Today I’m working with an older PC style 15 pin joystick. This predates the newer USB joysticks by a couple of decades, and makes it a lot easier to interface with the Arduino. I’m using a joystick shield that’s made by Lectrobox, with a Joystick made by Suncom. Any 15 pin IBM PC Joystick will work fine. It’s only wired for one joystick, so you would need two shields for two joysticks, or mod the shield (moderate difficulty), for use with a Y splitter.
There’s no wiring involved, and the onboard jumpers allow you some selection in Arduino pins.
Note: To connect a PS/2 keyboard, see http://www.instructables.com/id/Creating-the-PS2-Keyboard-smart-interface-for-micr/
The sample code provided outputs the analog positions of the stick, and the digital positions of the two buttons:
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