5200 still making the news!

[darklord1977]

i kid you not

[darklord1977]

yeah im my opinion , the 5200 controllers were rushed..im sure atari ment to make sure that they would work well and everything..but everybody i talk to about this , says that these 2 things are major design flaws of the 5200...first off are the controllers(like everybody knows)..do you really want to spend your time literally taking them apart and repairing them..rather then actually playing the games.. i know some people enjoy doing that and thats cool, i like to look inside my systems to see what makes them tick sometimes also and second..there should have been the start, pause and reset on the console itself. it only makes sense ,just as a backup in case of this kind of problem...thats why they have all these features on the 7800..jaguar. even the 2600 had this(minus the pause feature) and every other system out there has these that are standered ..i think the designers wanted to make the 5200 system sleek as possible and, thats fine..but lose the controller functions and your out of business..

 

yes the atari analog controllers were a great idea.(prototype technology for their time). and well thought out , but they were manufactured Poorly somebody in the offices wanted to cut costs im sure...but back to the playstation controller..you never hear any problems with those controllers..they learned from the mistakes from the past ..the controllers are the most important feature of ANY system..

[NE146]

Come on guys.. as an original 5200 owner I've come to the defense of the controllers a lot (just peruse the forums). But let's just stop being in denial that WERE one of the worst controllers. And by worst I mean purely that they break. Because they DID break.

 

Sure I figured much later in life that all they needed was a cleaning. But as a KID (and thus a standard Atari customer), all I knew was I couldn't play my 5200 due to my broken controllers. By the time I fixed them it was years later and the magic was gone already My mom had bought me no more than SIX new 5200 sticks when I was a kid. And then she bought me a Wico.. but that STILL didn't matter since I couldn't START 99% of my games! That's exactly why my 5200 was sadly placed under my bed prematurely.. I couldn't play anything!

 

All said and done though that's probably why I discern (and have the most affection for) the 5200 the most out of the classic systems.. the games were the grapes I couldn't reach even though I had them in my friggin hands.. all due to the controllers.

 

That all being said I think when working they work just fine for games like Pacman (a game many used to complain didn't work with the 5200 non-centering controllers). Working 5200 controllers play games just fine. I personally dig them. But oh man the painful memories!

[JB]

and second..there should have been the start, pause and reset on the console itself. it only makes sense ,just as a backup in case of this kind of problem...

If you anticipate this problem, you redesign the controller. You don't add more buttons.

 

thats why they have all these features on the 7800..jaguar. even the 2600 had this(minus the pause feature) and every other system out there has these that are standered

You've GOT to be joking....

PLEASE show me what system besides the 2600 has buttons for game configuration and start on the console.

 

 

i think the designers wanted to make the 5200 system sleek as possible and, thats fine..but lose the controller functions and your out of business..

The same is true of any system ever designed.

 

yes the atari analog controllers were a great idea.(prototype technology for their time). and well thought out , but they were manufactured Poorly somebody in the offices wanted to cut costs im sure...

And I'm equally sure it WANS't cost-cutting. I can't imagine flex circuits being cheap when they were so new.

 

 

but back to the playstation controller..you never hear any problems with those controllers..they learned from the mistakes from the past

Because people just don't complain that much about the controllers on other systems.

I've torn my DualShock2 apart twice now for cleaning. I haven't owned it a year yet.

 

 

And the main thing is that no one's really trying anything new anymore.

Pop open an XBox 360 pad and you'll find it's pretty much identical to an NES pad in terms of construction. A circuit board with carbon dots on top of the button contacts. The single-layer PCB has been perfected for a LONG time now.

The PS2 pad I have uses the same technology that was used on the Intellivision controller. Sort of a stiff flex-circuit.

 

 

 

Modern gamepad construction is identical to the gamepads of 20 years ago.

The 5200 was using a brand-new technology.

 

Is it just the SLIGHTEST BIT possible that a controller using the first iteration of a technology might, just MIGHT, be a TAD less reliable than one with 2 decades of manufacturing tweaks behind it? ESPECIALLY when the former has two decades of wear on it and the latter is brand new.

 

 

In fact, I'm rather appalled that my DualShock2 is requiring ANY maintainence at this age.

I'd argue it's actually WORSE than the 5200 stick.

[darklord1977]

you might enjoy tearing apart your controllers to repair them, not everybody does though.. but what do you do to you dual shocks?? that they get damaged so much??unless you cant beat a game and throw them against the wall or something... give me a break...

[stop_rebel_scum]

I like the 5200 controllers when they work. Like almost everyone else, all four of mine are crap. I open them, clean them, rub the carbon, ocassionally replace a part or two, and then struggle to get them back together without breaking the flex circuit and they work for about another few months maybe before needing that again. CX-40's in the wild work perfectly about .. two thirds or three fourths of the time, I'd say? The analog control was a nice idea, but the sticks just need too much maintenance and the non-centering should have been optional rather than mandatory (I have an epyx which switches easily between centering and loose, so it's doable)

 

As soon as I can stomach spending fifty bucks for something I don't really Need, i'm getting a redemption...

 

As for the buttons, I don't mind their position... it's not that uncomfortable to me. I can't play too much INTV because of those hard little nubs too. I'm ok with the disc for most games. I'm ambivalent about coleco controllers. I dislike the cv joy"stick" more than the side buttons, anyway. The super action controllers are great and also kinda "cute", so I prefer those. I Also don't mind the pro-lines so much.. they seem to fail more than the CX-40's in general.. maybe because they're engineered upside-down inside, which was foolish.. the side buttons don't bother me. Maybe because my 2600 stick o' choice is the 500XJ?

[JB]

you might enjoy tearing apart your controllers to repair them, not everybody does though..

What have I said to even imply I enjoy it?

 

but what do you do to you dual shocks?? that they get damaged so much??unless you cant beat a game and throw them against the wall or something... give me a break...

I play games. That's all.

 

I do not abuse controllers. Never have. I have thrown exactly one controller one time in my entire life(an NES Advantage after a day of Blaster Master was cut short when the game trapped me in a wall), and I made damn sure it was gonna hit something soft(threw it straight down, base first, onto my bed).

 

Throwing controllers doesn't grunge up contacts anyways. I said I have to CLEAN them, not glue them back together.

 

 

Even worse, I have a light touch on the buttons. So it's not even getting undue wear.

It also bites me faster than it will some people because of that(if you jam the button down, it registers anyways, at least for a while, but a light tap won't work).

 

 

This is a flaw restricted to later revisions of the DualShock2(I would actually hope they went back and changed it later to fix the flaw). Sony redesigned the controller to be cheaper after the initial release, and mucked it up badly along the way.

 

The redesign probably would've gone over without a hitch had they not used pressure-sensitive buttons(they used the same technology in some revisions of the PS1 controllers, and it's commonly used in modern keyboards)

The pressure sensitivity changes the contact area, so very little connection is made with a light touch, and only the heaviest pressing will deliver the full contact area of a normal button. It also means the center of the pad(where light touches land) recieves mroe wear than everything else because A. it's hit more often, and B. when you press down hard, you press the center of the dome into the switch far harder than would occur with a flat contact.