10]

It's wrong that the pads were only sold bundled with gx4000/cpc+

Proof : Official Amstrad GX4000 Controller Original Very Rare Boxed Collectors Item |

Never saw those on sale or even advertised. Not even at the two Amstrad dealers I used to visit. French market only perhaps or via the User Club?

[chinnyhill10]

any joystick without microswitches is rubbish...

suckers dont generally work on wood anyway.

plus,joysticks are personal preference like mice..so most will have a biased opinion on preference of make and model.

One thing I've noticed cleaning up my own joysticks, how many joysticks did we throw away in the 80's because switches stopped working when all they needed was some contact cleaner spraying into them?


The Cheetah Bug for example is dead easy to fix (although not easy at all to reassemble). The microswitches are actually open. Mine arrives barely working yet after 20 minutes cleaning is now nearly good as new (barring the fact I broke the autofire).

[CraigsBar]

One thing I've noticed cleaning up my own joysticks, how many joysticks did we throw away in the 80's because switches stopped working when all they needed was some contact cleaner spraying into them?


The Cheetah Bug for example is dead easy to fix (although not easy at all to reassemble). The microswitches are actually open. Mine arrives barely working yet after 20 minutes cleaning is now nearly good as new (barring the fact I broke the autofire).

The Quick Shot Maverick also uses fully accessible switchgear. Mine got a good cleaning today after noticing that down did not work after testing the ABCD switch and autofire for the post above.


Craig

[Crazy_Borg]

Never saw those on sale or even advertised. Not even at the two Amstrad dealers I used to visit. French market only perhaps or via the User Club?

Tradeinpost sold them for a while for about 10 GBP.
I bought one about a year ago along with other stuff. It's a nice collector's item, I'll hold on to it.

[Gryzor]

Heh, after yesterday's discussion I wanted to post a Pacman/Tomahawk photo but @VincentGR beat me to it.


Seriously though, this was by far the best joystick of the era I've ever seen, nothing ever came close to it...

[VincentGR]

LOL

Here is a recent photo with a scanline feel (view it at 100%)
...and an old rendering on my Amiga with C4D. 

[Gryzor]

You got it a bit too cubic there :p

[VincentGR]

You mean the background at the render pic?
If yes it was my first steps.
Now I am making the new Jurassic park movie HAHAHAHAHHA 

[Gryzor]

No, meant the joystick itself, it was more rounded I think?


Ooh, will Jurassic Park be done on a A500 or what?

[VincentGR]

No, meant the joystick itself, it was more rounded I think?


Ooh, will Jurassic Park be done on a A500 or what?

YES! with my A500 7Mhz.
I will start today and in a couple of decades it will be ready 

[Gryzor]

You mean for the first handful of frames, right?

[VincentGR]

Yeap