Jump to content
IGNORED

Are there any alternatives for the Original Atari 5200 Controller?


Nognir

Recommended Posts

Lots of answers:

 

1. Yes there are fixes and replacements for the stock Atari controller. How much do you want to spend. If you don't have much money or repair skills, I recommend a gold refurbished controller from Best Electronics. If you are looking to pay $50 or more, the Wico 5200 controller can be found on ebay occasionally. Just make sure the auctioner has tested the Wico stick to make sure it works alright, because the potentiometers can go out on them as well.

 

2. Adapters exist. If you have some money, Master Play device can be found on ebay for $80 and up. A guy named Bohoki on these forums used to make and sell an adapter for 15-pin PC sticks. Look him up as they are highly recommended.

 

3. If you are good with repair skills, replacement potentiometers and flex circuits are for sale at Best Electronics' website. If you go that route, then at least glue aluminum foil dots to the back of the carbon pads under the rubber buttons on each controller. With those and new pots/circuit, the controller should work good as new.

 

Hope that is helpful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the flex circuit is broken... again ....

I had someone to fix it and it worked exactly 10 Minutes before it broke again. That's why I want a replacement for the stock Atari Controller.

I remember the Wico Sticks but they were always very rare.

 

Does anybody know how the Adapter from Bohoki works? Standard and keypad controller?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bohoki's adapter allows plug in of a PC controller and the stock 5200 controller for start/pause/reset/number pad keys. Basically, you start the game and select options with the 5200 controller, and then use the PC stick for directionals and fire buttons in-game. Only games it is not recommended for are Missile Command, Centipede, and Gyruss.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have one with a Rev 9 flex circuit and foil dots. It works great. The Rev 9 circuit would cost you less than $10 on ebay. It would take an hour or so for you to add foil dots to the controller. That's maybe $10 worth of stuff instead of $50 on either a Wico or a Best stick.

 

You might have a busted cord on yours. Also, any sharp folds will destroy the flex circuit. If you see 'em on it, then the circuit is probably done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the adapter i made was a common known conversion as seen here http://www.atarihq.com/5200/5200faq/06_04.html

 

with a couple minor tweaks

 

i always added an auxillary start button and connected the y together as to make it as fool proof as possible being there are 2 15 pin female ends

 

i prefered selling them with a pc joystick one that i have tested to work since quality and features of the pc gameport sticks are variable some are incompatable some are downright annoying with jitter

 

i use mine with gyruss and missile command all the time but you need a good stick i prefer using a gamepad but that procludes using the analog games

 

missilecommand,gorf,kaboom,superbreakout,star wars

 

i got a few left but i'm not sending them to germany sorry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i cut the shielding off then using the soldering iron i kind of plastic welded the 2 pieces together a standard 15 pin d plug wont go deep enough to stay put

 

you need to cut the 2 sides or drill the holes out so it comes apart so many little tweaks when you make one

 

like since the pc stick only uses 6 wires i pull one pair out to hook up the start button between the pins 4 and 7 i believe i leave it out of the bunch just incase i want to splice in a long wire and run it somewhere else since instead of a shell i just goo everything with a hot glue gun

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i just finished building one of the PC joystick convertors, and it worked with the Gravis Gamepad on the first try. The difference is like night and day! I played the best game of Berzerk and Pac-Man I've played in a long time, certainly on the actual system and not the emulator!

This is one of the reasons why I really wish they would make a Flashback 5200. With a redesigned modern joystick (with a thumbstick replacing the wonky joystick) you'd end up with something which was even better than the 2600/7800 Flashback machines!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

its so nice to have someone who can do some work and got it right the first time

 

heck i screwed up a couple times before i got it working right also i found out sometimes ibm pc joysticks use pin 4 or 5 as the ground so i have a jumper on them (just a big gob of solder jumping)

 

i also a while ago i got a load of joysticks that had a throttle control (acted as joystic 2's Y axis)on the side so i rigged up a switch to use it as up down to make it a shifter in pole position

 

you can also rig up a matrix array to be the keypad and you can avoid any oem problems altogether

 

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2F16-4x4-Matrix-Keyboard-Keypad-Use-Key-PIC-AVR-Stamp-Sml-%2F200720928318

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name=bohoki' timestamp='1362424660' post='2708861'

 

you can also rig up a matrix array to be the keypad and you can avoid any oem problems altogether

 

http://rover.ebay.co...l-/200720928318

 

I tried that using this; in fact I was originally going to make a keypad controller that had a port on the side for a PC joystick. However the 5200 wouldn't recognize the system-button pushes, and the keypad buttons wouldn't even move the needle on my multimeter when I used it on the female plug (the keypad DOES work, though, which is what makes it so odd. If I clip it to the wires where they make they connection, it's fine. But if I connect them to the ports on the plug that said wires are connected to, nothing.)

The cable itself wasn't to blame, since it's the one I used for the adapter which works fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

strange about your array i assume you know how the matrix works they are rows and columns and a button shorts a row and a column the atari is wired reverse of the keypad

 

row 123 on that is pin 1 but it is pin 7 on the 5200

row 456 is pin 2 but connects to pin 6

row 789 is pin pin 3 but it goes to pin 5

row *0# is pin 4 but it goes strangely to pin 8

 

pin 5 to 5200 pin 3

pin 6 to 5200 pin 2

pin 7 to 5200 pin 1

 

 

try clipping a couple leads on it and try again remembering 1-2-3 are columns and the other 4-5-6-7 are the rows clip one on a row another on a column then press all the buttons till one makes it beep

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just got through rebuilding a couple of stock controllers with foil dots and new rev 9 flex circuits. It's a $10 fix. Maybe I'll sell 'em both and treat myself to a Best Gold controller.

 

You know Best will take your old stock controllers for the gold controllers. As for the Gold one i'm happy and yes the fire buttons still works as when i got it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...