i had no problem with the 5200 joystick

[Mazerati]

back when i bought a 5200 in 1983 i actually liked the joystick a lot and had no problem at all with it

and loved the pause button being on the controller..in fact it wasn't until the internet that i learned so many

people hated it...back then i had no idea lol

 

i say the Colecovision controller was much worse...cheap plastic nob and fire buttons,and it would always cramp up my hand

Edited January 4, 2015 by Mazerati

[bohoki]

me too i thought it was a-ok just had to clean the contacts every now and then it wasnt till the nes came out i realized plus pads were the way of the future and i realized the reason joysticks work in the arcade and not at home is because they were bolted to a 400 pound box while mine was suctioncupped to a 40 pound coffee table

 

 

also i never heard the hate of 2600 pac man during its time the 2600 was arcade lite we all knew that we were never thinking this is super lame but when something came along good we were shocked at its quality like moon patrol i got that music stuck in my head

[Master Phruby]

The internet is good at telling you that you should hate things that you enjoyed and lived with for years before.

 

It's good that its run by a twelve year old running his dad's old VIC-20 from his bedroom.

[Rex Dart]

back when i bought a 5200 in 1983 i actually liked the joystick a lot and had no problem at all with it

 

It's not a bad controller in theory, but did yours work ten years later?

[Greg2600]

5200 analog stick is fine to me on most games. For platformers like Miner 2049er or Montezuma's Revenge though it's just plain awful. The buttons, particularly the fire buttons, being so mushy and difficult to get to respond, are a bigger problem. Obviously back in 1983 they wouldn't have been so bad, but now they are. Even inserting the conductive foil doesn't help it completely.

CV stick is bad, hurts your hand, but the buttons are firm.

[stringfellow]

I am in total agreement. I enjoyed playing with the 5200 stick when I got a 5200 for Christmas in 1980 something. I later got a colecovision that my dad picked up from a co worker and I never really liked how the colecovision controller felt.

[Dauber]

The standard 5200 controller actually works pretty well with The Dreadnought Factor and Centipede. Pac-Man, however...the over-compensation you need to do to change directions in the maze....atrocious...

[NE146]

I think it's important to distinguish what problems people talk about.. i.e. 1) problems with CONTROL ? or 2) Problems with it simply "working"?

 

Myself I was fine with the 5200 controller and could play games using it with ease.

 

What sucked is the controllers broke quickly (bad buttons, joystick not moving in a direction, etc.) And when you're a 12 year old kid who can't start his friggin Joust game that you want to play badly (and don't know how to fix it yet).. it's traumatic.

Edited January 12, 2015 by NE146

[+DamonicFury]

I think it's important to distinguish what problems people talk about.. i.e. 1) problems with CONTROL ? or 2) Problems with it simply "working"?

 

I agree that it is important to distinguish between those two. But it seems to me that the 5200 controller fails on both counts.

 

While yes, the games can be controlled reasonably well with a working stock 5200 stick, it just isn't a precision controller and most players (perhaps not all) will do better at the games given a different option. I feel pretty qualified to speak to this being a regular competitor in the 5200 HSC, and having participated in the Original Equipment rounds that have been run the past couple of years. It matters more with some games than others, to be sure... Centipede and Missile Command actually work well with the stock stick, as they are meant for analog control. But a game like Miner 2049er, which requires extremely precise control, becomes a frustrating mess in later levels. Yes, some players like darthkur can somehow manage with it, but many others, including myself, simply can't. And I just have far, far more fun playing the same games with a Wico controller than the stock sticks. While I understand Atari was trying to match the 'features' of the Intellivision controller, they would have been far better served by trying to replicate the arcade experience that most of the actual games were trying to simulate.

 

And I don't think it's even controversial to say that the 5200 fails miserably on the second point. It just seems to be a matter of poorly chosen materials here. The little rubber dots just don't seem to last long before they fail to make proper contact with the circuit pad. I know some folks swear by the Best gold enhancement kits, and I'm sure they do indeed work well. But I've had very good luck with the far cheaper "glue a bit of foil to the dots" technique. In either case, Atari clearly could have and should have chosen better materials to make their controllers last longer.

 

The Colecovision controllers fails nearly as bad as the 5200 when it comes to control... while it is digital instead of analog, the stubby stick and poor egronomics of the controller work against it. But it does come out on top over the 5200 stick easily when it comes to durability.

 

(Of course, the real reason the Colecovision triumphed in the marketplace over the 5200 had little to do with the controllers, but with instead the software selection, ESPECIALLY the launch line ups. But that's a whole other topic!)

[Bill Loguidice]

I agree that the main problem with the 5200 sticks is that they're far more difficult to maintain in a working state than they should be. They also work in a way that's counter-intuitive to how nearly every other console's controller worked, with their lack of self centering, making certain game types - particularly the game types that were popular back in the day - more difficult to control than they probably should have been. With those issues in mind, I really don't think there's any exaggeration about the controllers. They really are bad and were even noted as such by contemporary reports, i.e., this is not an Internet phenomena. With all of that in mind, there certainly are aspects to like about them, but no reason to sugar coat the serious issues.

 

While the ColecoVision controllers are not great, they did work in ways that were expected for the time, and, despite the poor build quality, were generally reliable.

[Greg2600]

As I said, 5200 stick on platformers like Miner and Monty's Revenge are nearly impossible. ColecoVision, even with my controller modded by Yurkie, is still not that great in the control area. That system's control even on emulation stunk, it was just too slow to respond. I actually use my 5200 Wico stick JUST for the fire button, leaving the self-centering off (partly because one of the axis locks is broken). It's a shame because Atari's joystick and paddles were so perfect in how the fire buttons felt/responded, and completely blew it with the 5200. Should not have used the membrane for the fire buttons.

