Did anyone actually use joysticks?

[bluespikey]

There were all sorts of different interface options in games. But did anyone use joysticks in preference to keyboard? Did you still go full QWERT in Sabrewulf over a Kempston?

There doesn't seem to be much discussion on here over joysticks and the merits of different interfaces. I sometimes blew the dust off Quickshot2 when playing a flight simulator, but generally went back to keys anyway. I'm not aware of joysticks being available for modern keyboards even.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Did you still go full QWERT in Sabrewulf over a Kempston?

Games like Sabre Wulf, Atic Atac or The Way of the Exploding Fist were the main reason I got a joystick.

In these cases, there's no compare.

[PQR]

Absolutely. The first hardware purchase after the Spectrum 48K itself was a Kempston joystick interface together with a Suzo The Arcade joystick. A few years later I got a RAM Turbo interface which had two ports and supported Kempston, Interface II and Cursor protocols. I really liked that interface since it also had a reset button.

Pretty much all Ultimate games are unplayable on a keyboard to me.
And to share a single keyboard in two player games is also... pretty awkward!

[1024MAK]

I got a Sinclair Interface 2 as a present (can’t remember if it was a birthday or Christmas) and a joystick. It changed my life with game playing!

Then came the disappointment some months later when I broke the joystick That started my quest to find a sturdy good quality joystick…

Where the game had a joystick option, for the vast majority of games, that definitely improved my experiences

It also enabled you to sit in a more comfortable position and not having to sit close to the computer.

Mark

[Jbizzel]

I got 2 joysticks with my +2a at Christmas about 33 years ago. I never played with keys unless absolutely necessary.

Although now I mix and match:)

[Mpk]

And to share a single keyboard in two player games is also... fraught with unbearable sexual tension

Fixed

[Pobulous]

Rubber keys are way better than joysticks. No chance of problematic diagonals, multiple fire buttons within easy reach.

The biggest downside to the rubber keyboard is the key conflicts, but these can be worked with.

[Mpk]

We got a Quickshot at one point and used it until it broke, but I used to switch to keys for more precision. So long as there were redefinable keys, I was happy. There was never any impetus to replace the Quickshot.

Then joypads happened, and that was it for the joystick, outside of flight sims.

[Turtle_Quality]

Joystick perfection. Used them back in the day, still use them now ... where "up down left right fire" makes sense

Then again, games requiring extra keys like Lunar Jetman always worked better with the keyboard

[Arcachnar]

To be honest, I still need a good (or awesome) joystick (and an interface) to use on my zx spectrum plus. One of the things that I have lost (or went missing) a couple of years ago. Well....I actually DO have a joystick, but has some problems.





The down thrust is very irratic and needs some force. Do not know if it can be fixed. But as far I can remember this kind of problem is usual with this joystick.

[1024MAK]

Lunar Jetman always worked better with the keyboard being operated with two people! And even then we never completed it

Mind, the other friends falling about laughing behind us didn’t help…

Mark

[PeteProdge]

Keyboard almost all the time, it just has that precision.

I should explain that I came into the Speccy world with the grey 128K +2, bundled with the laughably bad Sinclair SJS2 joystick. The disparity between the quality of the keyboard and the joystick could be measured in galaxies.

I did quite like one of the Konix Speedkings a mate had, very nice clicky feedback, pretty damned close to a generic arcade cabinet (the gold standard IMO), but it didn't really make me play any better.

For general emulation (I emulate all sorts of systems - micros, consoles, handhelds, arcade, etc) connected to a proper television, I do use PlayStation-style joypads (kind of PS2-PS3 era), which is a controller I don't believe can be bettered. It's useless for Chaos though!

[XTM]

I didn't have a Joystick interface for my 16 and 48k machines, but my brother built me an Atari to Sinclair adapter for my Speccy +2 so I used a bunch of cheapo Joysticks with it. Since it was a bare-bones adapter eventually one or two of the soldered cables came off. At that point I was scared of trying to use the solder iron and my brother was often angry so I was also scared of asking him to re-solder the bits - back to keys I went

But no problem really, I always found the keyboard on the +2 to be more responsive than joysticks.

Nowadays whenever I see/hear people (mainly on some retro events or in videos) playing games with one of those super loud microswitch joysticks like the Competition Pro, I can't help but feeling annoyed at the ridiculous noise some sticks emit ... clicky-clickety-click.

[Nitrowing]

QuickShot 2 all the way!
I had an Atari one too as a back up but the QS2 was (is) perfect.

