The Atari flight yoke controller returns

One of those things that I hate to admit is that I have never had the pleasure of playing the original Atari Star Wars on the original hardware. Only once did I ever come across one of these at an arcade growing up and when I did the unit wasn’t working (fortunately they had a BattleZone that was in great condition that I played way too much). For those who have played the game mentioned here then you know that one of the cool things about it are the controls. Atari made what was called the “flight yoke controller” which was similar to a controller they had used in previous games like Starship 1.  A few games have used similar controls since but it has been quite a while since a yoke controller of any kind in arcades and to be honest I think it’s a shame that we haven’t as it’s one of those things that you don’t get the same feel for at home.

Anyways, this post isn’t about a new game that is going to use a yoke but about the reconstruction of the old Atari yoke used in the Star Wars arcade game. From the looks of it, the makers of this device, RAM Controls put a lot of effort into recreating the yoke perfectly and they are now selling them so you can replace an old worn out yoke on your home Star Wars machine (I guess I should ask – how many operators out there still have one of these on location? Anyone?). You can get a completed yoke controller for $260 or they also offer a number of options to rebuild one for less than that. Hit the link below for more on how this came to be.

Quick update: While looking around the RAM Controls site I noticed that they have parts for rebuilding other hard-to-find Atari controllers, like the hall effect stick on I, Robot or Major Havoc controls. Pretty cool stuff.

[Star Wars Flight Yoke Controller Rebuilt – RAM Controls] [Discuss on the Forums]

Atari Star Wars on an oscilloscope

It’s been a long weekend for me (working, not playing) so I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to scour for news but I did come across this youtube video of someone running the classic Atari coin-op Star Wars on their oscilloscope. Since oscilloscopes use a vector display it’s possible to recreate the experience fairly well on the tiny screen although you’ll see the retrace lines which aren’t normally in the game and of course its a monochrome display so you miss out on the color from the actual game.

[Discuss on the Forum]

The Star Wars Arcade Simulator

When it comes to space combat games, few series have received as much arcade attention as Star Wars. The format for the space combat seen in the movies just translates so well into the arcade genre that it has been a natural fit ever since Atari released the Star Wars vector game in 1983. Since then Sega has released three Star Wars games in arcades, including this one, the Star Wars Arcade Simulator. Apparently only a dozen of these units were released in the US and only “a few” made it to Europe. It’s too bad really as the co-op action you see here looks like it would be a total ‘blast’. Maybe Sega should consider re-doing this game on the Lindbergh hardware and giving it another shot in arcades. I’m sure that many gamers would be down for that. Youtube video posted by MisterRiddler.

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The Hot Seat Arcade system of the 1980s

Here is another obscure simulator to ponder. The Hot Seat was a motion based simulator produced in the mid 1980’s. This simulator did not come with any dedicated game, its intention was to be a multi-game simulator (in that you could install any existing arcade game in it) and turn that game into a motion simulator to generate more profits. It was made by a company called Balance Technology – Colorado Game Exchange out of Denver, Colorado. The examples mentioned in the article were Williams Blaster and Atari Star Wars and the simulator would be best used with flying or driving games.

I do not have any other information on this simulator other than the article but the article does mention the AMOA and is from November of 1984 so I can only assume if you were at the 1985 AMOA show you may have seen this simulator. There must have been at least 1-2 units of this simulator produced for the AMOA Expo but it is unknown if it even went to locations or into full production which is unlikely. I seem to remember a rumor about one of these popping up on ebay with Star Wars in it but I have never seen it myself on ebay.

I don’t know about you but the idea of Blaster or Star Wars in a simulator game sounds pretty cool to me! Here’s some pictures of the machine: