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Games Entertainment

Ten-in-1 Atari Joystick Available 361

Posted by michael from the no-space-invaders dept.
Dave21212 writes "My wife emailed me today with a link (yes Geeks can get married) to this interesting little retro-toy. It's a self-contained Atari game unit. The joystick *is* the console, battery operated with 10 preprogrammed titles and RCA out to your television. Includes Adventure, Real Sports Volleyball, Gravitar, Video Olympics, Circus Atari, Yar's Revenge, Asteroids, Centipede, Breakout, and Missile Command. She found it here on Avon and after a bit of Googling for this, I turned up no other sellers. The silly season is just around the corner, what a cool stocking stuffer! (Batteries not included)." Looks pretty authentic to the original... We mentioned this earlier but hadn't seen it for sale anywhere.
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Ten-in-1 Atari Joystick Available More

Ten-in-1 Atari Joystick Available

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  • Truckdrivers love them. (Score:5, Informative)

    by threedays ( 16600 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @12:57PM (#4626501)
    They have these in lots of truckstops. They have them with nes games, and I hear even snes/genesis ones are available.

  • Alas (Score:2, Interesting)

    by crumbz ( 41803 )
    If it only contained Pitfall....although Yar's Revenge was a very good game.

  • My Wife Will Ask (Score:5, Funny)

    by minus23 ( 250338 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @12:58PM (#4626510)
    My Wife will ask "What were you doing on Avon.com?" when she sees the credit card charge. ;)
    You know... I gotta say though that the site seems pretty well designed!

  • Avon?! (Score:5, Funny)

    by sulli ( 195030 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @12:58PM (#4626514) Journal
    What, buy a video game and hand cream at the same site? That's just TOO WEIRD.

    • Re:Avon?! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Per Wigren ( 5315 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:34PM (#4626836) Homepage
      What's even weirder is that they sell a JOYSTICK and hand-cream at the same site... ;)

    • "What, buy a video game and hand cream at the same site? That's just TOO WEIRD."

      Well, it's better than a video game and KY jelly, or... maybe not?
    • Here ya go... no need to get that embarassing avon charge on your credit card.
      Activision games include River Raid, Pitfall, Tennis, Freeway, Spider Fighter, Atlantis, Crackpots, Boxing, Ice Hockey and Grand Prix.
      Plus, it's got a better form factor, though you give up the coolness of it looking like a 2600 pad.
      Check it out, same price [amazon.com]
      For the link weary...
      http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B 00005U2P0/ ref%3Dnosim/shophub2-20/102-8676922-9561709
    • I agree!

      At first I thought, "Wow, Avon has changed. I wonder what other cool stuff they have." But after looking through their site, they really only have this cool joystick, and tons of their stereotypical old fru-fru creams perfumes and crap. A magnetic dart-board and a stuffed SpongeBob is about as good as it gets.

      It makes me leery of buying the joystick from them, but I did it anyway. (crossing my fingers)

      I just hope it doesn't smell like grandma.

  • Activision too (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 08, 2002 @12:58PM (#4626516)
    I just sawand ad for an Activision one too. It had 10 games, some of which were Freeway, Pitfall, Spider Fighter, and River Raid.

    It was only like $40

    • Re:Activision too (Score:3, Informative)

      by fractalus ( 322043 )
      Last year someone gave me a little self-contained unit with a bunch of Activision games in it. It's about the size of a modern console controller, has two joypads, and a few extra buttons for starting, resetting, and powering off the unit--so it's not the same form factor as the classic Atari joystick shown on the Avon site.

      One thing I noticed about the unit I have is that it's not a true 2600; it's clearly either ported or emulated on some different hardware. There are visual errors in the games and occasionally gameplay errors. Since most of the 2600 games actually used the hardware to handle collision detection, errors in simulating the hardware result in more than just visual differences.

