Retro Scan of the Week: Some Wood For Your ‘Stick

November 20th, 2006 by Benj Edwards

Fresh from the Forgettable Video Game Accessories Department comes the Skywriter “Stick Station,” a $15 piece of wood for your Atari 2600 joystick. Nobody knows what it really does, but at least you’ll have a good place to put your frosty joystick so it doesn’t leave those annoying “joystick rings” all over your coffee table during the humid summer months.

A Bit of (Fictional) Trivia: The president of Skywriter, Larry Egler, was once famously quoted as saying, “There will be a Stick Station on every table in America by 1990.” Few people know that it was a misquote that has been erroneously reprinted in many books on video game history. In truth, Mr. Egler said, “There will be a table on every Stick Station in America by 1990,” a prediction that actually came true: all remaining Stick Stations in the continental United States are now being used to shore up wobbly table legs.

[ From Computer Games, June 1984. Special thanks to McPhail Hunt for donating the issue. ]

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 12:48 am and is filed under Design, Gaming History, Humor, Retro Scan of the Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

4 Responses to “Retro Scan of the Week: Some Wood For Your ‘Stick”

1. Jurgi/Atari8.Info Says:
   November 20th, 2006 at 4:21 pm

   Very nice. I want one for a mouse! ;D

2. KitsuneDarkStalker Says:
   November 20th, 2006 at 6:59 pm

   LOL! That table joke made me smile. And I think that thing would be a good drink holder.

3. Mark Says:
   November 21st, 2006 at 9:38 pm

   For all of you who are not “in the know” about ATARI’s short, and quite disturbing, venture into the arena of adult related video games, let me enlighten you to what this was actualy used for. Several games were desighned around the concept that you did’nt nesseseraly need your hands to use the “joy stick” ( ever wonder how it got it’s neme?)
   hence such failed ATARI classics as, BREAK-IN, ASS-TEROIDS
   and one of the testors favorite WHO’s YOUR DADDY!
   other game concepts were tested, only to be scrapped later on due to the transmission of STD’s.

   i hope we can all sleep better knowing that our parents all had one of these at one time or another.

4. Jay Says:
   November 22nd, 2006 at 11:12 am

   Man if I could only get $14.95 for a piece of poplar with a hole cut in it.
   I thought I had seen everything for an atari leave it to you all to find something I hadn’t even heard of let alone seen.

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