Here’s a shot of my mini milk-crate joystick. I used a small plastic crate from the dollar store. In fact, the same kind that I used for my fume extractor.

Because I wanted to use this joystick for other projects (you never know), I wired it up using the “standard” (and ancient) Atari 2600 pinout. It uses a DB-9 connector, like the Atari (and most every other 1980′s computer). I put the “fire” button at the bottom, in the middle, for the benefit of the leftys out there.

I love these little $1 crates. They aren’t the strongest thing, but they make whipping up something easy. Plus, you can see through them, lots of room, etc. And, worst case, you ruin a $1 crate.

At the bottom of the photo, I’ve got a hookup and bare wires for connecting to my control board. The socket protector / strain relief cost more than the crate.

Here’s an inside view of the crate joystick:

The careful observers out there will notice that I color coded my wires the same as the original Atari 2600 joysticks. At least, as best I could. I didn’t have any orange (for “fire”) or brown. So red and yellow will have to do. Because my joystick config ground the switches when activated, this setup will work with any classic computer or game system that uses DB-9 connectors (Atari 2600, 5200, Atari Computers, Commodore Computers, etc).

Notice that I only used a jack (female) on my crate. This allows me to use any sort of M-F extension cables that I want. Much better than a fixed / hard-wired setup.