Atari CX40 joystick
[3] The CX40 has been called "the pinnacle of home entertainment controllers in its day",[4] and remains a staple of industrial design discussions.
A number of more robust third-party alternatives were available in a thriving market, but generally at much higher prices[6][a] so they never achieved widespread popularity in comparison to the CX40.
[citation needed] The Atari-style joystick declined in popularity as games relied on multiple buttons for gameplay.
Four cylindrical protrusions on the inside of the base hold a printed circuit board (PCB) above the bottom, roughly centered vertically.
The PCB connects the switches to pins in the 9-pin D-connector that leads to the console via a cutout in the upper right corner of the base.
[11] The stick itself is a moulded polypropylene form consisting of a hollow vertical cylinder with a hemispherical dome at one end.
Cutouts in the hemisphere make the fingers mechanically separate from the main section of the stick, allowing them to flex so they do not press too hard on the switches.
These push down on the flexible section of the hemisphere, providing a centering force that returns the stick to the upright position when pressure is released.
[13] This was especially common in games that required the user to fire repeatedly or hold down the button for long periods, like Eastern Front (1941).
Modifications using suction cups, also found on some 3rd party sticks, were generally regarded as more trouble than they were worth.
Many of these[b] had the word "ATARI" printed in white letters on a thin metal plate at the very top of the stick.
When the stick was moved, it pressed on the spring, eventually providing enough force to bend that section of the plate down until the two metal bars made contact.
[18] This operation required more physical motion to depress the switches than on the CX40, and the CX10 is generally considered to be less suitable for gaming.
[1] The CX40 was designed by James Asher[11] to replace the CX10, with the aim of greatly improving its ability to be inexpensively mass-produced.
Released in the summer of 1983, the CX842 "Remote Control Wireless Joystick" was a rebranded version of the Cynex Game Mate 2.
This was essentially a very small version of the CX40 mounted on top of a trigger-style handle with a fire button on the front.
The Suncom Slik-Stik was slightly more modified with the case rounded off and a large red plastic ball at the tip of a shortened stick.
[26] For the VIC-20, Commodore International introduced a joystick that was essentially identical to the Atari model with the exception that the top plate on the base was white instead of black.
[29][30] The Wico Command Control was one of the earliest examples of a stick that differed radically from the Atari pattern in mechanical terms.
[31] The base was greatly enlarged with the specific intent of making it useful in one-handed play, which operated in concert with the stick-top button.
Later versions added a switch for "autofire" that caused the fire button to be repeatedly pressed while held down, and even later the bat-like handle was replaced by a ball like those found on arcade sticks.
Like the Competition Pro, the 500XJ's mechanism was based around a steel shaft pressing on microswitches and offered a similar feel.
More importantly, the base of the unit was completely changed, consisting of a moulded form that was designed to be easily gripped by the left hand with the index finger naturally positioned over a fire button located on the bottom right side of the case.
[32][failed verification] Early gamepads were essentially CX40s with the base exposed to the user and the joystick on top removed.
The Atari joystick was so popular that adaptors for its standard of connector were available for platforms like the Apple II and IBM PC.
[34][20] There were even factory modified CX40s, notably the Trisstick from Big Five Software, that placed the converter electronics inside the CX40 case and replaced the cable with one suitable for the TRS-80.
