QuickShot II Joystick Review – 80s Clicks and Vibrations Lovingly Recreated | games

nNostalgia is big in the modern gaming industry. Ironically, the most tech-obsessed art form on the planet is no less keen on the past than cinema and music. And to prove it here, we present the new version of the legendary QuickShot II, a plastic joystick from the early 1980s that didn’t even exist Which Good first round. However, it was cheap and resembled an actual joystick on a fighter plane, thanks to its multiple fire buttons and ergonomic column. If you wanted a powerful, precise controller, you’d choose the Competition Pro, but that didn’t let you pretend you were into Star Wars or Airwolf. Additionally, the QuickShot II had suckers on its base so you can stick it to your cockpit control panel — sorry, I meant the MDF computer table.

The new QuickShot II from Retro Games and Plaion Replay is almost an exact replica in terms of its dimensions. You can hold it in your fist and wrap your thumb and forefinger around its big red buttons. Yes, you can stick it on your table; The designers even included the original auto-fire switch on the back for players who weren’t prepared to press the fire button repeatedly while playing the Green Beret.

It has been tastefully updated, though. The two fire buttons on the stick can now be configured separately – a feature I longed for as a young Commodore 64 fanatic so I could independently control the Skramble’s lasers and bombs. There are also six buttons on the base, which correspond to standard control pad layouts, and a USB cable means you can connect it to a PC or any of the recent PCs released by Retro Games, such as the C64 or Spectrum. I tested it with the latter and have already spent many hours blasting through Ant Attack, Phenix, and Head over Heels.

In terms of build quality, it’s a good balance between necessary updates and not being too respectable. The stick itself has a lot of movement (you have to push it far to register the movement), which is exactly what I remember. This made QuickShot unsuitable for joystick-shaking titles like Daley Thompson’s Decathlon where you had to move it a long way left and right, often causing damage to the joystick and insulting yourself. At least now the designers have added little switches so you get a nice click when you move the stick. However, the fire buttons still have the same old soft click, and the sound and feel of them is one of the most nostalgic parts of the whole thing. I spent many hours of my teenage years pressing those buttons — the sound as ingrained in my memory as the smell of dinner at school or the ocean washing on the sidewalk.

I also tried QuickShot II with Steam and it worked perfectly fine after some simple calibration – although auto-firing proved problematic. It was great to play the Steam version of the classic Truxton shooter with this stick, bringing back memories of playing arcade games in Blackpool and then coming home and pretending my computer desk and joystick were a games cabinet. You think those feelings are gone, but it doesn’t take much to bring them back – sometimes just a piece of plastic will do it.

If you’re looking for a serious, modern joystick, this isn’t it. It’s low-budget and awkward, and despite an hour of configuration, I couldn’t get it to work with the RetroArch PC emulation platform, which is a shame, though others may be able to manage it. But here’s the point: The QuickShot II wasn’t the best joystick, it was the one we could afford. And it looked great.

I respect that the remake is true to that spirit. It is affordable and little to risk. But if you own one someday, it’s a joy to have, and the fourth star in my review is for the sheer raw nostalgia of it. Every time I see her next to my high-tech computer and my big, high-resolution monitor, I smile. It’s good to have you back, old friend, with all your faults and faults.