Albatros (joystick)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of the article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources.
This article has been tagged since November 2006.

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message.
This article has been tagged since December 2006.

This article or section is written like an advertisement.
Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view per Wikipedia policy.
Mark blatant advertising for speedy deletion with {{db-spam}}. (help, talk)

This article or section may contain inappropriate or misinterpreted citations which do not verify the text.
Please help improve this article by checking for inaccuracies. This article has been tagged since December 2006. (help, talk, get involved!)

Albatros is the name of a very popular and appreciated joystick, produced by Alberici S.p.a. and sold in the 80's on the Italian market. An intruiguing characteristic of this joystick was the set of six microswitches, four for the lever and two for the buttons, which produced a very accurate response to the videogamer hand, together with an audible feedback.

A first series was produced with a slim frustum cone lever. The second production featured a sphere on the top of a larger lever. Although apparently more comfortable, the spherical lever was not appreciated by customers, probably due to its bulkiness.

The Albatros joystick was almost indestructible, and many retrogamers still use this joystick on the original platforms, mainly Commodore 64 and Amiga, but also on PCs, using homebuilt adaptors.