Amiga Joyboard

The Amiga Joyboard has become a mythical figure in Amiga history. Few have seen the item and yet it has played an important role in defining the Amiga. The Joyboard was one of their early attempts at getting Amiga Corp. noticed by game players of the time. When their Amiga console (it hadn't morphed into a computer system yet) was to be launched, Amiga Corp predicted, users would recognize the name and flock to the new machine.

What is the Joyboard?

The early 1980s was a time of invention for many companies. Everyone was attempting to redefine the user interaction with computers. This resulted in the introduction of the graphical user interface and the mouse. The joyboard represents a similar attempt to redefine the gaming market. Instead of using a joystick/pad that the user would simply hold in their hand, the joyboard required the user to stand upon the unit. Like the many water skiing games currently available in the arcades, the Joyboard is controlled by movement of the body for directional control. A standard Atari-type joystick (like Amiga's own Power Stick) plugs into the Joyboard to give the player access to a fire button. These were generally viewed as novelties by the general public; they were too expensive and had little software support.

An internal view of the Joyboard

	This is the plastic disc that sits on the floor. The disc measures less than three inches in diameter. The Joyboard balances on this disc, and it must take the full weight of the person standing on the Joyboard
	Here are some of the Joyboard's internal. There is a steel coil spring (not seen) beneath the red flexible plastic "flower". Beneath the spring is the black plastic disc that rests on the floor when the Joyboard is in use. The knobbly end of the small red plastic piece fits into the central cavity of the "flower". The black "washer" is made of a conductive rubber-like material.
	This is the printed circuit board. The conductive rubber washer presses against those little contacts and bingo we have a reading!

Meditate on the problem

The Joyboard is distinguished from other 1980s oddities by its influence upon the Amiga design. In an interview, RJ Mical stated the Joyboard was responsible for the Guru Meditation warning that appears when the system becomes unstable or has crashed. The Hi-Toro guys had developed an internal game to use with the Joyboard called "Zen Meditation" that required you to concentrate and balance perfectly level and centered on the board in order to win. By including the Guru Meditation, the Software failure message was suggesting that the user sat upon the joyboard and meditated over the problem to find a solution. The Guru Meditation is only found in Kickstart 1.x and was replaced by a general error code in OS2.x.

Thanks go to Doug Spence of the Classic Computers mailing list for allowing these images to be used. Some text is based upon his original description of the Joyboard.

Related Pages
Joyboard box & instructions
Large image of the Joyboard (50K)

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