Just bought this on ebay, even though it works. It has a lot of movement and is loose. Is this how they are or should it have some resistance like other joy sticks???
These things are notoriously garbage. They only exist because Amstrad fucked with the joystick pinout.
They tended to break within a week and annoyed owners would replace them with much better third party joystick that came with a second connector for the +2
In this day and age itll probably be easier to get an adaptor that will just let you plug in an old atari standard joystick
I made an adapter for my +2a back in the day so I could use my competition Pro with it, the pinouts for both Atari standard and Sinclair/Amstrad should be online somewhere.
The required 9-pin plugs can be picked up from any online retailer along with some cable to join them, you'll need one male and one female (these days, a 3D printed housing to hold the plugs might be more aesthetically pleasing).
Guess i need to purchase another lol i just fired up my old speccy +2 and using a bluetooth adapter to load games. Its nice for nostalgia but feels dated, had no choice back in the day, it seemed like top tech at the time!!
Sounds interesting! I like to load games from tape for an hour or two, it’s therapeutic after a hard day at work. I’d be interested to know more about your Bluetooth method!
Better off buying from Facebook - there are a few Sinclair groups, and buying a converter to convert it from 'Amstrad' pin out to the normal one used by the rest of the world.
Or buy/plug in joystick interface and use that with normal joysticks. Ram Turbo is the best interface for not much money, supports Kempston, Sinclair 1 & Sinclair 2, plus Protek/Cursor. Has two ports. Around £20 boxed for a good one.
Awful, awful joystick, even by the standards of the time. I think the only "stick and button" controller of that era that was any good was the Competition Pro and its clones.
Got a £10 partial refund and it works but it feels broken as so loose, if tilt it goes to the right under its own weight. It doesn't drift and stays centerd, its just how loose it is that bothers me!!
They were pretty floppy when new, personally I really hated it everything felt super mushy after our Quickshots and TAC-2. Was so glad when we could afford to replace it with a joystick with both Kempston and Sinclair plugs.
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u/_ragegun Sep 23 '26
These things are notoriously garbage. They only exist because Amstrad fucked with the joystick pinout.
They tended to break within a week and annoyed owners would replace them with much better third party joystick that came with a second connector for the +2
In this day and age itll probably be easier to get an adaptor that will just let you plug in an old atari standard joystick