IT'S A STICK-UP

Whatever happened to the days of all joysticks being a small base with a stick in the middle and a fire button that never worked? Today they look more like something from the control panel of an F-16 and get bigger and sillier all the while. Nick Roberts and Mark Caswell delve into the CRASH joystick bin to discover whether the joystick really is a gamesplayer's best friend...

Euromax
£24.95

NICK: You've got to be joking! This is so rubbish I couldn't stand using it for more than one game! You put your foot down on the pedal and all you hear is a bang - the sound of the plastic pedal against the plastic base. Eventually you do get some response from it (after a few more bangs). I found that my feet and legs began to ache soon after starting to use the Turbo Pedal, making playing a long racing game an agonising experience. A few suckers on the base wouldn't have gone amiss as the thing keeps sliding away from your foot!

IT'S A STICK-UP

Whatever happened to the days of all joysticks being a small base with a stick in the middle and a fire button that never worked? Today they look more like something from the control panel of an F-16 and get bigger and sillier all the while. Nick Roberts and Mark Caswell delve into the CRASH joystick bin to discover whether the joystick really is a gamesplayer's best friend...

Euromax
£29.95

MARK: Let's face it, remote control sticks are a very expensive gimmicks that serve little purpose. Although this one works pretty well there seems to be a slight delay between you pressing the button and on-screen response. The stick is a rather natty grey colour with two firebuttons both on the shaft, though the handle isn't moulded and I found that prolonged use cramped ny hand. There are plenty of cheaper 'normal' sticks on the market, and in my opinion the Challenger will only be bought by people interested in gimmicks.

The Pro Ace looks utterly tremendous - all black, with a bright red fire button and direction indicators - but it's awkward to hold, unresponsive and a rather poor show overall!

Performance on Uridium:

I skimmed over the first Dreadnought's surface, unsuccessfully struggling to hold the blasted thing without partially paralyzing my hand. Firing is very hard work. You've got to push the button firmly home before you get any response. It's very strong - but that's really all I could say for it.

Performance on Winter Games:

This stick seems to perform best when only minor accuracy is required. On the long events. such as speed skating, it works quite well, although hard work, owing to the power of the sell-centring mechanism. The fire-button was barely adequate.

Price: £8.95 (Pro-Ace)/£12.95 (Micro-Ace)

Both the Pro Ace and Micro Ace look exactly the same. The only difference is that the Pro is leaf switch operated and the Micro Ace uses microswitches.

Both look like mini pyramids and have a wide fire button at the front. The Micro Ace gives a relatively good feel and is quite accurate. The Pro Ace, because it uses leaf switches, requires excessive movements to create any response at all.

The price for the Pro Ace seems fair, although having to pay £12.95 for the Micro Ace, I'd rather save a quid and buy the Elite instead!

Price: £24.95

The Micro Handler is, I can only describe as, as an all purpose joystick, due to the fact, that it consists of a variety of joystick gadgets which include two paddles, an autofire switch, a couple of buttons and of course the joystick handle itself.

All of these are contained within a sturdy rectangular metal box, with four suction cups at it's base. It is easily positioned neatly and comfortably upon the lap, or can be placed on a table top and held steady, via the suction cups.

The joystick handle is a real beaut, with only one finger, it is possible to sway ail eight directions. To go with the auto-fire switch, is an auto-fire speed controller. which can speed up or slow down the pulse rate of the auto-fire mechanism.

The fire buttons are just that little bit dodgy. When using them in a rapid motion, they often become stuck, if pressed at an angle. The only way round this is, of course, to press them carefully. Overall, the Micro Handler is a must for all dedicated gamesters and is worthy of adding to your joystick collection.

ULTIMATE STANDARD JOYSTICK

Euromax £11.95

Euromax produce joysticks for arcade machines, so you'd expect them to come up with something like this - a huge design with lots of fire buttons; two on either side of the stick to suit leftor right-handed players. The stick is made of metal and firmly secured within the base. Subsequently, there's very little chance of it breaking off.

It's also very responsive. The fire buttons could have been improved but an excellent variable autofire option compensates.

