Slight hardware problems with Atari 2600 stuff.

[Dhalamar]

I just got the system that SoCal sent in the mail today, and I figured maybe Scott could answer this. Or someone. lol One of the controllers ... the right direction doesn't work. Which is a bit easier because I can just cheat and have someone else who happens to play it use a Genesis controller. heh

But the paddle controllers ... when you try to use 'em ... like in Astroblast for example ... the ship violently jerks across the screen. :P

Any ideas on how to fix this little problem? Maybe it's dirty or something?

[SubaruBrat]

It may be dirty or worn. Their is a resistive track that a metal wiper moves on, as the resistance value changes so does the position. If you think of 0 ohms as full left
and 5,000 ohms as full right and 2,500 ohms as center you can figure the value for any position. So if you have a dirty or worn out track or wiper you go from 3,000
to 0 to 100 and back to 3,100 and the Atari tries to keep up. You can take the controller apart and pry up the tabs on the variable resistor and clean it using either
volume control cleaner or sometimes an pencil eraser will get the job done. If the track has worn spots or the wiper is worn you can replace the variable resistor
assuming you can find a physical and electrical (proper resistance range) match.

[Dhalamar]

I understood the cleaning part. So I'll try that. lol

[vibri2001]

I'll throw in a guess here too. Since you're having trouble with two different controllers I would check those controllers in the other port and see if you get the same result. If you don't then check the port to see if one of the 9 pins is bent.

[Dhalamar]

I'll throw in a guess here too. Since you're having trouble with two different controllers I would check those controllers in the other port and see if you get the same result. If you don't then check the port to see if one of the 9 pins is bent.

Well, I've got another joystick controller that works just fine in the same port, along with 2 of the Sega Genesis controllers I tried.

God the d-pad on the 3 button sucks. lol