Old School Classic Atari 2600 Joystick Rocks

March 2nd, 2010 |

Ok, admit it, nothing in video games today even comes close to those classic Atari video games. I remember my original Atari 2600 game system in my younger days, and thought to myself, this is the coolest thing yet.

Who new, in 2010 that we would still be talking about the system that started it all. Way before Nintendo blew everyone away with the original 8-bit Nintendo system.

The farther we get away from the 1980s, the more we want those retro toys back in our hands.

Retro Thing, (my new place for great retro toys and more website) have released their own version of the classic Atari 2600 joystick, the Retro Thing Clear Classic Joystick is available for $29.95 from Reflex Audio.

This version is made from clear plastic and when you plug it in it lights up with a blue LED glow. Reminds me of the color blue from Tron.

Scene from 1982

The Clear Classic USB Joystick package includes the Stella Atari 2600 emulator and over 80 games. Classics like Pacman 4K, Seawolf, Atari 2600 Soccer, Ladybug, and Invaders Plus. The joystick is compatible with almost any emulator that runs Atari, Amiga and Commodore software and even supports MAME and modern games that use a standard USB joystick.

TV Effects make LCD monitors look 1980s old-school

A classic 8-bit game played on a modern LCD doesn’t look quite right. The colors are too precise, the graphics too angular. There’s no ghosting as the TV tube lags behind the on-screen action. The experience is too sterile.

To solve this problem, Stella includes TV Effects such as Color Texture, Image Noise and Color Bleed to reproduce the imperfections of a tube TV.

Here’s a look at LadyBug with TV Effects added to the left side of the screen. Unlike the 1980s, you can make the image as clean or noisy as you wish.

The USB controller board can be removed from the stick and used as a MAME cabinet interface. It includes 8 additional connectors on the board for buttons and joystick inputs.

*Some information comes from the Reflex Audio website.