Can anyone ID this joystick for me?

[Daviea]

A company back east hired me to reproduce 500 of these little joysticks in December.  I just finished the job and discovered that the company is no longer in business.  I was paid, so I didn't eat it on the deal.  Anyhow, nobody ever told me what the joystick was for and I don't personally recognize the part.  I only took a single NOS part and reproduced it.  I took a picture showing the NOS part on the left and the REPRO part on the right.  A quarter is also pictured for size reference.  Can anyone ID this part for me?  Incidentally, it uses 150K pots.  Tell me this isn't a dead-on reproduction!  :-)

[Kaytrim]

So in other words you are stuck with 500 tiny analog joysticks and no interfaces.  I doubt that these would be for arcade machines due to the small size.  It is possible that they could be used in game pads as a thumb joy.  They could also be used in remote controls for RC vehicles.

Just my thoughts,

TTFN 
Kaytrim

[shardian]

I would say that these are from a higher end r/c controller. Helicopters and such use full analog controls.

[horseboy]

Are they self centering?

[knave]

Those would be sweet to use on a RC car...

[Daviea]

These are not self centering.  However, given some time, I could upgrade them to be self centering.  All I would need to do is remake the gimbals with a nub to attach a lever/spring assembly.

David

[SavannahLion]

I remember from my youth an arcade game that used a non-centering joystick that looks like that, but I doubt was actually that small. Hard to remember since I was little myself and size tends to get skewed as you get older. I'm not sure but I think it had a tiny plastic knob on top, so I suppose if you pry it off it might look like your replica.

I have no idea what the name of it was, it looked a lot like Star Raiders for the Atari. The main reason I bought SR years later 'cause I thought it was the same game.

[RayB]

Anyone have a Vectrex controller they want to crack open? That's what comes to my mind when I see those...

[Organic Jerk]

Maybe a company search will help determine what the joysticks were for.... what's the defunct company's name?

Good work there... 

[SavannahLion]

Ok, I finally found it. It was Tailgunner that I was thinking of. The joystick looks too large though. Oh well, it was a nice try.

At least I found info on another arcade game I've been looking for. 

[JustMichael]

Tell me this isn't a dead-on reproduction!  :-)

It isn't.  The shape of the plastic the metal shaft comes out of is different.

[SavannahLion]

What are you going to do with them? Sell them, use them in a new boardgame, stick them to the cat?

[Crowquill]

While I'm not familiar with the industry you're in, wouldn't it be a good idea to have asked what it was from in the first place? I would think that not asking could lead to patent infringement.

[ahofle]

Tell me this isn't a dead-on reproduction!  :-)

It isn't.  The shape of the plastic the metal shaft comes out of is different.

I think you're confusing the corner piece with the center plastic.  It looks like it's attached to the center but it's not.

[Daviea]

Tell me this isn't a dead-on reproduction!  :-)

It isn't.  The shape of the plastic the metal shaft comes out of is different.

It's the photograph.  My reproduction of the part is identical to the NOS part.  I took another picture with a different angle which shows the top of the joystick a little better.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with these parts yet.  Maybe I'll design a product which can use them in some way. 

As for the company that hired me, I'd really rather not say.  However, they did provide me with hard copies of their original design specs which leads me to believe that they were the ones who originally had the part made.

BTW, I'm sure this joystick wasn't used in a Vectrex or Tailgunner (I own a Tailgunner 2).  Thanks for the input guys.

David

[u_rebelscum]

A company back east hired me to reproduce 500 of these little joysticks in December.  I just finished the job and discovered that the company is no longer in business.  I was paid, so I didn't eat it on the deal.  Anyhow, nobody ever told me what the joystick was for and I don't personally recognize the part.  I only took a single NOS part and reproduced it.  I took a picture showing the NOS part on the left and the REPRO part on the right.  A quarter is also pictured for size reference.  Can anyone ID this part for me? 

My guesses:

Could it be one of those snapsticks in World Series and the like?  IIRC the spring(s) was(were) mounted external to the case.  There were two competing models of the the snapsticks: a closed box with the POTs on the inside of a black box case, and ones sort of like yours.

Another guess is a (newer) repro of the "gamepad sticks" on the Quasimoto Control panel.

Incidentally, it uses 150K pots.  Tell me this isn't a dead-on reproduction!  :-)

IIRC, the snapsticks used 50K POTS.  Maybe the quasimotos?

[Kremmit]

Those aren't the Leland snapsticks, and I think the Quasimodo is self-centering.  I've never seen an arcade stick that looked like that, and the Leland sticks are the only ones I can think of that were even close to that size.  (they're bigger)

I also think that there's a (admittedly small) market for self-centering sticks like the ones on the Quasimodo.  As more modern console emulation comes onboard, like PS2 and Xbox, some cab builders are going to want to try thumbsticks on their control panels.  Quasimodo won't sell theirs, the dirty dogs.  Won't sell their analog buttons, either.

[horseboy]

It looks a lort like the joystick discussed in this thread.



I bought one with the intentions of seeing if I could get it to self center and interface it with a ps2 controller. The place I bought it from sold electronic music equipment, I think, so this joystick may have something to do with that. If you could get that thing to autocenter and some smart fellow could figure out how to get it to work with a ps2 controller, then you might have something that quite a few people around here might want. I would probably take a few if that were the case.