The famous Quickshot joysticks: 42 million units were sold until 1999

Quickshot were one of the big daddies in the 80s joystick scene. The world’s first ergonomic joystick, the QuickShot, was developed and patented by Harry Fox and Peter Law in 1982. QuickShot was a line of joysticks produced by Spectravideo for video game machines including Atari, Nintendo and Sega or home computers such as the Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga. The Quickshot SV101 is probably one of the most recognisable joysticks after the iconic Atari 2600 model, this device was one of the most owned by anyone with a console or home computer that required a DE-9 connector. This joystick literally set the standard with a molded hand grip, top of shaft button and suction cups for stability. Despite its initial success Spectravideo were forced to close its doors in 1985 and Bondwell who at this point had a majority stake in Spectravideo, seized its QuickShot assets and forced all design and production to Hong Kong. With Bondwell now in control, the QuickShot brand re-emerged in the late 1980s with a wide variety of controllers. The Quickshot joysticks are well-known for their characteristic click sound when moving the stick. This results from the click switch with has a clip which is often the reason for the defect of a Quickshot joystick when this clip breaks. The Quickshot joysticks were the most popular joysticks after the Competition Pro. According to the manufacturer’s data, 42 million Quickshot joysticks were sold until 1999. Overall, the QuickShot joystick series is a worthy addition to any retro gamer collector’s arsenal.

news source: various sources / image source: advertisement QuickShot

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