I have an arcade project planned that needs a small joystick but only needs it to control 4 things, up, down, left and right. So I don't need precise readings just simple ones. This means I don't want to use a microcontroller as it would be overkill. I was left with a little bit of modding. I took apart the analog, removed both potentiometers and scrapped away a small amount of conductive material which disconnects the two output pins and acts like a SPDT switch. The wiper pin becoming the common pin. This allows for the wiper to touch one of the output pins at a time instead of both at the same time regardless of movement. For fun I added this hack to an NES controller(3rd party but will work with original). I did this by supplying 5 volts to the wiper pins on both pots and having the output pins activate 4 transistors. The transistors allowed the button signal to go to ground. I tried using ground to the wiper but it wasn't as fluid as the transistors. Be sure to watch