Atari 2600 joystick question

[homerwannabee]

I have an atari 2600 that will not allow me to use the joystick to move my charector sprite up. It is not the joystick but rather the system itself is there any way to fix something like this?

[2600Lives]

Sounds like one of the pins may be broken or bent. Look inside the little connector where the joystick plugs into. If you see one of the pins is bent, you MAY be able to (veeeeery carefully...) straighten it with a pair of thin needle nose pliers. If it's broken, I dunno what to tell you.

[spongebue]

If that doesnt work, try shorting pin one on the plug to a certain pin on the riot chip. I can't get it right now, since I am at school where there is a filtering system and I cannot get to the site, but look at the how-to's section at Ben Heckendorn's VCSp site: http://www.classicgaming.com/vcsp click on the question "how do I place the joysticks, select/reset button etc. elsewhere?"

[bjk7382]

I have replaced a broken pin in the SIO port of my atari 400. I actually used a pice of paper clip bent to the right size and soldered it in. No problem