"The Atari VCS/2600 was released in 1977. At the the time of this writing, that was 36 years ago. The consoles themselves, impressively, are pretty sturdy. Sadly, the joysticks don't fare as well. Many people resort to using Sega Genesis controllers, since they are compatible. However, I wanted to make an arcade-quality joystick for my Atari. I could go to the trouble of hunting down Atari joysticks in pristine condition, but I grew up with one. Frankly, they weren't very good. But they were simple."
Rather than create a standard joystick, this article uses arcade quality components, so the results should last a lifetime.