In Indy 500, you have fifteen different tracks in one and two player scenarios, of which you race around with a special controller known as the "atari Driving Controller". This controller looks just like the Paddle Controllers but only comes one to a cable, and turns a full 360 degrees with a bit more of a "gritty" or "notchy" feel to it - as it uses a Encoder instead of a Potentiometer to create 360 degree movement (this is also how actual Arcade racing steering wheels such as those in Indy 800, Sprint, or Pole Position I/II work). It is the ONLY 2600 game (as of this writing) that uses this controller, which is a big reason Indy 500 has a major cult/underground status. Without the controller, the game is basically useless. Without the game and with the controller, people often get confused and toss out the "driving controllers" thiking they are "broken paddles" (I speak from experience as my first woodgrain 4-switch Atari came with a pair of these, and they were tossed in the trash by my mom for being "broken" when we just did not have the game that worked with them).

I think - around that time we still had the Indy 500 driving controllers and I begged mom to buy Indy 500 at Kay Bee toys for...whatever reason...had a freakin' regular box release WITHOUT the controllers (I swear I saw this). But no dice, she said they were "broken paddles and that's that". So of course, I had to reconsider this.

Years later, I got another Atari 2600 that came WITH Indy 500 but wouldn't you know it, NO Driving Controllers. This was around 1998 or so, so I was already building/modding guitars. And having taken apart and repaired 2 sets of Paddles and multiple joysticks (including a Wico Boss that had a pinewood bottom wrapped in duct tape and screwed together with 4 wood screws on each corner - my favorite controller at the time till my hand grew too big for the pistol grip). I knew that potentiometers might work, and crazy as it sounds, MAYBE I could use a Joystick...so I tried it, found out up and down worked as Left and Right only one notch, and fire worked for driving. So I tried to build my own controller for Indy 500 using a potentiometer and a push-button....it KINDA worked, but was unusuable for anything but the fastest round of hunt n' score with open ends of the track. I don't remember what happened to that copy of Indy 500.

Then in 2024, bored, and wanting another project, I bought a Heavy Sixer on e-bay and it came with ONE driving controller. This time, undeterred, I drove to our local game shop and bought a copy of Indy 500, and FINALLY I can play this as intended, and yeah, I really missed out on this one. This game is AWESOME for a 1970's era 2600 title, possibly one of my favorites of that era. The controllers really do do the job, and they do it well, and the game is a very good creation for such an early release. Which puts Indy 500 in the top of my list.