That's a paddling': My Favorite Atari 2600 Paddle Games

Overall, there are not a ton of Atari 2600 games that use the paddle controllers. Most games tended to use joysticks.

The paddle controls were a somewhat interesting controller. The style first became popular with Pong and the original Atari VCS included joystick and paddle controllers.

You spin these dials to move something on the screen, the “paddle” in the case of Pong. The controllers were not free-spinning; they would stop when they reached their max left and right positions.

Atari did make free-spinning paddles for the Indy 500 game. I think that might be the only game that use them.

Unfortunately, the paddle controllers were not always reliable. The small potentiometer that they used would wear out quickly resulting in “jitters” that would cause the item on the screen that was being controlled to jump around on the screen slightly.

One particular oddity is that two paddle controllers connected to a single control port on the 2600. That meant you could have up to four players for some games!

Now, on to the games.