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Five Joysticks Ranked by How Long They Survive

Jonas Leclerc 17-09-2026 10 Comments

We put five joysticks from our spares box through a crude endurance test: a waggle game, a stopwatch and a volunteer with strong wrists.

The ranking

  • Microswitch arcade-style stick: still clicking after three hours.
  • Original CX40: dead diagonal after ninety minutes.
  • Rubber-dome clone: lost centring in twenty minutes.

The CX40 is not tough. It is simply easy to repair, which is almost better.

Otto Brennan

Microswitch sticks won comfortably. The rubber-dome pads lost their centring before the first high score.

JO
JONAS LECLERC AUTHOR
Member since 2020 6 posts

Archivist of manuals, magazines and box art. Jonas scans at 600 dpi and will tell you why that matters.

COMMENTS

10 REPLIES
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  1. LO
    LOWRES_LARRY 17-09-2026 @ 11:19

    Would love a follow-up in six months to see how the recap holds up.

    1. BI
      BITSHIFTER 18-09-2026 @ 00:39

      Agreed, and thanks for adding the page number.

    2. OT
      OTTO BRENNAN 18-09-2026 @ 06:07 MEMBER

      Parts list is going into the next post, promise.

      1. LO
        LOWRES_LARRY 18-09-2026 @ 16:30

        Composite gang, checking in.

    3. TO
      TOMASZ K. 19-09-2026 @ 01:56

      Six-month check is on the calendar.

      1. BI
        BITSHIFTER 20-09-2026 @ 00:03

        Good question. We measured it and it dropped by about half after the recap.

  2. LO
    LOWRES_LARRY 18-09-2026 @ 23:59

    We had one of these in the school library. Nobody was allowed to touch it.

  3. JO
    JONAS LECLERC 20-09-2026 @ 02:45 MEMBER

    This is exactly the write-up I needed before opening mine. Bookmarked.

  4. TA
    TAPE_WARDEN 20-09-2026 @ 05:39

    This is exactly the write-up I needed before opening mine. Bookmarked.

  5. LE
    LENA VOSS 20-09-2026 @ 12:49

    Came for the repair, stayed for the tangent about the manual layout.

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