Primus Firestick

Primus Firestick in pristine, unused condition

Primus Firestick always looked like fun, but also expensive for what it is: fairly standard screw-on gas burner with a design gimmick.

One day I saw this for 40€, passed it, then realized it comes with a carry bag and the Primus piezo igniter (easily 16€ by itself), went back another day and picked it up.

Already when taking it out of the box, it looks flimsier than in the photographs and the tripod "flaps" don't seem to reach very far.

Box contents, there's also a manual.

The cap needs to be removed to open the flaps, which is simple enough, but putting it back together needs a tiny amount of practice. Yes, it opens hassle-free and "automatically", but is that a major draw?

The loose cap can be considered at least a minor design flaw, it might have been a better to have it hinge on one of the flaps or something.

For a first quick test, I warmed a Duossal's worth of pea soup, and the Primus did just fine.

Jalostajan Hernekeitto, mmm...

When put together, the Firestick is not only compact but the round form is quite convenient for carrying. I'm tempted to carry it as is, but because the burner component needs protection and the cap could come loose, it's better to keep it in the bag. The bag is also a good place for the piezo igniter.

If I have to compare this to "Furno 360", the Firestick is likely not as powerful, but it takes a little less space.

At first it was puzzling that I needed to turn the valve quite a lot before the gas even begins to flow. But the valve is quite generous, a quarter-turn isn't going to send the burner into a fit. This is quite pleasant, much better than in my Primus Mimer stove.

The jagged parts don't connect with a normal pot

A little wind didn't create a problem, but on more open ground the Firestick turned out to be quite sensitive to even normal wind, when attempting a low flame. But this is quite common with burners, especially the taller screw-on models. Heating water with a full-on blast is unlikely to be a problem.

Yet I'm starting to think one of those collapsible windshields might make sense. And yes, Trangia storm cookers have solved this already.

The pot holds firmly enough, even though the tripod parts don't connect in the most ideal way. It might be there is a specific Primus pot or cup that connects better into it.

Fire Maple Feast Heat Exchanger

Notably this is the second system I've bought that has some problems with the Fire Maple Feast Heat Exchanger pot. It looks like the Firestick flaps nearly fit inside the opening inside the exchanger, but it doesn't without squeezing the flaps inward a little. So it can become "locked", which depending on the situation might be a good or a bad thing. I'm inclined to think it might be a bad thing.

Boohoo, it's dirty already

If the idea of the design is that the flap outsides would retain their color better than in other models, no such luck, the burn colorization attacked it the first time. The cap obviously remains clean.

So, yet another burner that's unlikely to pull much weight in winter conditions, but hey, the Primus piezo igniter is quite good.

Vammala Party 2026

Another summer, another Vammala Party.

I made a late moment decision to not take a Commodore 64 with me, so no Rambo. But I did not even have my traditional Linux laptop. This put some constraints to what I could do at the site.

Running some kind of Spectrum emulator online

Instead, I only took a Samsung Galaxy Tab with me, and became more familiar with it. Moving files about was cumbersome, but there were ultimately some dodgy ssh solutions that helped do it. I found surprisingly few text editors for it, a topic I might explore later.

Also, the space freed by not having the C64 allowed me to take some of my accumulated MIDI gear, with no intention to contribute to the music compo at all. I rarely have time to experiment with them, so the opportunity was welcome.

Wonder of wonders, it could all be synced

So, the long weekend was filled with movies, odd compos, food, music and gear.

One minor problem was that nearly everything needed charging, sometimes multiple times: phone, Galaxy Tab, handheld gaming device, the Roland synths.

Table full of gear, just different kind

The weather was not cruel hot, in fact it started raining on Saturday.

This changed some of the competitions, no more floppy disk throwing outside.

Previously I thought that Krita on the Android is not a good idea, but as keyboard shortcuts were now possible, it's actually quite powerful. Using Pipette (P or left control) and a semi-opaque brush of nearly uniform size, I don't even need that many keys.

"Lesser Terminators", Krita drawing, here scaled down and jpg'd

My approach is to use largely the same tools for the entire image, no layers, not special effects. Just a "palimpsest" of drawing over and over again. The outcome probably has very little appeal to anyone who isn't me. It resembles some of the things I've drawn or painted in the past using physical media.

It looks like I've not released a PETSCII since the last year's Vammala Party. This PETSCII was made quickly before even traveling to the party, not my proudest moment but it ended up second after all. 

Jänis PETSCII, Commodore 64

I'm not sure what to say about the increased presence of AI in the compos. I think it's quite fair there are dedicated AI-themed compos (Prompted graphics, and "vibe code prompt") with a very low entry threshold. It's then very clear what the entries are.

But then it's also quite obvious the main demo compo has more entries because it's now possible to use AI in support of coding. So the line between a high effort "vibe code prompt" compo contribution and a low-effort main demo compo contribution was quite blurry.

Acorn Archimedes A3020

As usual, I couldn't resist making some trades. One was a Quickshot joystick, another was an Acorn Archimedes A3020.

Vammala Party 2026 at Demozoo

The Quickshot II USB Joystick

The QuickShot II

I bought this Quickshot-like USB stick because I'd heard good things about it.

I tried it instantly with Vice emulator and Buck Rogers. This game is very revealing about joysticks, because the movement is so twitchy. Lag and poorly working diagonals make themselves known. It's also a flight game of sorts, so this joystick would feel appropriate.

The short verdict: I have to say I was disappointed. The result was not comparable to the self-made Arduino 9-pin joystick adapter and a proper Tac-2 joystick.

Let's rewind a little.

