The 1983 “Totally Accurate Controller” is back in production, priced at half what a working original fetches secondhand. Commodore replaced the one part that always failed: an automobile tire valve the original design was built around.
Commodore is putting the TAC-2 back into production, more than forty years after Suncom Technologies first sold it.
Pre-orders opened August 11 at $49.99, with shipping expected October 20. A working original on the secondhand market regularly clears $100.
The joystick most people remember as indestructible had one component holding it together, and it came from a car.
The tire valve
Suncom’s 1983 design used a TR-418 automobile tire valve as the self-centering mechanism.
That is the standard snap-in rubber valve stem found in wheels, an off-the-shelf industrial part engineered to survive road vibration, temperature swings, and constant stress. Suncom built a joystick around it, and the result was marketed as tested to three million moves without failure.
The reputation held up. The valve was also the known failure point for owners who pushed it hard enough.
Commodore’s fix is the one meaningful change to the design. Modern tire valves use thinner, weaker copper than they did in the eighties, so the company fabricated a single-piece chrome-plated steel shaft instead. Everything else stays: the ball-and-contact directional mechanism, the microswitch-free construction, the arcade-style ball top, the clicky dual fire buttons.
What you can buy
Five colorways, and the split between them is deliberate.
BASIC Beige, Starlight, and the gold-accented Founders Edition match the Commodore 64 Ultimate’s styling and add LEDs inside the fire buttons. C= White and Knight Black reproduce the original two colors, with no LEDs, aimed at purists.
The base models run $49.99. The Founders Edition with gold PVD accents is $64.
It connects through the same 9-pin DE-9 port as the original, meaning it works with the Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari computers, various Sega systems, and the C64 Ultimate. No Bluetooth, no USB-C, no app. USB adapters exist if you want it on a modern PC.
The unit measures about 10cm square, weighs roughly 300 grams, and ships with a two-meter cable. Commodore’s Chicken Lips logo is molded into the plug.
The shipping problem
The launch did not go entirely smoothly, and Commodore has addressed it.
International customers began reporting shipping charges approaching the price of the joystick itself, with UK buyers among the loudest. Time Extension covered the complaints under the headline “Are You Having A Laugh?”
A Commodore spokesperson told the outlet that a hiccup affected the first 83 purchases, which were overcharged. Those buyers were refunded $11 once the problem was caught, and the correct shipping charge is $19 USD regardless of destination.
Why Commodore is doing this at all
The revived company has had mixed results with the name it bought.
Last year’s Commodore 64 Ultimate reviewed well and sold strongly, which is what made this possible. Other efforts have landed worse, including a Commodore-branded flip phone that drew more confusion than enthusiasm.
The TAC-2 sits closer to the first category. It is a straightforward reissue of a product people already want, at half the price of the used market, with the single known weak point engineered out. Commodore holds exclusive trademark rights to the design, so this is not a clone.
At $19.95 in 1983, the original cost roughly $64 in today’s money. The reissue undercuts that. For a company still untangling which pieces of the Commodore estate it actually owns, selling a forty-year-old joystick for less than it cost in 1983 is not a bad place to be.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Commodore International press release (August 11, 2026), verified for the pre-order opening, the Suncom 1983 origin, the microswitch-free ball-and-contact design, the five colorways and their C64 Ultimate styling, the steel shaft replacing the copper tire valve shaft, the Chicken Lips logo in the plug, and the October 20 ship date
Tom’s Hardware (August 2026), verified for the $49.99 base and $64 Founders Edition pricing, the LED distinction between the Commodore-styled and purist colorways, the TR-418 tire valve assembly and the thinner modern copper explanation, the 9-pin compatibility including the C64 Ultimate, and the dimensions and cable length
TechTimes (August 12, 2026), verified for the original $19.95 list price and its roughly $64 equivalent in 2026 dollars, the three-million-moves marketing claim, the single-piece chrome-plated steel shaft, the DE-9 compatibility across Commodore, Amiga, Atari and Sega hardware, and Commodore holding exclusive trademark rights
Time Extension (August 2026), verified for the international shipping complaints and the Commodore spokesperson’s response about 83 overcharged purchases, the $11 refunds, and the $19 global shipping rate
Boing Boing (August 12, 2026), verified for the secondhand pricing above $100, the mixed reception to other Commodore-branded products including the flip phone, and the recent agreement with Amiga Corporation resolving intellectual property overlap