While I cut my teeth playing my Atari 2600, I never realized that I could use mine as a creative solution to completing my homework assignments. I guess I just wasn’t that crafty. Here’s a guy who managed to turn an Atari joystick into a drafting project for his high school industrial arts class.
Back in 1983, designer Rob Marquardt (aka ‘someToast’) painstakingly drafted not only the exterior of the stick to show off his mad isometric drawing skills, he went through the trouble of diagramming out all of the gory internals of the classic digital gaming controller.
While it might not be a 100% accurate rendition of the Atari controller, you have to admire his creativity and persistence. His teacher may have graded his work anywhere from A- to B, but I say A++++ all the way!
(P.S. While you’re staring at Rob’s Flickr portfolio, be sure to check out this awesome blueprint iPhone menu skin he designed.)