Commissioned by Jon Gibson for the i am 8 bit art show in LA, this is exactly what you think it is: a big, 15x scale, working Atari joystick! I had cabinetmaker Dan Fill help me with the cutting of the big pieces and some of the assembly, and the electronics are really embarassingly crude. But, then again, so is the real one. It’s pretty much five switches made from screws and aluminum flashing, bungie cord springing, and a golf ball as a pivot.

But it’s fun! And very, very ungainly. And people tend to climb all over it and beat the crap out of it.

If, for some reason, you’d like to a copy of the plans I used to make the stick, enjoy.

Also, here’s a link to the Make: magazine article about the joystick, and there’s other articles about it out there, too.

And, even more exciting, I got interviewed about it by the great Mark Frauenfelder over at BoingBoingTV: