Joyride to joystick: Atari controller custom-built from car seat adjuster

So you've survived the robot revolution and you're waiting for either a full-blown apocalypse, or Mr. Anderson. But how are you going to kill time when our new masters are eating controller PCBs for breakfast? With a steampunk joystick, of course. Jason Torchinsky from Jalopnik has done just that, making an Atari 2600 controller by repurposing a power seat control switch panel from a 1980s Oldsmobile. It's no Avenger Controller Elite, but it certainly does the job, and due to a standardized wiring layout it's functional on other hardware of the same era. And for all you MAME heroes, Jason says it would be no more complicated to hook it up to a PC or Mac using a USB keyboard encoder. Follow the source link for a neat walkthrough of the project and jump over the break to see a video of the seat switch in action, shot in the mancave of yesteryear.

Update: We've removed the video at the owner's request, but you can check it out at the source link below.

Joyride to joystick: Atari controller custom-built from car seat adjuster originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 07:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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