Gabriel Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 I think they're referencing the custom flex circuit and gold dot pads they've had for a while. Perhaps it's an upgrade to those. After I posted above I discovered the update log for the site. It stated the blurb in question had been added on the 28th of this month, I believe. So, some kind of 5200 controller announcement is coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammR25 Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 I emailed them and got this response: OK. After working on this New Atari CX52 Joystick part project for close to 10+ months now, the first group of new Atari CX52 parts are due in this week. When we have the new CX52 parts in house we will update the Best Web site announcement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 I emailed them and got this response: lol @ update the best web site... if we could find it on there Im really curious as to what it could be since he told me it was to costly to get a self centering mod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 I know... wireless non self centering 5200 controllers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter_J64bit Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 I know... wireless non self centering 5200 controllers LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 But im wondering if it is a new improved controller rubber boot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the.golden.ax Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 I'd be happy if it were a new wired controller. The 7800 light gun is nice. Best can get it done. All website jokes aside. They need to abandon fixing the flawed classic and look at doing a new one, and I hope they have done just that. (the 5200... and okay okay, AND the website!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIKE5200 Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 I emailed them and got this response: Darn, I thought the last ver was great. I guess we all will have to see...Still you can't beat his fast service! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82atari5200 Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Waiting to buy some new controllers now. Need a new motherboard while I'm at it I guess. Can't wait to find out what it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Waiting to buy some new controllers now. Need a new motherboard while I'm at it I guess. Can't wait to find out what it is. yeah, last week has now passed... maybe this week Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 I emailed Brad about the new joystick parts so we will have to wait and see what they are. This is his answer Yes Brian. The new announcement is already written. We are still waiting for the 1st group of new CX52 Joystick parts to come in. They should of come in sometime last week Brian. As of today's date, they still have not arrived. Unlike others in this industry, when we make an announce on a new Atari item, it is ready to ship on day of the announcement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the.golden.ax Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Yeah if it were a drop in board that someone without thumbs could put in that would be big news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 So apparently it is new updated gold buttons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 From the website: Best Electronics knew in late 2011 that we were going to run out of the New 2005 production run of the 1st generation of Atari CX52 Joystick Gold Dot fire buttons sometime in late 2012. So in an effort to continue to support the World Wide Atari 5200 owners with matched sets of CX52 Joystick Gold Dot Silicon pads that turn the old failing or bad Atari CX52 Carbon dot Joysticks into Lifetime upgraded Gold Atari CX52 Joystick controllers. So early in 2012 we started to work on the next generation Atari CX52 Gold dot fire button project. At Best we are always trying to improve on the original Atari products (Composite Video out and OS upgrades for Atari 2600 and 7800 consoles, Gold CX40 Lifetime PCB boards which turn old Atari CX40 Joysticks into a lifetime Joystick, CX30 Replacement Super Pots that turn old worn out Atari Paddles into lifetime Paddles). We felt that we could do one better on the next Generation Gold Dot CX52 Fire Buttons (which cured for ever the known 25+ year 5200 Joystick fire button failure problem, which thousands and thousands of Atari 5200 Joystick World Wide Owners have found out since 2005) when we started this new project. After close to 9 months of work on this new 5200 project, a brand New design CX52 Gold Dot Fire button mold ($,$$$) (we scraped out the 2005 new fire button mold, because it could not be upgraded to our new fire button design standards), and what seemed like hundreds and hundreds of new prototype samples of Rev. 2 Gold Dot CX52 Fire button samples Received and Rejected over and over. Best Electronics is now proud to announce the New 2nd generation CX52 Joystick Gold Dot Fire buttons with a New Tactile feed back feature! Any old Atari 5200 owner can tell you CX52 Joystick carbon dot fire buttons went thru many changes over a 5 to 15 year period as Atari Engineering tried to fix many different CX5200 Joystick fire button problems. Small Carbon dots, Medium Carbon dots to Larger Carbon dots and toward the end, one set of triple small carbon dots on each top and another set of 3 carbon dots on bottom orange CX52 Fire button and so on. Also the feel (when the fire button was pressed and released) of each Carbon dot fire button changed over the years from mushy, to spongy and in the end neutral feeling Carbon dot CX52 fire buttons. All of these Atari Engineering CX52 Carbon dot Fire Button fixes, never cured the known CX52 Joystick fire button failures until the Best Gold Dot Fire button final cure. The New Best Tactile feed back CX52 Joystick Gold Dot fire buttons other New feature, is they now require more pressure to push them down (compared to the 1st Generation Best CX52 Gold Dot fire buttons), but not enough increased pressure as to fatigue your finger tips after hours and hours of 5200 Game play and when released have a New light bounce back finger tip tactical feed back. Something a kin to a high grade PC Keyboard or current State of the Art Video Game controller. Which when a Key cap or game controller button is pressed and released, the key cap or button bounces back and gives your finger tip a slight kick back, telling your finger tip the key cap or button has and been properly pushed down and released. Our Engineering prototype function and life cycle tests with the final version 2nd generation Gold Dot Fire buttons, depending on the different control group of CX52 Joystick testers and how the different tester pushed and released (fast, slow, rapid, angled push or straight on push) on the new Gold CX52 Fire buttons, a lot of the CX52 Joystick testers managed to get an audible Mechanical Click Sound out (like a mechanical switch, which is amazing