Hudson HC62-3 “Caravan” Joystick for Famicom

 

Back in the 80’s and 90’s Hudson would host caravans, events where they drove from city to city with a bunch of famicoms/pc-engines and people would compete for a timed high score in the title for that year. This usually featured shooting games like Star Soldier and Hector ‘87. Videos and images of the events (for Famicom) always seemed to have this odd looking little yellow joystick so being a STG fan I decided to get one. It’s also one of the controllers Hudson spokesman Takahashi Meijin would use when he’d demonstrate his ability to do 16 button presses a second. (Westerners will know him as the guy Master Higgins was based on for Adventure Island. Look him up, it’s a neat story.)

I assume these were used because Hudson manufactured them and they were presumably inexpensive to make. It’s a zero frill controller with no autofire, membrane stick and buttons, and one button duplicated on top of the stick. Despite not being held quite like you would a traditional arcade stick, I found it actually worked pretty well. I can’t speak for how well they worked back in the day but mine was nigh-impossible to hit diagonals on when I received it. Liberal applications of electrical tape to the lever’s frame cleared that up. I’m assuming the membranes have slowly degraded over time. (Another reason to prefer micro switched levers.)

It’s a cute little stick that’s not worth the going price but makes a nice display piece if you’re into old Famicom stuff or STGs.

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