      I don't think most people would notice the differences in the unit I have, but I worked on some 2600 emulation stuff, so I know what I'm looking for. ;-)

      The selection of games in this unit is different from what I have. Ah, fond memories of waking up early Saturday morning so I could try to flip the score on Yars' Revenge before my brothers and sisters came in clamoring for cartoons...

    • link here (Score:5, Informative)

      by jcrb ( 187104 ) <jcrb@yaho o . com> on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:18PM (#4626724) Homepage
      activision version [classicgaming.com]

  • How soon ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by bizitch ( 546406 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @12:58PM (#4626517) Homepage
    before we get a modchip for this thing?

  • and just in time for Christmas shopping. I can cover a lot of teenagers on my list with this one, plus one for me of course.

  • Ok, sounds great... (Score:5, Funny)

    by User 956 ( 568564 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @12:59PM (#4626520) Homepage
    That sounds great, but how heavy is it? The product page says it takes four batteries [avon.com].

    I mean, if you're going to have a five-pound joystick, you might as well just get an Xbox.

  • NTSC Vs. PAL (Score:3, Informative)

    by rigmort ( 584960 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @12:59PM (#4626523)
    I've seen these in another form factor, but it wasn't compatible with my TV. Make sure it supports NTSC on this side of the lake.
    • Actually, it won't be all that "incompatible" if it's off. I used to play the PAL Enduro cartridge (the old Coleco/etc. game) on an NTSC TV and Colecovision. The sunset looked kinda weird, because the CLUT was completely different between PAL and NTSC, but the game played just fine. (By the way, the clever mnemonic for NTSC is Never The Same Color. Guaranteed to annoy those around you.)

      Come to think of it I guess it might be different if the console were PAL format too...do they do that? Or is it just the games that are, uh, region-coded (from an era when different TV formats actually represented a technological limitation, not a social DRM content protection scheme.)

      That was back in the day when you used to smoke a banana -- Frank Zappa
  • I wonder if they could make this even better by allowing another joystick to plug into the first joystick in order to have a multiuser game. The other joystick could be much cheaper, because only the first one would have to have actual computer in it.

  • Dude (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    yes Geeks can get married

    Dude, she's looking at 'joy sticks' online.
    BTW, the 'stocking stuffer' joke was uncalled for...

  • There are for sale elsewhere. (Score:5, Informative)

    by kaosrain ( 543532 ) <<moc.niarsoak> <ta> <toor>> on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:00PM (#4626531) Homepage
    These are for sale elswhere, they just have a different design. I actually prefer this design [toymax.com] to the one mentioned in the article.

    -Kaos
    • It mentions activision. I'm pretty sure Yar's Revenge et. al. weren't from Activision.

    • But this design is the ORIGINAL.... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Ndr_Amigo ( 533266 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:38PM (#4626865)
      The reason this one is so special is because the design, the very joystick itself, is so faithful to the design of the -original- Atari 2600 CX40 joystick.

      No silly Fluro casing, just something that is truely classic. It might be a bit obscure if you arn't familiar with the 2600, of course.. but it counts, and shows this was obviously designed by someone with a clue about retro gaming, not just a marketing drone.

      I should know, I have one sitting right next to me, plugged into my Amiga :)

  • Its got a right-handed joystick!!!!! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by EnderWiggnz ( 39214 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:00PM (#4626541)
    yay!!! joystick on the right, button on the left!!!

    do you have any idea how hard it was to go from that configuration to the nintendo-led joystick on the left, buttons on the right?

    bring back the joystick on the right!!! Screw with the nintendo generation!
    • EnderWiggnz wrote:

      > bring back the joystick on the right!!! Screw with
      > the nintendo generation!

      Nintendo has brought back a joystick on the right.

      Godzilla (http://www.godzillaoncube.com) doesn't know how he would aim at flying foes without it.

