This 9-foot Atari video game joystick claims the record as the world’s largest

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Two girls operate the Giant Joystick at LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre, March 31, 2007 in Asturias, Spain. The giant video game controller made of wood, rubber and steel by a Dartmouth College professor Mary Flanagan has made it into the Guinness World Records 2022 as the largest joystick.





Mary Flanagan/AP



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Mary Flanagan/AP



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She also wanted to see what it would be like when a single-player experience becomes collaborative: It takes at least two people to operate the joystick and push the button to play classic Atari games such as Centipede and Breakout.

«To have this common pop culture artifact just erupt in the middle of a space and allow people to play something familiar, yet not familiar, was exciting,» said Flanagan, an artist who is chair of Dartmouth’s Film and Media Studies and the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor in Digital Humanities.

The joystick, which toured Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, is now part of the permanent collection of ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.

• Guinness World Records


• video game


• Atari