Does anyone sell self-centering controllers?

[JohnnyBlaze]

Does anyone sell self-centering joysticks for the 5200? You know, rebuilt? I only have one 5200 controller, but I want to keep it analog so this way I can still play Super Breakout. I'm looking to get a self-centering 5200 controller so I can play my new Boulder Dash II game. I'm good at it, but with the god-awful 5200 controller, I cannot even get past the first stage! Plus, playing Pac-Man will be easier. So, can anyone direct me to anyone?

[shadow460]

I'd look around for a Wico stick, or perhaps some self centering pots for your second controller. Best Electronics may have the Wico controller.

[JohnnyBlaze]

I'm looking to see if anyone modified an original first party joystick. With the Wico Command, it is two different pieces as you NEED the Wico keypad to use it. The joystick itself has a 2600 port, you need to connect that to the Wico keypad which in turn has the 5200 port. I'd just rather have a modified first-party joystick. I know people do it, but I need one from scratch. I only have 1 controller and don't want to give it up, because some games work better with the analog.

[BassGuitari]

I ghetto-rigged a controller once to self-center by fastening two rubber bands inside the controller in an "X" pattern around the shaft of the joystick (the stick being placed through the hole at the intersection of the rubber bands). Believe it or not, it worked well, but it's not a very permanent solution, since rubber bands deteriorate/disintigrate/break over time.

 

Sorry, no photos, since I'm pretty sure I scrapped it for parts years ago. But you get the idea.

 

 

EDIT: BTW, you don't NEED a Wico Keypad to use the Wico Joystick. You can use the 5200 joystick's keypad. You DO need the Y-cable, though.

Edited August 3, 2008 by BassGuitari

[landsmarra]

I enjoy using my self-centering prototype stick. I just hope it doesn't go south on me because I don't think I could go back to using a stock stick

[BigO]

I think to be completely functional, a self-centering stick would need some means of adjustment that allows physical stick center to correlate to "screen center" or neutral positiona as far as a game is concerned. I've built a self-centering stick without that ability. It's annoying to have the player drift or be off center when the stick isn't being deflected off center. I've built a custom self-centering stick with that "trimming" feature and it's much better to use.

 

Do the others of you who've tinkered with controllers have the same experience?

[midnight8]

I think to be completely functional, a self-centering stick would need some means of adjustment that allows physical stick center to correlate to "screen center" or neutral positiona as far as a game is concerned. I've built a self-centering stick without that ability. It's annoying to have the player drift or be off center when the stick isn't being deflected off center. I've built a custom self-centering stick with that "trimming" feature and it's much better to use.

 

Do the others of you who've tinkered with controllers have the same experience?

 

mine do the exact same thing. tried many thumb sticks same result. Its still much better than the stock stick though.

[carmel_andrews]

Bass guitari, you do know you can get industrial quality rubber bands, like the ones they use on the Atari 1050 and 810 disk drives (they tend to last ages)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ghetto-rigged a controller once to self-center by fastening two rubber bands inside the controller in an "X" pattern around the shaft of the joystick (the stick being placed through the hole at the intersection of the rubber bands). Believe it or not, it worked well, but it's not a very permanent solution, since rubber bands deteriorate/disintigrate/break over time.

 

Sorry, no photos, since I'm pretty sure I scrapped it for parts years ago. But you get the idea.

 

 

EDIT: BTW, you don't NEED a Wico Keypad to use the Wico Joystick. You can use the 5200 joystick's keypad. You DO need the Y-cable, though.

[atariksi]

I ghetto-rigged a controller once to self-center by fastening two rubber bands inside the controller in an "X" pattern around the shaft of the joystick (the stick being placed through the hole at the intersection of the rubber bands). Believe it or not, it worked well, but it's not a very permanent solution, since rubber bands deteriorate/disintigrate/break over time.

 

Sorry, no photos, since I'm pretty sure I scrapped it for parts years ago. But you get the idea.

 

 

EDIT: BTW, you don't NEED a Wico Keypad to use the Wico Joystick. You can use the 5200 joystick's keypad. You DO need the Y-cable, though.

 

You can also use the following instead of Wico Keypad:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=320292895573

 

It's an Atari 2600 keypad that works with Atari 5200 using the digital joystick adapter. You can plug the digital joystick adapter into the Y-cable for the Wico stick. You can also use it directly without the Wico stuff if you build your own digital joystick (which won't require self-centering) or use the PC interface.

 

By the way, I got this Atari 5200 trackball recently. It has two keypads-- is this for two players or are the keypads just redundant for the same player?

[BigO]

I ghetto-rigged a controller once to self-center by fastening two rubber bands inside the controller in an "X" pattern around the shaft of the joystick (the stick being placed through the hole at the intersection of the rubber bands). Believe it or not, it worked well, but it's not a very permanent solution, since rubber bands deteriorate/disintigrate/break over time.

 

Sorry, no photos, since I'm pretty sure I scrapped it for parts years ago. But you get the idea.

 

 

EDIT: BTW, you don't NEED a Wico Keypad to use the Wico Joystick. You can use the 5200 joystick's keypad. You DO need the Y-cable, though.

 

You can also use the following instead of Wico Keypad:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=320292895573

 

It's an Atari 2600 keypad that works with Atari 5200 using the digital joystick adapter. You can plug the digital joystick adapter into the Y-cable for the Wico stick. You can also use it directly without the Wico stuff if you build your own digital joystick (which won't require self-centering) or use the PC interface.

 

By the way, I got this Atari 5200 trackball recently. It has two keypads-- is this for two players or are the keypads just redundant for the same player?

They're redundant. Probably to accomodate left and right handed players.

[CV Gus]

I think to be completely functional, a self-centering stick would need some means of adjustment that allows physical stick center to correlate to "screen center" or neutral positiona as far as a game is concerned. I've built a self-centering stick without that ability. It's annoying to have the player drift or be off center when the stick isn't being deflected off center. I've built a custom self-centering stick with that "trimming" feature and it's much better to use.

 

Do the others of you who've tinkered with controllers have the same experience?

 

 

It is vital to put a variable resistor ("potentiometer") in each circuit so you can adjust it. My 5200 digital controller has these; I use Missile Command to make adjustments. Luckily, I had a few of those Japanese-made 5200 potentiometers, and they still work very, very well indeed!

 

I've noticed that what works for some games doesn't quite work for others.

 

You can see where you should put them here; scroll down to the bottom of this thread:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=119395