It’s always fun to take a completely outdated piece of machinery and change it’s destiny to something other than a trashcan or antique shop somewhere. In this case, one gamer turned a typewriter into a fully functional arcade joystick. Not too shabby, if I do say so, although it looks a bit cumbersome to hook up the next time I’m flying my plane around in Battlefield Heroes.
The creator named Neoblood of the group SRK gutted the innards of this poor typewriter in order to rebuild him better than ever. The switches were taken off arcade push buttons and then physically glued them to the typewriter keys. He then hooked up an “authentic” (I’m not sure what significance this has I haven’t heard of the company) Sanwa joystick and voila! A fully functional arcade joystick. Bring on the Bubble Bobble. Now as a regular reader of Walyou we’ve seen Joysticks put to good use before, from the vareity of retro handhelds to say… coat hangers, but the typewriter joystick is in a league all it’s own.
Now my absolute favorite part of this piece is that the typewriter functionality is still basically intact as the video shows. So as you play whatever your game of choice is the key strokes will still come up on the typewriter itself. Of course whatever you’re typing would be complete gibberish, but hey you can’t have your cake and eat it too. The video gives a short display as to how the buttons are laid out and a small demonstration of the functionality of the joystick itself. Definite points for originality, but I think I’d get a little confused with all the keys and the spacebar with only 5-6 buttons that actually do something. It even comes with it’s very own typewriter carrying case with a hole cut out to support the joystick head sticking out! Now you can carry it around to show off to all of your friends and family, who will immediately wonder if you’re still employed since you obviously have too much time on your hands.
For other cool typewriters, check out the Typewriter Calculator concept, the Typewriter Sculptures or the Vintage Typewriter Stickers.
Via: Tech Blog