TURBO PEDAL
Euromax £14.95

This unit simulates the accelerate and brake foot pedals of a car. You plug the foot controller into the joystick port then plug your normal joystick into the Turbo Pedal. It then takes over the up and down controls of the joystick, which is used for left, right and fire controls only. Most car/motorcycle games use these controls so this is great. One problem we had was that the Pedal isn't heavy enough and subsequently flies over the floor when in use. A few carpet grips on the bottom would have been appreciated. At first, it's also pretty difficult to ignore the up and down of the joystick but this is soon mastered.

BATTLEFIELD JOYSTICK

Joysticks are your most immediate connection with any game you play - the man-machine interface. The melting joystick makes a nice image for an advertiser who's suggesting that his games can beat anything, but do joysticks in real life really stand up to the beating they receive, are they tough enough for the job, do they move well, are the handles right, will the buttons fire?

The CRASH reviewing team settled down for a weekend of joystick bashing on several types and makes, and here we look at the results...

There are now many makes of joystick available, and almost as many types as there are makes. Each boasts design innovations so that it is better than all the others - and they come in a range of prices too. We all know that joysticks on arcade machines take a battering, so too do those at home. Do they stand up? We tested 19 joysticks from well known manufacturers to see how they all compared.

A joystick must be able to withstand games that require fast and repeated movement, so what better than Ocean's Daley Thompson's Decathlon? We used the Commodore version of the game because it is more violent than the Spectrum! But it isn't only toughness; joysticks must also be capable of fine and positive movement, comfortable to use with sensible fire buttons. Several arcade skill games were used to test four major points for both the stick action and the fire button action.

TRAVEL means the maximum movement between opposite poles (e.g. up/down) on the stick, and how far the fire button had to be depressed. On stick action over 1.5 inches was considered to be very long. Oddly, some of the short sticks had longer to travel than the taller sticks.

ACTION FORCE means the amount of hand or finger pressure required to keep the stick pressed over or the fire button down.

REACTION SPEED indicates how fast contact is made, how quickly the action affects the game, and how well rapid movements can be made (especially rapid fire buttons).

RESPONSE/FEEDBACK indicates how positive the stick or fire action feels and whether there is any physical or audible feedback to tell the player that contact has been made.

ERGONOMICS how useful is the stick for hand held playing, and how well does it operate on a table top. Is the stick well designed for comfort, ease of fire action and general stability.

After preliminary testing, the joysticks all went through ten minutes of the Decathlon to see how long they were likely to stand up to use. During this test, some joysticks broke.

Finally, all the sticks have 9 pin D connectors and are Atari compatible on the pin outs. They all need an interface of one sort or another to work with the Spectrum (except the clip-ons). Some offer 2 independent fire actions, but these only work with either a Cambridge interface or the programmable Comcon from Frei Ltd., which was the interface used for this test.

Each joystick review is split into two halves; firstly a brief technical breakdown; secondly the review team's report.

FLIGHTLINK

Supplier: Flightlink Control Ltd., Unit 12, The Maltings, Turk Street, Alton, Hants., Tel. (0420) 87241

Price: £10.50

Lever Action: Short Steel short suspended in brass bell bush and compression spring for self-centering action. Plastic bush activates subminiature microswitches.

Fire Action: 2 miniature square fire buttons at 6 o'clock. Two independent fire actions in combination with appropriate interface.

Ergonomics: No rubber feet. Lever shaped body for handheld operation. Left and right-handers welcome.

Lead: D type connector with plastic cover. No grommet

Weak point: Lead entry point unprotected.

STICK ACTION

Travel: long.
Action force: very light
Reaction speed: fast.
Response/feedback: good, positive lock at end of travel for secondary compass points, but tends to slide on primary compass points (left/right/up/down).

FIRE ACTION

Travel: medium long.
Action force: light.
Reaction speed: fast - good for rapid fire.
Response/feedback: some slack but reasonably firm and positive.

Ergonomics: handheld is very good because of small size and light weight but overall a bit pathetic on the table top. The 2 independent fire buttons are in a straight line, which make them a bit awkward for table use, as supporting hand is in the way.

Life expectancy: because of fight action and metal construction, stands up to a hard game very well. Life should be quite good.