What Was Sega Thinking With This Joystick?!? Sega Control Stick

During the '80s, joystick controllers were all the rage. The reasoning was sound, as that's what was found in the arcades and what people were used to playing games with them. So much so that Atari used joysticks with the 2600, 5200, and 7800. This led many to create joystick controllers for other systems as well. One of them, the Sega Master System, had one of the most odd joysticks ever made, the Sega Control Stick. It looks decent, but upon closer inspection, you can't help but wonder what was Sega thinking with this joystick.

The joystick itself works just like a standard Sega Master System Controller, but it was designed in such a way to give better theoretical control to players. A large joystick is on the right side of the controller, while larger 1 and 2 buttons were on the left side. That's right, unlike the majority of other controllers on the market which were designed for left-handed use of the control side of things, on the Control Stick players used their RIGHT hand for the joystick while the left hand operated the buttons.

Back in the day, you could pick up a Sega Control Stick for about $30 new, but there were also versions bundled with OutRun which sold for around $65. Another version was bundled with Sega's Rapid Fire Unit as well. Today, you can find these loose for about $15-$20.

The overall ergonomics on the Control Stick are ok, but I don't think they are great. I do appreciate the fact that the Joystick is not an uber-clicky microswitch setup as that annoys me to no end. While it only has 2 buttons, you can use the control stick on some Sega Genesis titles with limited success. It can also work with an Atari 2600 in a pinch.

I, personally, cannot get past the reversed layout of the Control Stick. AS such this has mostly collected dust since I bought it. Let me know if you've ever seen or used one of these and, if so, what did you think about it!

#Sega #MasterSystem #ControlStick #Shorts #Shorts #FYP #fypシ