Retro Games have had a reputation of making so-so joysticks. The stick bundled with The C64 was unremarkable, even if physically quite appealing. I've heard better things said about the "black" edition joystick, but I haven't had the opportunity to test it.

Good old Buck Rogers

Now that Retro Games put out a new dedicated joystick, I expected it to be based on feedback from the earlier products, and as a few reviews seemed to give it praise I took the plunge. I perhaps ought to have read a few more reviews, as they tend to be mixed.

The Quickshot directions feel like the non-micro switch joystick the original black Quickshot was, and I can commend it for replicating that feel. There are in fact micro switches inside, it's just they are less noisy.

The grip is good and makes me wonder why I haven't been looking for the original stick before. The suction cups work, but to me this is a secondary feature, I can hold the joystick on my lap.

The real problem is that there's very little center zone for the stick, so in Buck Rogers the ship keeps moving left or right almost automatically, or even ping-pongs when I'm trying to gain control. Diagonals tend to get confused. This also makes it difficult to see if there's lag, as a micro switch might remain on while my senses tell it ought not to be on.

Trying this on The C64 and The Spectrum, as intended, doesn't make it better. In case it doesn't work out of the box, apparently you will need to hold X,Y and L,R for three seconds to change they joystick mode, after which it will register as a kind of joystick the device accepts. With later products, like The Spectrum, it should not matter.

On sluggish sim type games, like Elite on the ZX Spectrum and Stunt Car Racer on the C64 the problems are not as pronounced and the feel is more appropriate for these games anyway.

jstest-gtk

As a bonus, there are 6 additional buttons and the two fire buttons even register as a different button, so something can be made out of these when reconfigured for emulators. For example, I could use the buttons for accelerate/decelerate, arm/unarm/fire missile in Elite, which is kind of fun.

jstest-gtk is good for checking all the buttons and axes. Other software might have different numbering scheme, for example Fuse emulator starts from 1 whereas jstest-gtk starts from 0.

Looking at the insides

Opening the cover. The plate that houses the springs, is still in place.

One saving grace might be the joystick could be easy to mod. It opens easily enough, just remove five screws from the bottom and the part comes loose. 

There's a plate that houses springs for re-centering the stick. Four screws later, the plate can be removed. This actually needs to be removed for the circuit board to come loose.

After that, six more screws and the circuit board can be detached. The internal cables can be easily disconnected, they are not glued in.

The spring plate removed

Now, there are a few things that might influence how well the stick performs.

The four light springs that help return the stick to the center could be stronger I guess. Just to do something I pulled them out a little. This is not likely to achieve much.

The board doesn't look very straight when taken out of the stick. However, there are enough screws to keep it in place so I don't think it's bent when in position. So I'd rule that out.

The circuit board is easy to remove for inspection

The micro switch boxes might not be as flush against the circuit board as well as one might hope. I tried to re-solder them some, perhaps gaining a tiny improvement, but this alone didn't do anything either.

The underside of the board had something looking like re-soldering, before I even touched anything myself. It could be an indication of fixing the placing of machine-inserted parts, or the switches are put in manually as they are not SMD parts.

The other thing is that if they are not well positioned in their surface coordinates, could also result in an inaccuracy. My opinion is that this isn't very likely.

It's not exactly flush with the circuit board

The plastic parts that actually push the micro switches, could be reduced a little. After a little surface scraping I concluded I shouldn't do this as there isn't going back.

So, I didn't see any one thing that would be very crucial, but taking them all together there could be uncertainties when coming out of the manufacture, contributing to diverse experiences the reviewers and commenters have had.

The circle highlights the part that pushes against the micro switch

My adjustments didn't seem to do much, as they were so minor. It's possible the involuntary "ping-pong" effect was slightly reduced, but as I don't have metric for that it could be just my mind working away the problems.

I believe the stick can be further improved, and I think Retro Games can be at least credited for making devices that are easy to open and tinker with.


Towards a solution?

It occurred to me that I could add washers between the circuit board and the holders. This would create some distance between the micro switches and the shaft elements. After a couple of different attempts I ended up using 0.5mm thick washers.

The washers were a little tricky to add, some temporary glue could have helped, but I only needed to add 4 washers there. Fortunately it all still came back together.

I'd already noticed the stick doesn't stay exactly in position. It kind of rotates a tiny bit along its axis. But now I saw it can also be lifted about a millimeter or two. With the washers installed, and joystick lifted, the controls improve, whereas if it lies in its lowest position, I get far more of that "ping-pong" uncertainty.

To counter this effect I added one washer (0.5mm thick) under the central spring. This did create the desired effect, the stick no longer lifts.

There isn't a better picture, after adding them there's nothing to see

This resulted in a more balanced experience. I did introduce some kind of occasional cracking sound, which isn't very welcome, but I can perhaps look into it more. 

Also, if I want to be precise the L/R directions are still too sensitive compared to the U/D directions. This is where removing some material from the micro switch pushers might achieve something, but I'll address that later.

But I'm finished with the Quickshot now, and will return if I come up with any improvements.

The Buck stops here

While my modded Quickshot doesn't still quite pass the Buck Rogers test with flying colors, it's already a fairly usable joystick. It works pretty nice with the selection of games that comes with The C64. Boulder Dash, Monty on the Run, Paradroid. Why not.

On emulation front, Saboteur and even Atic Atac were passable, but Giana Sisters, maybe not so much. Blue Max felt ok.

Like I said, Elite and Stunt Car Racer go well with this. It adds something to sim and 3D games, especially when the extra buttons can be redirected to keypresses.