Squishy Roller Controller fire buttons?

[atarilovesyou]

Now that I've picked up sealed controllers for my Coleco, I've got a few questions that perhaps some of you might know about.

 

I realize these are some old electronics, but I was wondering if this is quite normal...the upper fire buttons on the Roller Controller are 'squishy'...they don't seem to have the satisfying 'clunk' action of the lower ones. Could this be due to something under the red fire button giving out over the years of it sitting in the box?

 

I've also noticed it with the Select button on my Atari Expansion module 1...it's got that same kinda squish.

 

I realize that the fire buttons on the RC are a bit cheap feeling...I'm sure costs had something to do with the choice to go with these plasticky cheap buttons. Has anybody opened one up to see if there's anything that can be done to get a better response from those buttons? I don't really feel like tinkering with it internally...after all, they DO work but not as good as the bottom ones. Thankfully Slither (and I believe Centipede) have a rapid fire option...just hold it down and you're off.

 

Any comments would be appreciated!

[fiddlepaddle]

I've played with three or four different roller controllers over the years (I bought an original colecovision when it was new) and never had much of a satisfactory experience with slither. It is a fun game, but the cheapness of the controller always bothered me. I always thought it would be nice to build a good quality controller custom, with good buttons maybe starting with an atari trackball, but of course, never took the time to do it...