2-Port Console Weirdness

[BassGuitari]

I got my 2-port 5200 out last night to try out a label-less mystery game from Goodwill.

 

Never did get that game to boot up, but more to the point, I noticed some issues when trying to play other games:

 

1.) The system doesn't seem to like either of my Wico joystick Y-cables. I can use standard 5200 joysticks and my Comp Pro without issues (knock on wood), but with the Y-splitter hooked up, it forces down/right movement.

2.) There's static in the audio signal. Picture is crystal clear, but the sound has a lot of static noise.

3.) 3rd party games are a pain to get working...and River Raid won't have it at all. 3rd party cartridges seem to sit very loosely in the 5200's cartridge interface, making contact iffy and flaky.

4.) When I use the Comp Pro with Zaxxon, I can't move left. I thought it might be that the 5200 stick wasn't centered enough or something, but that wasn't the issue. (The regular 5200 stick works fine here.) Zaxxon seems to be the only game where this happens.

 

I haven't had my 2-port out in a while, but I don't remember it having these issues...

 

Any suggestions?

 

[zylon]

Sound might be the mylar caps, 3rd party games do that for me on all 5200 consoles, & you might have a control port or plug issue. I have one controller that works as you described, but only in a certain system. If I push the plug in very straight, it goes away.