Controller Advice

[atariksi]

Within the span of one week, I managed to acquire TWO 5200s, both in the town where I live (one via a private seller via Craigslist and one this morning at a yard sale).

 

The first one came with 24 games (22 in their original boxes) with all overlays. It also came with two controllers, but no switch box or power supply... This lot was $50.

 

Just when I was about to put the money down for a replacement power supply and switch box, I read a listing for a yard sale that mentioned a 5200 and picked up a console with vinyl dust cover, two controllers, power supply, switch box and 10 cartridges (no boxes, in this case) for $45.

 

So I hook it all up a few minutes ago and... Four out of four controllers are non-responsive!!! Ugh...

 

Well, I guess before I do anything drastic, I will take the advice posted here and open them up to clean the contacts, blow out the ancient dust and spiders and see what happens. Two controllers are missing buttons (START on one and a key off the pad on another) so they will likely be sent in to Best for replacement, but the other two seem clean, tight and feel like they SHOULD work. We'll see what happens after I gut them and clean them soon. I'll post the results here for the curious.

 

Atari 5200s these days are sold with non-working controllers. You can connect pin 7 to pin 4 on the DB15 connector to start the game. For better advice, you can get an adapter that lets you use an Atari 2600 touchpad whose buttons are much better. I have some of those in case you are interested. You can also get a Wico joystick from Ebay, but their keypads although very nice are expensive so better off with the touchpad as stated.

[atariksi]

One idea is to hook up a start button to the console itself using pins 4 and 7 internally on the DB15 connector so you can start games even with stock A5200 controller with non-responsive buttons.

 

Ms. Pac-man and pac-man should work since they don't use trigger anyways.

[bohoki]

One idea is to hook up a start button to the console itself using pins 4 and 7 internally on the DB15 connector so you can start games even with stock A5200 controller with non-responsive buttons.

 

Ms. Pac-man and pac-man should work since they don't use trigger anyways.

 

 

robotron just starts without the start button if a fire button works