Jump to content
IGNORED

My Atari paddles are broken! :(


DarkSyne

Recommended Posts

Yes, can you elaborate on "stopped working"? What steps have you taken to test them? What are the symptoms?

 

It seems unlikely to me that the paddles themselves just spontaneously quit working entirely. It's technically possible that the problem is in the console. If the console had a failure, you wouldn't notice it when using joysticks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A couple of things to keep in mind if someone is having similar problems and he/she is not familiar with the 2600:

- Paddles only works with games specifically designed to use them. You can't, for example, expect to use them in "Space Invaders" as that's a joystick game. (list of paddle games)

- While usually player 1 and 2 uses the two paddles connected in the left port, some games might behave differently (Read the manual for the game! they are all available here on AA as well as on many other places). Also, There's not an estabilished standard on which paddle is player 1 and which one is player 2, so check both of them.

- Older games require to depress the RESET switch in order to start playing (this is true also for non-paddle games). Pressing the buttons on the controllers doesn't have any effect until you hit RESET (Again, read the manual! The console switches, despite how they're labeled, are generic inputs for the console and each game can assign them different functions)

Edited by alex_79
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well after a little bit of troubleshooting, I got them working (Sort of) they are very jittery and the button acts like it is a turbo button.

Cool. That's progress.

 

Jittery can be fixed if you're handy at all. Search around here and you should find several references. Depending on how you go about it, it can be a little bit technical, but there are easy ways to make significant improvements.

 

A turbo button? Interesting. Can you describe that in a little more detail? What exactly happens when you press the button? I don't know if there are any games where that's supposed to happen or not. Then again, I played Circus Atari for a long time before I figured out that pushing the button makes the teeterboard swap ends.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

by "not working" mean they jitter back & forth on screen?

 

link below is for the section for cleaning paddles ....

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/184296-slowcoders-guide-to-cleaning-up-your-2600/?p=2316794

link I provided in my 3'rd post is great for how to take care of jittery paddles ;) ( which unfortunately is quite normal for 40 year old devices :P )

 

some game variation on Pong Sports will "whammy" the ball .... others will speed up the ball on paddle hit ( again a link to instructions above )

 

you really need a pair of driving controls & another player to really have fun with Indy 500 ( although there are single player variations) , "tag" is one of my favorites :D

 

it was the only commercially produced game to use them controllers , .... if you get a Harmony cart, there are some great "driving controller hacks"

 

 

glad your making progress on them paddles :)

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...