considering the New tactical CX52 fire buttons are almost made of 95% Silicon rubber material) of the 2nd Generation CX52 Gold dot Silicon Fire buttons when pushed and released When we designed and released the 1st Generation CX52 Gold Dot fire buttons in mid 2005, Gold was selling for $535 per ounce. In late 2012, Gold is now selling for around about $1,720 an ounce. Even thru the price of Gold has been going up and up in 2012, the New 2nd Generation Best Gold Dot fire buttons, now have over double the amount of Gold plating thickness on the 4 metal dots on each new Silicon fire button compared to the 1st Generation Best CX52 Joystick Gold Dot fire buttons. Because of the Original Atari Engineering CX52 joystick bottom plastic case design (which has not changed over the total life span of all CX52 Joystick bottom plastic controller cases made) the upper CX52 Joystick fire button silicon pad does not have the same plastic back support around the bottom / base of the upper fire button to properly support it. You will find on the 2nd Generation Tactile Gold Dot fire buttons, only the bottom CX52 controller Gold fire button will have the New improved Tactile feed back feature and the top Gold fire button will have a reduced tactile feed back because of the lack of internal plastic support (CX52 bottom controller case) at the base of the top fire button Silicon pad area. You can feel / test this basic CX52 joystick top fire button design / support problem / difference by installing 2nd Generation Gold Dot Fire button in a CX52 Joystick bottom case. Press the bottom CX52 orange fire button and feel the tactile feedback and increased pressure to push it down. Now rotate that same bottom CX52 Joystick Fire button and brown plastic fire button bezel / holder 180 degrees into the top position and then reinsert back into to the CX52 bottom case (now the bottom Gold dot fire button is in the top CX52 Joystick position). You will now see that when the top fire button (which was the bottom fire button with good Tactical feed back) is pushed again, it does not have the same good Tactile feed back as compared to new bottom fire button. So this top fire button reduced tactical feed back problem is a design flaw in the basic Atari CX52 Joystick bottom case design, which was never corrected or even addressed by Atari Engineering, because at that time, Atari did not have any Carbon Dot fire buttons with any kind of Tactical feed back features back 25+ years ago. You will find that about 90 to 95% of the Atari and 3rd Party made 5200 game cartridges, only use the bottom Fire button. The New cost for the 2nd Generation Best CX52 Gold Dot Fire buttons is $7 each (two per CX52 Joystick controller). Again each set of 2 new 2nd Generation Atari Gold Dot Fire buttons are sold as matched set of 2 Gold Dot Fire buttons with a New CX52 Gold dot numeric Keypad. Best Reconditioned / Upgraded Atari CX52 Gold Dot CX52 Joysticks with the 2nd Generation Gold dot fire buttons are $46 each without exchange, $40 each with exchange CX52 core(s) sent in plus Shipping and Insurance We have a small quantity of the 1st Generation CX52 orange Gold Dot Fire Buttons left in stock. When those sell out, Best Electronics will No Longer produce or sell the 1st Generation CX52 Gold Dot Fire buttons. At that point we will 100% switch over to only selling the 2nd Generation Gold dot fire button replacement upgraded parts and Reconditioned / Upgraded Gold lifetime CX52 Joysticks. I recently picked up four of their refurbished CX52 joysticks with the current-generation gold buttons, so it looks like I missed out on these, but I'm glad to see that they're still investing in new products and upgrades for the 5200. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5200Fanatic Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 The website has great stuff, but it gives me a headache. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter_J64bit Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Awesome, now its going to cost more to fix the OEM joysticks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 But nothing solves the biggest problem which is the non self centering joystick . So keep putting more and more money into the controller so the buttons work but not the stick . Couldnt they atleast make a tighter boot or something so it would help somewhat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lentzquest Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 In all my years of collecting I have never purchased from Best...not because of any other reason than their website. I have always feared that 90% of their merchandise listed is no longer available. This is greatly in part due to the fact that it never looks like it is updated...rather, it seems like stuff is added all the time, but nothing is removed. It is terribly complicated to navigate as well. I would bet that if they spent just a few dollars redesigning the site, they would make their money back and then some within the first month...money from me, and others like me who have reluctantly avoided them for so many years. I'm right there with you. I'd have placed sizable orders with them a couple times now, but that website just isn't worth the hassle. They would move serious product if they even slightly gave a crap about how they present themselves. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 While it's not "the best", I honestly have zero problems with the 5200 joystick on most any game. Unless of course it's not working. It's the buttons that always gave out (although the stick does too) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82atari5200 Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Kind of anti-climatic....But still gonna get a couple for Christmas.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Kind of anti-climatic....But still gonna get a couple for Christmas.... Thats about the best way to put it... anti-climatic. But darn it... I will get a set also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sqoon Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 Too bad someone like Longhorn Engineer couldn't come up with an entirely new 5200 controller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 Too bad someone like Longhorn Engineer couldn't come up with an entirely new 5200 controller. I'd rather have somebody design a new controller that was more reliable and didn't make a bunch of promises and take over 3 years to deliver what they promised. Maybe somebody like Classics over at Atarimax.com. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter_J64bit Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 Maybe some could reverse engineer 5200 Kiosk Joysticks, their Self Centering Joystick from what I can recall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIKE5200 Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 Has anyone take alook at joystick from a Power chair? Look like they are well center. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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