      Chief Tsujimori: "I won't let you get away. I will never let you escape."
      Godzilla elegantly lifts his tail skyward to give her the "finger", crashes it down on the water, and submerges.
      "Godzilla X Megagiras", 2000

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:01PM (#4626547)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Saw a game pad like device last Christmas season and it had 10 Activision games including River Raid and I even think Pitfall was on it. It looked like a Genesis or maybe like one of those nifty PS/2 controllers with the fan ins thme for cooling your hands. It was pretty cool.
  • I know I blew out more than my share back in the day, it would be a shame if you would have to ditch the whole SYSTEM because one of those crappy little plastic nubs that touch the sensors snapped (as they often did).

    I won't even mention how many joysticks I blew out on my c64 playing Summer Games ;)

  • Awesome. (Score:5, Funny)

    by ?erosion ( 62476 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:02PM (#4626565) Journal
    Totally. Not only do we have the ultimate in comfort and reliability, but 10 of the most action-packed, jaw dropping titles ever released for home entertainment computer machine devices!

    I just wish it came with ET and Custer's Revenge...

  • I remember (Score:3, Insightful)

    by I_am_Rambi ( 536614 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:03PM (#4626567) Homepage
    Having to blow on the cartridges to get the games to work sometimes. This is a bonus, no cartridge to blow on. Plus you get the excellent games of yesteryear. I wonder if I will get this for Christmas...

    • Re:I remember (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Equuleus42 ( 723 )
      I've rarely needed to blow on Atari 2600 cartidges to make them work... I still own a functional Atari 2600, and even today don't need to mess around with the cartidges to make them work. Now NES cartidges, on the other hand, are a different story altogether.

  • I need Galaga! And Space Invaders would be great! Galaga was always my favorite on the Atari.

  • /.ed (Score:5, Funny)

    by auroran ( 10711 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:04PM (#4626586)
    can't resist saying this but..
    "ding dong slashdot calling" :)
  • It is a Joystick... I am pretty sure Circus atari, breakout and video olympics all used the paddles.

  • There goes the firewall report. (Score:5, Funny)

    by CTD ( 615278 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:05PM (#4626607) Homepage
    Our security team is really going to be confused by the hits Avon is getting from our general IS department... funny thing is that it's not porn, but the result is the same:

    A bunch of guys sitting in front of computers with a dazed but happy look on their faces.

    Someone link the Activision one. I must have Pitfall!

  • Looks like it's made by (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    according to this [216.239.33.100] it looks like it's made by Jakks Pacific [jakkspacific.com].
  • I bought a bunch of 80-in-1 Super Mega Joy (or somthing like that) systems in Taiwan last year and gave them as Christmas presents. Tetris and Super Mario Bros went over big with everybody. I think that only releasing 10 games might be a mistake, plus you need to have two-players for Combat to be fun.
  • I dont remember what it was called, but there's this joystick console that contained 10000+ games. It had games in the nature of DigDug, Pacman, and other Namco (i think) games. My uncle had gotten one a few months ago. It was a red joystick console device. Pretty neat.
    • 10,000?!! The entire MAME catalogue is only around 3,500 games from 1975-2000.

      Do they count each background colour change for pong as a separate game or something?

      EG, pong:(8 background colours) * (1 player * 4 difficulty levels + 2 player * 4 speeds) * (8 foreground colours) * (sound on or off (2))

      = 8*8*8*2
      = 1024 pong games ;-)

  • Sounds cool, but .. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cje ( 33931 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:08PM (#4626629) Homepage
    .. why?

    For $20 you can go to a pawnshop and pick up a used Sega Dreamcast machine. You can then go to DC Emulation [dcemulation.com] and download StellaDC (an Atari 2600 emulator for the Dreamcast) along with a ROM pack of almost 300 public domain (read: legal) games, including Adventure, Pitfall, and most of the classics. Then you can sit back and kill a rainy/snowy day by playing all of the games that used to consume you as a kid.

