Channel F Hand-Controller

Release date:	1976
Series:
Model No.:
Company:	Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation
Designer:

Main colours:	Black

System:	Channel F Channel F System II
Connection:	DE9
Purpose:
Mechanisms:	Digital button Digital joystick Paddle

Default controller for the Fairchild Channel F and Channel F System II. On the first console they're hard-wired to the system, but for the System II they use Atari's DE9 port.

It's shaped like the stick part of a joystick, which you hold with one hand, and the top has a triangular-shaped knob that can be pulled up and pushed down (2 digital buttons), tilted like a joystick (8-way digital joystick), and twisted like a paddle controller (analogue). It's pretty clever, and covers most of the popular input types of the time.

Similar Interfaces

• Video Command - Clone for Atari VCS, Atari 400/800, VIC-20.
• Channel F Jet-Stick - Almost identical, but has a trigger button on the front.
• Nabu Games Controller - Official joystick for the Nabu Personal Computer. Very similar form, but adds a trigger button and removes the twisting an pulling/pushing up/down features.
• TS 2090 Commandstick - Similar to the Video Command joystick, but with a round, metalic top. Made for the TC2068 and TS2068.

Pistol Grip

Similar concept, but instead of the handle being a straight stick, it's modelled on a pistol grip, with the button being a trigger.

• Space Age Joystick - Atari.
• Navigator - Konix.
• Quickjoy120 - Not sure if it's by a company called Quickjoy, or a company called Junior-Stick.