What early joystick do you recommend for an Apple ][?

CH made some excellent joysticks for the Apple II. The only thing you'll need to figure out to plug in a joystick is which Apple II you have. Up through the II+ there is a sixteen pin plug on the right rear of the motherboard, as you look at the computer from the keyboard, that you plug the joystick, or paddles, into. Starting with the IIe they added a nine pin plug on the rear of the computer for joysticks.

Dean

Thanks Dean - my pride & joy is a Apple II (non-plus) rev 1
Do you know when the CH joystick was introduced? Was the "first" commercially available joystick for the Apple II? When did Apple II start making "their own" branded joysticks?

Although (reportedly) not as advanced as some of the later models, I have decided to go for a TG Products Joystick as this was a closer technical match to my Apple ][. Will let you know how it goes. Defender here I come!

Can someone please tell me which way the plug (male 16 pin) on the TG joystick should be inserted into the Apple II game I/O port (female 16 pin). Should the ribbon cable be pointed away from the motherboard or toward it?

At first glance it will fit both ways...
...I wanted to ask before frying anything due to reverse polarity(??)

I have a pinout for the Apple II gameport, but this does not help as I don't have the corresponding pinout for the TG joystick male.

If I remember right, from when I owned a ][+ back in the 80's, I think the cable end should be pointing toward the motherboard. What you might want to to is go to this website:

http://1000bit.net/support/manuali/manuali.asp

and download a copy of the Apple ][ Reference Manual and look through it. I would think there should be something in there about plugging in joysticks/paddles on the motherboard.

Dean

Thanks Dean,

Both Apple II references talk about the game I/O pinouts but do not mentione cable orientation on the joystick.

When I plug it with the cable toward the motherboard there is no response.
When I plug it with the cable away from motherboard (similar to the keyboard cable DIP) both the fire buttons work well, but there is no response from the joystick. Given the joystick is a two "simple potentiometers" and the device looks nice and clean from the inside, I don't know the cause of this problem. There are no capacitors or resistors inside the joystick box that I can see. Very little that could go wrong?