Today's Finds and a Tool Question

[Dolt]

I bought a buttload of Atari stuff from a retired TV repairman today (including the boxed 'service exchange only' one that I posted about a few weeks ago). In amongst all the stuff was a box of fairly cruddy joysticks, most of which the handle sleeve slides off of them, revealing the white stick underneath. He mentioned in passing that he used to have a special tool that was used to fix the rubber of the sleeve back into place--has anyone heard of this tool? I'd never even seen a mention of it before (I sure wish he still had it--I would have bought that too).

 

In all, I got:

--A brand-new 2600 in the 'service exchange only' box.

--Another clearly brand-new 2600.

--A scuffed but otherwise new 5200 with the pink plastic still on the metal stripe, with 1 controller and a power pack (my first 5200!).

--A silver-boxed 2600 power adaptor (never seen them that way before).

--5 joysticks, all in need of a serious bath.

--Odds and ends like a TV switch and two cables from 2600 power adapters that apparently were snipped off.

 

All in all, I'm happy with the deal--and now he is too, because he's going to start digging through his attic for "a buncha games I got--maybe 100 and they're still all in the boxes." If I don't hear from him in a week, man, I'm definitely nagging him until he goes searching for those games...

[the 5th ghost]

Awesome! Hope he turns up those boxed games, that would be super. Good luck getting them.

 

[ATARIPITBULL]

Here is a picture of my silver boxed Atari power plug dolt, they also make one in a white box with a drawing of a power plug and also one that comes in a bright purple box.

 

[RIVER]

Congrats Dolt, sounds like a great deal you got, i hope also that the boxed games get found. Hey how ya like that boxed service exchange atari, not really fancy but pretty cool huh???

[Mindfield]

Nice score!

 

The tool? Probably a precision flathead screwdriver or a butter knife. :-)

 

Seriously, isn't it possible just to open the sucker up, put the boot on the shaft and then screw it back in?

 

(Wait... that sounds vaguely naughty)

[the 5th ghost]

Nice score!

 

The tool? Probably a precision flathead screwdriver or a butter knife. :-)

 

Seriously' date=' isn't it possible just to open the sucker up, put the boot on the shaft and then screw it back in?

 

(Wait... that sounds vaguely naughty)[/quote']

 

Yeah, you could just open up the stick but that little plastic ring that holds down the rubber boot is difficult to remove without snapping off the tabs. It is very fragile

[Dolt]

When I cleaned the joysticks I discovered that there were two kinds in the pile--the ones that have the coupler ring on them (the ring that you mentioned is hard to remove without breaking) and ones that simply had tabs on the end of the stick sheath, which plugged directly into holes in the top of the stick.

So does anyone know where i could score about 3 coupler rings?

[sku_u]

So does anyone know where i could score about 3 coupler rings?

 

These guys probably have them:

 

www.best-electronics-ca.com

[dykesr]

First off nice find. Also justbuy a lot of controllers on ebay you can buy broken or torn up joysticks there as well.

 

RD