2600 Controller I cant identify

[The Collector]

i bought a "bag o Atari" stuff last night from the Goodwill, and when i got home to test it all out, one of the "regular" looking standard controllers felt...different. The fire button actually made a click sound when fully pressed, as did the joystick when it was pushed in each of the 4 directions. Of course i had it open in moments, and I've seen quite a few opened 2600 controllers, but none like this one. The board was screwed to the bottom of the joystick, not just thrown in the casing like usuall. And after removing the board, i was surprised to see that the joystick had 4 springs attached to the bottom and a plastic spacer between the springs and the board, not just the usual plastic bottomed joystick. Also, the board was....streamlined, not the really wide (I dont know their technical name) copper board leads, but this had thin silver leads. Oh yeah, and on one corner of the board it says "Santo 88". And the top of the joystick is recessed about 1-2 mm. The quality to me would suggest first run (no revisions) joystick. Anyone know for sure?
Thanks

Ive taken some pics, if anyone whats to see them, PM me.

[oesiii]

I haven't heard of this joystick but it sounds interesting. At least one other person has discovered the same stick as you on the newsgroups a few years ago:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&th=634b61038a1ce62&rnum=1

If you want me to host the pics for you, let me know and we can post them and maybe someone can id the stick for you. I'm sure someone here or at AtariAge has run into these joysticks before.

[oesiii]

So do all the heavy sixer joysticks make more of a clicking noise when using the button? I wasn't sure if they did because I don't think I have one in my collection of a few dozen Atari sticks.

[The Collector]

That's the original version which was sold with the original "heavy" 6-switch VCS models (you'll see it referrred to as a "heavy" joystick). They're somewhat rare (even more rare complete with the little hex "ATARI" metal plate on top of the stick - if it's missing, note how the top is indented slightly. This is why). The other way to tell is it won't say "TOP" on the top of the case. They pop up on Ebay occasionally. In fact, there's one for auction now -
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3074403408&category=41009

Cool! Thanks for the info. I'll just nestle that into my collection (between the Euro nes style 2600 pads and the Space Age Joystick ):D