Meanings
plural joystick wagglers
- informalvideo gamesA video game, usually based on a sport, where the player must build up and maintain speed or energy by rapidly moving the joystick back and forth.
It's not an exact simulation and it's not a joystick waggler. It is basically CM2 for cricket.
1998, Mike Fairweather, “International cricket captain, opinions wanted”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.sports (Usenet)2 more examples
Popeye 3 is an out-and-out joystick waggler. While Zeppelin's Tag Team Wrestling used the old 'press fire with a direction' control method, to beat your opponent in Popeye 3, you have two stages of frenetic wrist-mangling.
1992, Jon Pillar, Popeye III (game review) in Your Sinclair 83, November 1992Could be wrong but I'm sure T&F and several of the other give-the-controls-a-good-twatting games were actually button bashers rather than joystick wagglers. Bit picky I know.....
2003, Nomenluni, “What Speccy game should have been in the arcade?”, in comp.sys.sinclair (Usenet)
Cite this entry
joystick waggler. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/joystick%20waggler
“joystick waggler.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/joystick%20waggler. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “joystick waggler,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/joystick%20waggler.
Source: joystick waggler on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.