This joystick interface manufactured by Kempston Data is a peripheral that provides the PCW with a Joystick that makes it easy for us to play some games for this computer.

As we already know, Amstrad PCW computers do not have a joystick connection. Hence the need for an interface that would allow players to use this type of gadget, and that is what the manufacturer Kempston solved with its Joytisck interface.

This could not have a simpler appearance. It's a small plastic box with a joystick connector on one side and a bus connector on the other. It doesn't even come with instructions, since you don't need them.

Easier still is its handling. With the computer off, insert the interface bus connector into the expansion bus connector located on the back of the expansion bus; then we insert the connector of the joystick that we have in the joystick socket of the interface… And now we can turn on the computer and start playing!

And this is precisely where the disappointments come: it is necessary to find games that recognize this joystick interface, a real disappointment. In this table, the fact that Fairlight does not support it stands out, when when it loads, a message appears saying that it does support it. Otherwise, Snooker works with the interface on an AMSTRAD PCW 9512, but it does not work with Head Over Heels, since on the PCW 9512 the game does not load and gives a message accusing us that we are using an illegal copy of the game.

Anyway, it's an interesting peripheral, but we can't get much out of it, and not because of it, but because of the game creators.

Conclusion

It couldn't be easier to use, worse still is the scarcity of gaming software that supports it. Among the games that can be played with the interface, Head Over Heels and Steve Davis Snooker.

In the following images you can check the original packaging.

Below is the instruction sheet, printed on thin white cardboard, whose measurements are: Width: 9.60 cm x Height: 6.10 cm.

Here is the original schematic of the interface.