Don't be surprised if you've never seen one of these before in the wild; they are extremely rare. Not eBay l@@k l@@k super-mega rare, I mean really-properly rare. They were bundled with copies of Turrican II for the Amiga and Commodore 64, only ever sold in Germany from what I can gather. "Double fun" guaranteed!
Regrettably, the joystick itself isn't actually an exclusive product made for the release. Rather, it's a Commodore-branded model CBM 1399, also known as the 'Challenger' in Germany according to the Amiga Joker magazine in which I saw it featured as part of a joystick review round-up article.
Made in Hong Kong, it boasts "high precision" and is fully micro-switched for durability, much like the Competition Pros and Zipsticks the majority of Amiga gamers favour.
I typed up the German review in Google Translate (and even included the umlauts and Eszett, which I believe equates to 'ss' in English). While mostly what it generated is gibberish, I can decipher a few keywords that make sense. It seems to be suggesting the joystick is challenging by nature as well as by name since it's a real workout for the nerves, shaft motion is loose and inaccurate. It has measly (?) fire buttons and squeegees (I think it means suction cups) and an auto-fire switch.
Germans, feel free to correct me.
The ordinary Commodore-branded version isn't an uncommon sight on eBay. At the time of writing, there are three listed, all located in Italy, hiked up to 'buy it now' prices ranging from £15.43 to £38.69.
Typically, unpopular 9-pin joysticks sell for less than a fiver, to put things in perspective.
On your marks... get set... eBay!
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