this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
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What happened to (arcade-type) Joysticks? (piefed.zip)
submitted 1 day ago by 1Fuji2Taka3Nasubi@piefed.zip to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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I realized I haven't gamed with arcade-type joysticks for a long time and kind of missed them.

It seems to me gamepads are way more popular than large joysticks nowadays, when joysticks used to be a popular gaming accessory.

Is it because they take up too much space?

Is it because they lack the modern gamepad features (analog sticks / triggers / buttons, side / back buttons)?

Do you still use joysticks for gaming, and what kind of games do you play with them? What do you like about them?

I'd like to hear your thoughts.

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[–] SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 5 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Joysticks were replaced by analog game pad sticks. Same motion in a compact package.

The games are now vastly more complex. You will still see a stick on an arcade fighting machine where key combinations and an array of buttons are used, but it's not ergonomic. The same controls can be put on a standard 6 axis game pad and be significantly more accessible.

[–] Pronell@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

The games are now vastly more complex.

I bounced off of Helldivers 2 for this exact reason. Something around 16 buttons on a PS5 controller and they were assigning functions for short, mid, long press, and button combinations.

I can't remember all that shit!

Yes, I am getting old.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago

I'm 29 but I have a hard time with this in a lot of advanced games.

Arkham Knight is a fantastic game that looks incredible to this day, with an awesome story and gameplay. It also has a TON of button combos to remember during combat. Stuff for your gadgets (a different combination for each, usually a trigger + face button(s) combo); stuff for special combat moves, both with and without the Batmobile nearby; contextual functionality that changes based on the current activity; etc.

So I usually just resort to beating the shit out of bad guys with Batman's gloved hands and maybe some batarangs, batclaw, and REC.

[–] SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 2 points 22 hours ago

Wow. I never got into it, but it sounds like a lot. Then again, Zelda has tons of contextual keypresses and I enjoyed that significantly.

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