Odd Paddle Controller Behavior

[marlowe221]

So, I picked up a new (to me) set of paddles a few weeks ago because I have evidently lost my original set.

 

These are the Sears branded paddles (though I doubt that will make any difference).

 

At any rate, I noticed some odd behavior and I'm not sure if the it was the paddles, or the games I was playing, or both.

 

Demons to Diamonds - At first the paddle was VERY touchy and my ship/character/thing at the bottom of the screen was flickering wildly back and forth across the screen with any tiny movement of the paddle. The fire button was basically un-responsive. I decided to try some other games for testing purposes. When I came back to this game, everything seemed to work just fine.

 

Astroblast - Basically the same experience as DtD; at first the paddle was super sensitive and the fire button did not work. A little while later, everything worked like a charm.

 

Warlords - Could not catch the ball on the game modes where that is applicable. Movement with the paddle was better.

 

Tac-Scan - Everything worked fine, no problems whatsoever. I always have a hard time remembering that the paddles have to be in the 2nd controller port to play this game!

 

What gives? Are my paddles shot or do they just need a good cleaning? It almost seemed like they needed to "warm up" (which makes no sense). What would cause that behavior?

 

Could the cause of this be something else? A problem with the game cartridges maybe?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Note: I did notice that the Sears paddles fit very loosely in the controller ports for some reason. Meanwhile my Suncom joysticks fit snugly, as does my first-party Atari stick.

[zylon]

I am thinking the plug end of your paddle cable is worn out.

[marlowe221]

If that is the case what can be done about that - just replace them?

[Raticon]

A cleanup is always a good thing to do. I had never taken apart any paddles and cleaned them when i did that to my first paddles just a year ago but it was super easy and that made them like new. One of them had the jitters and the other showed a hint of the behaviour you describe.

If it's just the plastic plug end that is worn out you could test to put some tape or something around the edge of the plug to make a tighter fit and see if that helps before you start looking for new connectors.

Edited January 22, 2016 by Raticon

[marlowe221]

Yeah, a good cleaning is definitely in order for these paddles.

 

What was odd to me was how they seemed to perform better or worse on different games, rather than just being bad all the time, and that they seemed to improve as I went along.

[fiddlepaddle]

Open them up and spray some electronic cleaner into the pot; might clear it all right up.

[covertagenda]

Always worth cleaning an unknown set of paddles.This link might help.

http://www.vintagegamingandmore.com/atari-paddle-repair-cleaning/