[+darryl1970]

**Note: I started to write this before Greg2600 expressed how "impossible "the games were. I edited this, because I don't want to look like I am arguing his specific post. My post wasn't a response. I was writing at the same time apparently. lol. I just never had a problem turning away from a monster in Pac-Man. I thought the buttons (WHEN WORKING) had a great, fast response in games like Montezuma. I could stop on a dime, and I could jump, jump, jump better on the 5200 than the 8-bit (used when jumping up the disappearing walls on the left of one screen).

 

The 5200 controllers were not really more difficult for games like Pac-Man, Miner, Montezuma, and the like to me. They were just different. I always felt it was not the controller as much as one's willingness to accept something different. (I thought it was mostly Coleco fanboys in the day) That is compounded when an analog stick is used to replace a 4-way joystick. I find it much easier to play Donkey Kong on the arcade machine than using the MAME controller's 8-way joystick. However, MAME sticks were "arcade perfect" in my head, until I got my DK cabinet, with 4-way locking positions. lol.

 

If I go back even farther into my childhood, I remember trying to play the arcade Donkey Kong with my hands crossed, because the control panel was "left-handed" by the standards on that day. I did this, because I read it was wrong in magazines. I eventually just played it left-handed, because I loved the game. From the NES to the current generation, the d-pad is located on the left. Funny how things change.

 

As for the 12 y/o running the Internet, I recall this propaganda from the video game magazines of the day too! My friends and I had no difficulty using the controllers. I thought they had a great feel, compared to Tandy computer analog joysticks, for example!

 

As for the young boy wanting to play Joust, but had a failed Start button. That was an unfortunate fact of the sticks. I was a tinkerer back in the day. After destroying a guinea pig stick, I started super gluing aluminum foil hole punches onto the black buttons. That was unacceptable for a system of that price.

 

Regardless, I believe the 5200 remains the system that never got to see its full potential. It really started to get some strong offerings before the crash. If Atari would have supported it properly, there wouldn't have been a need to announce a half-baked 7800.

Edited January 12, 2015 by darryl1970

[+Cafeman]

My sticks functioned well. I must have gotten the later version with thicker rubber boot, because the rubber seemed to self-center to a degree. But years later I used somebody else's stick and it was horrible! The stick would lie to the left or right after you pressed that direction, and there was far too much loose play in the stick.

[+darryl1970]

I didn't want to take up any more space, but it's bugging me... I have a problem going from Mouse+keyboard to console controller, but I am doing it. I couldn't fathom how it could be a precise. However, there are some people that prove it can be done, and they'd probably beat me using that controller against me, my mouse, and my keyboard.. lol.

 

That's where I was really going above. The 5200 was an early time, where innovation (self-switching box) didn't fit into their "box" of what was right, so they overlooked it. Any flaw (such as reliability) adds fuel against the truly innovational part. Today, with gaming expanded, no amount of complaining on my part was going to force a keyboard/mouse standard for XBoxOne or PS4.. lol. I know it can be done, just like playing on Donkey Kong's left-handed controls.

 

So, my main point was that I think the 5200 was a victim of the time period, poor support from Atari, and an unacceptable fail rate for the sticks.

 

I really wish that prototype, self-centering stick would have been released (as shown on Atari Protos). However, as a young boy, I couldn't afford the $49.99 joysticks (or was that for two??) as it was, let alone the upgrade!

Edited January 12, 2015 by darryl1970

[bohoki]

back in the day i had a controller where i cut the buttons apart so i could pull them out clean the contacts and then fold the rubber flange and stick it back it so i didnt have to take it apart any more

 

its funny i never remember playing any games that needed to use the numberpad i guess i just played digdug and junglehunt mostly

[Jackbtripper]

With a 5200 emulator, will a 2600 controller work for most games?

[+DamonicFury]

With a 5200 emulator, will a 2600 controller work for most games?

Running an emulator on a PC with a 2600-style USB joystick? Yeah, that will work for most of the games, just not the ones that require analog control (Missile Command, Centipede, Star Wars, Gorf, etc).

[Gabriel]

 

It's not a bad controller in theory, but did yours work ten years later?

 

Not directed at me, but no, none of my Atari 5200 controllers worked 10 years after I got my system. The longest lasting one endured for 5 to 6 years.

 

However, none of my original 2600 controllers worked after 10 years either.

[Jackbtripper]

All of my original 2600 controllers still work great. I had to take them Apart and peel that tape up and realign the buttons but they work great. The rubber grip is well worn though. I have lots if controllers but prefer the atari ones. Probably all in my head though.

[+darryl1970]

All of my original 2600 controllers still work great. I had to take them Apart and peel that tape up and realign the buttons but they work great. The rubber grip is well worn though. I have lots if controllers but prefer the atari ones. Probably all in my head though.

One of the reasons I find these conversations fun, is because I start to remember things I haven't thought of in years. I remember really liking the 2600 joysticks, but I remember wishing they were more like the arcade Pac-Man or Donkey Kong (as I played those a lot). Of course, I didn't even realize that both of those sticks were 4-way sticks. I mainly wanted the ball top. lol. I coveted the WICO sticks in magazines. I didn't know what they felt like at the time, but I knew they "looked" more like the arcade. I remember one stick was a mini control panel. It had an "arcade" ball stick, and buttons on each side. I really wanted that.

 

In the end, I couldn't afford them, and I was more than content with the 2600. I think I only ever had one that broke on me. All of my 2600 joysticks still work. The paddles are all over the place, with dirty contacts!

 

I was fortunate to figure out how to fix my 5200 joysticks. I also remember the disappointment when they would break. I can imagine how that disappointment would turn into hopelessness if not fixed. That is a shame!