Atari’s new wireless replica controllers solved a pretty specific problem: getting a cordless Atari joystick that still worked with original hardware. These came with both a USB receiver and a 9-pin receiver, so they weren’t limited to the 2600+ or 7800+. I took a look at both the CX40-style joystick and the CX78-style gamepad, and the big draw here was that either one could pair with modern USB gear or with an original Atari joystick port.
Out of the box, both packages were pretty simple. Each one included the controller, a USB-C cable, a USB dongle, a 9-pin dongle, and a short manual. The 7800-style controller had a removable screw-in joystick post, so it could be used more like a traditional pad if you wanted, and I found that layout more comfortable than I expected.
I opened up the CX40-style wireless joystick and compared it with an original wired Atari stick. The old controller was exactly what you’d expect: a very simple board and switch contacts that pull the direction or fire line to ground. The new one had a battery, a small antenna, a charging chip, an RF chip, and a microcontroller on the board, but the overall design was still pretty straightforward. The directional and fire inputs were all broken out on the board, and the rest of the hardware was just there to handle charging, wireless communication, and input processing.
I went ahead and tested one with RetroPie on my Raspberry Pi bartop arcade using the USB receiver. Pairing worked right away, and EmulationStation detected the controller without any trouble. I did have to configure controls inside the emulator for some games, but once I did that, it worked fine. I tried it with Indiana Jones and then with an Atari 2600 game, and it responded well, though I found the 7800-style controller easier to use with the joystick post removed because it was a little too easy to hit a diagonal by mistake.
The range test came out about where Atari rated it. I measured 24 feet from the bartop arcade to the door, then walked farther away while listening for button presses in Berserk. It kept working out to around 30 feet, even through the glass in the door, and only started to get flaky right near that limit.
I also tested the 9-pin receiver on original hardware with my son Stephen, using a heavy sixer Atari 2600 and a real wired joystick for comparison. We played Joust and River Raid, then swapped controllers to see if either of us noticed any lag. Neither of us found a response-time difference between the wireless stick and the original one. The main difference was just feel: the new joystick was stiffer, while the old one had loosened up over decades of use.
One issue did show up on original hardware. With the wireless 9-pin dongle connected and paired, my heavy sixer and light sixer produced extra sounds over RF that didn’t belong in the game. I didn’t hear that on a four-switch 2600. Aside from that, the controllers worked well, and at the time I checked they were selling for $35 each on Atari’s site.
— Aaron
Links
Timestamps
00:00 – Overview
04:33 – Teardown
15:00 – PCBWay Ad
15:40 – Testing With RetroPie
19:27 – Range Test
20:37 – Testing On Original Hardware