I saw one of these………

.....today so I thought I’d share.

Emulating an Atari 2600 (VCS) on your PC or Mac is easy. Using an emulator, Stella or Z26, allows you to play classic games like Pitfall and H.E.R.O almost exactly as you did in the late 70's and early 80's. I spent far too many hours in front of a wood panel effect TV, that incidentally matched the Atari’s wood panel almost perfectly, playing on our 2600 and getting a sore palm thanks to the rubbery delight that is the Atari 2600 joystick.

The Atari single button joystick is far from complex, looks rather dull and is best described as workman-like in it’s operation but it got the job done and was a key part of the 2600.

When emulating a game on a modern computer or Mac it’s been difficult if not impossible to use original controllers and this leaves the experience lacking that authentic something. Up, Down, Left, Right arrows and spacebar to jump or shoot is no substitute for an original controller.

Thanks to Atariage.com you can now buy an adaptor, theStelladaptor 2600 to USB Interface, that plugs into your computer and lets you plug in your Atari 2600 compatible controller. No drivers and no messing around. It really is plug and play. The Stelladaptor also recognises the Atari 2600 paddle and driving controllers.

It’s not cheap at $39.95 but worth it if you’re a retro game fan or more specifically an Atari 2600 fan.

For me even certain games became controller specific. Street Fighter II just isn’t Street Fighter II without an SNES pad. Goldeneye 64 needs an N64 controller, PES a PS2 pad, Sonic the Hedgehog has to have a Mega Drive pad, any Commodore 64 game needs a good old Quick Shot 2 joystick and any Forum worth it’s salt needs a Gameov3r.