5200 Joystick Question

[Atari2008]

So I just got my 7800 fixed and started playing with the joystick for the first time since I was little, and one word sums up my experience: OUCH! I never knew how painful those sticks were to use. I'm curious since the 5200 seems to share a similar shape to the 7800 joystick, without taking into consideration the malfunction issues (I know about those already ), how comfortable are the 5200 sticks to use? Do they also cram the palm of your hands like the 7800 ones? How do they feel after extended gameplay?

[BassGuitari]

I find them to be pretty comfortable, myself. The 7800/Proline can get uncomfortable for me, though, which may be strange since they share the same general shape.

 

I think Atari 5200 joystick is more comfortable because it has a larger profile and there's little tension against the stick. The side-mounted fire buttons can get annoying, but I haven't experienced much discomfort from them...just kind of a sore thumb after long, high-action games.

[midnight8]

for me they don't hurt my hands as bad as the 7800 sticks when they are working properly. I just always hard a hard time with upper and lower fire buttons. I guess thats just my lack of precision hitting the buttons.

[+remowilliams]

I find them to be pretty comfortable, myself. The 7800/Proline can get uncomfortable for me, though, which may be strange since they share the same general shape.

 

I think Atari 5200 joystick is more comfortable because it has a larger profile and there's little tension against the stick.

Same here. The 5200 sticks may be unreliable, but they aren't anywhere near the cramp inducing torture of the 7800 sticks. Those things were designed completely without any thought to the biomechanics of actually using one.

[Prodos8]

The 5200 CX-52 stick glides around with very little applied effort so your not constantly fighting torque like with a 7800 CX-24. You sort of steer the stick around in a circle which works good on some games but not so good for twitch type games as there's a lot of dead space on the stick. They're fine for long gaming sessions except for the side mounted firing buttons which are not well suited for intense action. I have a masterplay type device so I usually use a genny pad/2600 stick most of the time anyway.

Edited March 20, 2008 by Prodos8

[mimo]

for me they don't hurt my hands as bad as the 7800 sticks when they are working properly. I just always hard a hard time with upper and lower fire buttons. I guess thats just my lack of precision hitting the buttons.

true, but it is a lot less hassle and a lot cheaper to plug a different stick into the 7800

[midnight8]

The 5200 CX-52 stick glides around with very little applied effort so your not constantly fighting torque like with a 7800 CX-24. You sort of steer the stick around in a circle which works good on some games but not so good for twitch type games as there's a lot of dead space on the stick. They're fine for long gaming sessions except for the side mounted firing buttons which are not well suited for intense action. I have a masterplay type device so I usually use a genny pad/2600 stick most of the time anyway.

 

I wired a thumbstick into a genesis controller with a 15 pin cable and a y adapter so I play with that.

[Prodos8]

I wired a thumbstick into a genesis controller with a 15 pin cable and a y adapter so I play with that.

Not to shabby!

[midnight8]

I wired a thumbstick into a genesis controller with a 15 pin cable and a y adapter so I play with that.

Not to shabby!

It works pretty well. When I am on vacation in a couple of weeks I want to try and put a thumbstick into a jaguar controller so I can have everything in one controller and not have to have the y adapter at all. I gotta get a couple of extra jag controllers tho since I only have 2. If some one has a couple they want to part with let me know.

[Jess Ragan]

The 5200 CX-52 stick glides around with very little applied effort so your not constantly fighting torque like with a 7800 CX-24. You sort of steer the stick around in a circle which works good on some games but not so good for twitch type games as there's a lot of dead space on the stick. They're fine for long gaming sessions except for the side mounted firing buttons which are not well suited for intense action. I have a masterplay type device so I usually use a genny pad/2600 stick most of the time anyway.

 

I wired a thumbstick into a genesis controller with a 15 pin cable and a y adapter so I play with that.

 

What thumbstick did you use in this mod? I think you're onto something good with this!

[midnight8]

The 5200 CX-52 stick glides around with very little applied effort so your not constantly fighting torque like with a 7800 CX-24. You sort of steer the stick around in a circle which works good on some games but not so good for twitch type games as there's a lot of dead space on the stick. They're fine for long gaming sessions except for the side mounted firing buttons which are not well suited for intense action. I have a masterplay type device so I usually use a genny pad/2600 stick most of the time anyway.

 

I wired a thumbstick into a genesis controller with a 15 pin cable and a y adapter so I play with that.

 

What thumbstick did you use in this mod? I think you're onto something good with this!

 

It came from a controller called a hammerhead fx made for a pc. it was one of the old game port types. If I can get a few extra jag controllers I am going to try and put it inside so I can have a numberpad and no more y adapters. I will have to use the c button on the jag controller for the reset button tho probably unless I add a button to the controller which I could probably do.

[midnight8]

found some jag controllers. Hopefully next weekend I can get my thumbsticks in and them rewired and have my new 5200 controllers.

[midnight8]

The 5200 CX-52 stick glides around with very little applied effort so your not constantly fighting torque like with a 7800 CX-24. You sort of steer the stick around in a circle which works good on some games but not so good for twitch type games as there's a lot of dead space on the stick. They're fine for long gaming sessions except for the side mounted firing buttons which are not well suited for intense action. I have a masterplay type device so I usually use a genny pad/2600 stick most of the time anyway.

 

I wired a thumbstick into a genesis controller with a 15 pin cable and a y adapter so I play with that.

 

What thumbstick did you use in this mod? I think you're onto something good with this!

 

It came from a controller called a hammerhead fx made for a pc. it was one of the old game port types. If I can get a few extra jag controllers I am going to try and put it inside so I can have a numberpad and no more y adapters. I will have to use the c button on the jag controller for the reset button tho probably unless I add a button to the controller which I could probably do.

 

I'm about halfway done wiring my jaguar controller to the 5200. It is much more of a pain in the rear than I thought it would be. The shape of the controller makes it really hard to grind down enuff inside to make the analog thumbstick fit. I actually had to grind down far enuff that the conroller has a small hole in the bottom. Even at that I had to enlarge the opening it the top of the jag controller to give clearance to the thumbstick.