What can I do with this crazy old pot-based joystick

[quarterback]

Anybody remember these?   



This is a joystick from my old old TRS-80 days.  I dug it out a while back and I'm wondering if there's anything that can be done with it.

It has a free-floating (non-return-to-center) joystick, which really really SUCKED for playing Pac-Man way-back-when.   So I guess I wasn't surprised when I opened it up and realized there were pots inside instead of switches.



So, is there any way to put this to good use?   Any way to interface it with my MAME setup?  Any reason to go to the trouble?   It's got this 5-pin DIN kind of connection. 

[Witchboard]

Doesn't Randy make a product that interfaces with POTs?  Maybe it would be a good flight stick or something.

[TheCaptain]

Throw it at some kids. Those darn punks need some straightening out.

[Crazy Cooter]

Mini-motorcycle bars.

[quarterback]

Mini-motorcycle bars.

http://www.carolinamcevents.com/bbrest/bbrest.html ?

[Tahnok]

Isn't that the kind of joystick that is in the Quasicade panels? It may work well for running console games on your cabinet.

[M3talhead]

Auction it on eBay as a "rare, priceless collectable".

[quarterback]

Isn't that the kind of joystick that is in the Quasicade panels? It may work well for running console games on your cabinet.

That's what I was thinking.   I'm just not sure how to hook it up.   After Witchboard's post, I did some investigating.  I'm not sure if RandyT make's something for this, but I think the Ultimarc A-Pac would work, but I'm not really interested in dropping any significant money (more than $20 max) on this 'project'.

Auction it on eBay as a "rare, priceless collectable".

Now we're talkin! 

[Tahnok]

You could contact this guy and see if he could hack it for you:

www.retrousb.com

He would probably charge more than the cost of an encoder, but it would be easier.

[quarterback]

Wow, that's pretty cool.  Thanks for the link tahnok100!

[divemaster127]

Boy that stick brings back memorys, I used to years those a long long time ago

[NoOne=NBA=]

First thing that came to mind for me is a Tailgunner CP.

[ErikRuud]

Tailgunner! That was my thought as well.

Hack it with a cheap analog stick.  1Up's Star Wars yoke instructions would probably come in handy.

I might have to go and find one of those.  Tailgunner was one of my favorites.

[dphirschler]

I have a similar joystick that I have been planning to use specifically for Tailgunner.  Frankly, I don't know what else it's good for.


Darryl

[USSEnterprise]

The connector looks the same as that used on an old AT computer keyboard

[Shifty]

PC pots range from 0 to 150 kohm. According to this page ( http://users.erols.com/tiltonj/games/tech/cococont.html ) the pots are 60 kohm, not big enough for the PC. You'll have to do some serious mods to make it work, and make a new connector. Is it really worth it? Those sticks were pretty horrible. 

I've done some mods on joysticks, this page has some good info on joysticks.
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/joystick/pc_joystick.html .