NO! My controllers don't work

[Sayton]

I bought a 5200 a while back and decided to play it today with my girlfriend. I hook it up and everything....it's alright. Then, I tried both controllers....and the top three buttons (start, pause, reset) don't work. All the other buttons I guess work (selecting players and etc). Man, know anywhere besides eBay I could buy a few extra controllers? Thanks! (I really want to play some 5200 Pac-Man).

[JB]

You don't need new controllers. And any you get will pr'ly be borked anyways, unless they're modded.

 

 

If it's just start, pause, and reset, life's a lot easier.

Jsut get a screwdriver, pop the bezel up, lift the rubber buttons, and take a pencil eraser to the contacts in the controller.

UNLESS the contacts are black instead of metallic. Then they're carbon, and you have to use a QTip with alcohol.

[Albert]

Yeah, 5200 controllers are notoriously bad. For every one that I have that works well, I probably have five that have one or more problems. This is one of the reasons we created the Redemption 5200 controller adapter, that lets you use Atari 2600 / Sega controllers with the 5200. This lets you play the majority of the 5200 library without having to deal with those terrible controllers:

 

AtariAge Store: Redemption 5200 - 2600 / Sega Version

 

..Al

[JB]

Ummm... the Redemption adapters STILL require a 5200 stick for start/pause/reset, which is the problem in this case.

 

 

And I still think the 5200 controllers are great once you fix the maintainence problems.

[Albert]

Ummm... the Redemption adapters STILL require a 5200 stick for start/pause/reset, which is the problem in this case.

You're right, my mistake for not reading the original message carefully enough.

 

And I still think the 5200 controllers are great once you fix the maintainence problems.

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I agree it's better to have working 5200 controllers than non-working controllers, but I find them uncomfortable to use, especially the fire buttons on the side. And the non-centering nature of the sticks makes many games difficult to play.

 

..Al

[JB]

I tend to auto-center them in general usage, so the spring or lack thereof makes no real diffrence to me.

 

The side-fire buttons don't give me trouble unless they're acting flakey(had some that worked, but had to be mashed down hard).

Though I WOULD like to see a hard plastic cap on 'em. The ones that aren't that tall to start with(which happen to be the ones I prefer) can get caught under the plastic bezel if you jam 'em in very hard(similar to the NES Advantage if you hit a button from the edge).

 

 

 

The thing that bugs me most on the 5200 sticks is games with too much deadzone. Space Invaders is the only one that springs to mind, though I think there were a few others.

[Lord Helmet]

 

The thing that bugs me most on the 5200 sticks is games with too much deadzone. Space Invaders is the only one that springs to mind, though I think there were a few others.

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Or lack of dead zone...Gorf...

[joeybastard]

My main thing with the 5200 sticks are the squishy fire buttons but I just wired in miroswitches instead. They always work and have a better 'feel'. The stick may not look as nice as with the orange buttons but I'm not really concerned with that. One of these days, I'll look for some orange rubber to cover up the black switches.

[darklord1977]

i know what you mean i love the 5200 pac man also..it sucks that the pesky start button hardly works...take my advice dont try repairing the stick yourself its too nerve racking because of the small pieces and sometimes it dont work after that my brother did this 7 times and he had enough..i say go on e bay get some modded or rebuilt controllers and enjoy your system..not always repairing it and hoping that the joystick will work...i know some people will disagree with me but im not the only one that feels like this

Edited March 25, 2006 by darklord1977

[accousticguitar]

Yeah, 5200 controllers are notoriously bad. For every one that I have that works well, I probably have five that have one or more problems. This is one of the reasons we created the Redemption 5200 controller adapter, that lets you use Atari 2600 / Sega controllers with the 5200. This lets you play the majority of the 5200 library without having to deal with those terrible controllers:

 

AtariAge Store: Redemption 5200 - 2600 / Sega Version

 

..Al

 

If you get the redemption controller adapter and use the sega controllers with it, can you play the games that require 2 firing buttons?

[+remowilliams]

I bought a 5200 a while back and decided to play it today with my girlfriend. I hook it up and everything....it's alright. Then, I tried both controllers....and the top three buttons (start, pause, reset) don't work.

Oops. Welcome to the order of things for 5200 controllers. They usually exist in a couple of states:

 

- Working in a crappy fashion

- Waiting to be fixed again

 

[JB]

You forgot "Working as the best-laid-out controllers of the era."

Which makes it all the more tragic that they spend most of their lives in "waiting to be fixed."