    The Dreamcast is perfect for something like this.
  • The specs are a little thin. I see an RCA cable for video, but what about audio? I mean, things still need to go *boom*, don't they?
    • In the picture on the avon.com site you can see two RCA cables going into the TV.
    • In the picture, you can see the yellow composite (video) cable, and a white RCA sound (left and mono) cable. No stereo in these games, so the left is all you need.

    • It's not a video RCA cable. It's composite audio/video. It plugs into those hateful TV/game switchboxes that we all had hanging off of the antenna screws on the backs of our TV sets throughout the 1980's.

      I had several of them chained together at one point. One for the 2600, one for the NES, one for the TRS-80...

  • 10 in 1? Try 180 in 1. (Score:5, Informative)

    by bbum ( 28021 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:11PM (#4626662) Homepage

    While walking down 14th Street [Manhattan] the other day, I ran across one of those 'happy cry lucky' style imported crap tourist trap shops that had, among all the garbage, several different kinds of 'N in 1' games-in-the-game-controller products.

    One stood out because it had 180 different games in a SNES style controller. For $40.

    I'm sure Canal street has a similar assortment of gaming trivia, as well.

    So, if you happen to be in NYC... take a stroll down either and have a close look. You'll want the western part of Canal street (where most of the electronic vendors are) or 14th between 5th ave and about 7th ave.
    • Another excellent source is your local flea market. The one in Santa Cruz has mexican vendors who sell similar shit... They had a N64-controller-style unit with well over 100 NES games. That's the one for me! Now if only I had bought the fucker last time I saw it...

    • Thats a rip-off... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by tgd ( 2822 )
      I bought a bunch of those as Christmas gifts last year, I think I payed like $18 each or something.

      They're cool... its a cloned NES with 30 or so games (plus the ability to start on higher levels, which they count towards that 180). Illegal, but fun for the price. Good gift for gen-x'ers who played those when they were kids.

    • Re:10 in 1? Try 180 in 1. (Score:5, Informative)

      by auntfloyd ( 18527 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @02:02PM (#4627126) Journal

      Funny, I live near there, and I know just the place. The guy has a TV set and a bunch of Mega Joy 2 [nesplayer.com] systems out. I tried it out once, it worked pretty well. I've seen him selling both the version with the light gun, and also the version without, so if you want to buy, check to see if it comes with a light gun (and dont forget to test it first!).

      Incidentally, Multimedia 1 [mulitmedia1.com] (on St. Marks btwn 2nd and 3rd) has a bunch of all-in-one systems, both legit and pirate (including the one this story is about). As usual, their prices are on the expensive side, but if you want to buy from a reputable place, it might be your only option. They don't list these on the web site for some reason -- if you don't live in NYC, try giving them a call or something.

      And finally, here are a few links on NES/Famicom pirate systems: NES Player [nesplayer.com] and Gamer's Graveyard [gamersgraveyard.com].


    • I bought a "Polystation III 8800-in-1" from a guy on the street for $25 a while ago, and just as I expected it was a knockoff of the nearly-20-year-old Famicom console (the Japanese version of our NES). It's a cheap-feeling copy of the PSOne console design, with Atari-style joystick ports and and extremely realistic-looking light gun.

      And the 8,800 built in games were actually the same 16 or so games over and over again, with various insignificant hexedits providing the standard variation (ooh, I can start on 1-2 in SMB!).

      I've also seen Famicom clones designed to look (sort of) like Xboxen and PS2's. The guy selling them wanted $59 each, so I passed.

      It also has a Famicom cartridge port where you'd put the CD on a real PSOne. I wandered all over Manhattan's Chinatown trying to find some bootleg carts to try it with, or at least an NES-to-Famicom adapter so I could play the games I own on it, but sadly came up with very little. Few places had gaming systems at all, mostly the knockoff-N64-controller hardware. Only one place I went to had pirate software, and it was multicarts for the GB Advance.
  • see the end of the review here [classicgaming.com]

  • MAME version available, too (Score:4, Informative)

    by Didion Sprague ( 615213 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:15PM (#4626698)
    http://www.9thtee.com/funstuff.htm [9thtee.com]

    This one 76 *real* arcade games inside of it.

