Controller alternatives for the 2600

[Ian Primus]

I was at a flea market, and I saw a couple of dusty 2600 carts for a buck apiece, and fished through them. Combat, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Defender with a torn up label, nothing special. I was putting them back on the shelf when I noticed an old Sega Master System controller stuffed in the back. There was no Master System there, so I bought the controller for a buck. I hoped it would work on the Atari, and lo and behold, it did! The only problem was that the single fire button was the lefthand one, kind uncomfortable. I opened the controller, and found two circuit boards, one for the buttons, one for the d pad. The cable was soldered onto the edges of these boards. I tried connecting the non ground sides of both buttons, but that resulted in continuous fire, then I realized that i should probably disconnect the second button from the cable, before shorting it to the first one. I snipped the wire, and it worked! Both fire buttons function as the one fire button. If you want to do this yourself, it's easy. All you need is a soldering iron, a scrap of solid core wire (or even a paper clip, it should work), and some solder. Open the controller and flip it button side down. there should be a board for the buttons and one for the d-pad. Flip the button board over to see the solder points. Follow the trace from the tops of the two buttons to the edge of the board. Solder the scrap of wire / paper clip bit between those two solder pads. Snip the white wire off, and tape over the end of it to prevent a short. Trim the wire you soldered between the solder pads so that it doesn't short. Double check your work, and reassemble the controller, traking care to route the cable the correct way in the case. Get an Atari cart such as River Raid, Defender or something that uses all 4 directions and Fire, and plug it into the Atari. Test the conroller. Both buttons should act as the same fire button, and the d-pad should work. If it doesn't, you did something wrong. This conversion should be easily reversable by simply snipping the added wire, and resoldering the white wire you shipped off. I am not responsible for any damage done to your controller, Atari, carts, television set, body, car, pet rock, chia pet, nor am I responsible for soldering ireon burns to yourself, or any other damage resulting from following/not following these instructions. If you have any comments, questions, gripes, email me at ian.primus@usa.net. Hope this is helpful!

 

Ian Primus

ian.primus@usa.net

[Joel D. Park]

Also, genuine Sega Genesis controllers seem to work on the Commodore 64, so I'd assume they will work on the Atari too.

 

After market Genesis controllers with extra buttons and stuff don't seem to work.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Yep...

Sega Genesis controllers do work.

 

You have to use Button B for the fire button. But they work great otherwise. Battlezone and crystal castles really benefit from this...hehe..

 

Could this be considered cheating?

[Joel D. Park]

I don't know if it's cheating, but I still do much better with the old 2600 style joystick.

 

I like the genesis controllers because I have alot of friends who's first system was the 8-Bit NES and they don't have alot of experience with a Joystick type controller, they are much happier with the gamepad.