[smurphboy]

Like others, it was a mixed economy. I started with keys only, then got an original Kempston i/f with a Competition Pro (leaf switches). Then I got a COMCON and a modified Comp Pro with 2 fire buttons. Then I got a Konix Speedking which I loved.

I played most arcade adventures on keys, but SHMUPS like Slap Fight or Flying Shark needed a stick. Decathlon / Hypersports were played on keys as I feared for my joystick.

For me. the authentic speccy experience is keys, not joystick. I save that for a Zipstick and Amiga 500 / 1200 memories

[Sol_HSA]

We went through a ton of joysticks (thanks, sports games) but we did also wear down the keyboard membrane at least once so it had to be replaced..

The most memorable joystick was the better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be terminator. The one that looked like a grenade.

[Alessandro]

I was gifted an Altai Kempston-compatible joystick like the one in the photo below by my Dad in 1985 so that I could play Daley Thompson's Decathlon and similar games properly. The joystick was rather flimsy, but worked nonetheless.



For everything else, I always used the keyboard.

[uglifruit]

Keyboard all the way for me, really.




I rather enjoy the biographical wear on one of my Spectrums.

Q,A,O,P,M and Q,Z,I,P,N (plus Enter and Space, Caps and Symbol Shift) have taken masses more wear than any other keys. Which seems about right for my use.

[kokkiklhs]

Keyboard for life!!!

My first (1985) own computer was a Spectrum+ and I remember playing arcade games with extreme accuracy using the keys, way better than any joystick. I surely had joystick experience from schoolmates with Atari or Commodore and I liked it on such systems, but for me playing on the Speccy was (and still is) absolutely associated to keyboard use and I think that this is one of the best distincive attributes of Spectrum gaming!

After so many years I came across a Kempston interface and tried it with Competition Pro and some of my favourite games, but this just wasn't the genuine speccy feeling... so I simply abandoned the idea and went back to the fabulous, old and trusty Q/A/O/P/SPACE/ENTER!
The silly thing is that I love the Competition Pro for playing e.g. on the Amiga... but when I first got my hands on an Amiga (1988) I've been kind of frustrated with the fact that almost all games lacked a keyboard option!!

[worcestersource]

My GCSE Craft, Design and Technology project was to make a joystick. The handle and trigger buttons were nicely shaped from MDF and I learnt to turn wood in making the base (four oversized circular corners, two housing fire buttons). I discovered turning wood on a lathe is actually rather satisfying.

I also had some fun bending spring steel and making a simple circuit for directions. The cable was snaffled from a broken joystick and the fire buttons on the base were tops of my mum’s Timotei shampoo bottles.

Even better, I got to take my Speccy into school to demonstrate it worked. It did, justabout, and I got to play R-Type during a lesson. It was 1993, though, so wasn’t that cool.

Even though the school was pretty rubbish at teaching CDT back then, I was really fascinated by the projects we did and the skills I picked up have served me well as an adult.

Steve

[worcestersource]

But otherwise, no, we didn’t really use joysticks in our house and the two we had got destroyed by us kids fighting over them.

Steve

[stupidget]

When we had our Dragon 32 we used the joystick as most of the games were only playable with a joystick. Adventure games being the obvious exception

When I got my speccy after the Dragon died I played every single game using the keyboard. It was only when I got my +2 that I actually had a joystick and even then I preferred to play games using keys.

[Andre Leao]

" Did you still go full QWERT in Sabrewulf over a Kempston?"

Don´t use joystick, only keys. And never play games using QWERT or similar. That includes some of the Ultimate games, the main reason I didn´t buy most of their games...

[flatduckrecords]

My GCSE Craft, Design and Technology project was to make a joystick. [...] It was 1993, though, so wasn’t that cool.

Well I think that's very cool! Do you still have it, or any pictures you can share?

Similarly, I did a crash-Higher in Graphic Communication (CDT but without the 'C' I suppose) so we didn't actually make anything, but we were required to disassemble a "household object" and draw up plans, exploded diagrams, etc. I chose my favourite joystick (I think this was '99 so neither my Spectrum nor the joystick had seen much use for a while). It was^* a QuickShot Pro II.



Nowadays I've come to appreciate the precision of keyboard controls (and usually use that TBH) but I've realised it depends on the game.

Then joypads happened, and that was it for the joystick, outside of flight sims.

Yeah, the classic MegaDrive controller still holds up I reckon. I've been playing Nothing lately and that feels like a control pad game to me.

* It lived in bits in a bag for years but I don't think it survived the cull during a subsequent house move. No idea what happened to the coursework, but I vividly remember crunching over the Easter hols to get it done.

[g0blinish]