  • I can't say I remember the last time Avon got Slashdotted.

  • Big Problem (Score:2, Funny)

    by McCart42 ( 207315 )
    Unfortunately, this means that when the controller is inevitably tossed in anger, I break the entire console, not just a cheap controller. There was a Penny Arcade about this awhile ago..."breaking controllers since 1985" or something like that.
  • This guy has 200 some on eBay, the Activision version, for $7.

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&it em =1396008968

    --trb

  • OGG Support Lacking (Score:5, Funny)

    by limekiller4 ( 451497 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:34PM (#4626837) Homepage
    I'm not buying one untill it supports the OGG format.
  • anyone know where I can get joysticks / paddles for an existing 2600? I'm down to a single joystick, no paddles. No, I won't shop at ebay. I've got an itch for Warlords that I can't scratch.

  • Found a pic of it... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonvmous Coward ( 589068 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @01:44PM (#4626912)
    " It's a self-contained Atari game unit. The joystick *is* the console, battery operated with 10 preprogrammed titles and RCA out to your television"

    I found another pic of the unit here. [reflectionsoldiers.com] Enjoy.
  • The activision unit was not VCS2600 compatible - some of the games were changed and the graphics/gameplay were a little bit off. Oh yes, and it had two huge reset buttons you couldn't help pressing by accident and a d-pad instead of a single fire button (?)

    Oh, and is it really the exact same design as an Atari joystick, or does the Avon site show an "Artist's conception"? It's slashdotted so I can't check.

    If it really is a VCS2600 clone inside, what would it take to modify it to run -ahem- other 2600 games?

  • How? (Score:2)

    by Malic ( 15038 )
    Circus Atari used the paddles - how does this work?
  • Ginny's joystick is a different style (not classic).

    However, they are not shippable for a few weeks.

    gamestop classic style [tinyurl.com]

    Ginny's kiddie style [yahoo.com]
    • I was very much hoping to find a few more locations where these could be purchased - maybe someone will find a seller that I don't have to *wait* for the 4-6 weeks shipping ;)

      Thanks !
  • **Sarcasm**
    What is with this the Joystick only has one button. For a real gaming experence we need at least 2. We cant have a game with 1 button I always need two. Although when ever I play a game I end up only useing one button most of the time. But there is that situation where I need the second button.
    **Sarcasm**
  • Hopefully they made the joysticks better than the original ones. I think an Atari 2600 joystick is the first thing I remember taking apart. Those damn things broke ALL THE TIME. I remember when my parents got tired of replacing them, I would play by pressing the pop-up buttons on the circuit board itself.

    And I am quite sure they broke from normal use, and not from being thrown.

  • I got one. (Score:3, Informative)

    by imag0 ( 605684 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @02:48PM (#4627724) Homepage
    Seriously.
    My wife ended up with one last year sometime. Looks like a little controller with all the games burned in on a chip. It's got a little select screen you can choose btween different games.
    Hooks up to a tv via RCA, video and audio.

    What's it like? In a word.. Shit.

    Prone to graphics glitches, controller is cheaply made, and it's interesting for all of 18 seconds and you're done with your blast from the past. There's better things to throw money at.

  • OT Observation (Score:3, Funny)

    by LittleGuy ( 267282 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @02:51PM (#4627760)
    "My wife emailed me today with a link (yes Geeks can get married)..."

    We just call the ceremony, "My Big Fat Geek Wedding".

  • Use a 15% off coupon. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dr. Ion ( 169741 ) on Friday November 08, 2002 @04:40PM (#4628837)
    I'm going to take a wild guess that most of us have not ordered from Avon before, right?

    Use the coupon code "FIRSTORDER" to save 15% ($3) this fine cosmetic product.

    An awesome geek stocking stuffer. I'm sure I'll pay for it in Avon spam and catalogs..

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