Other type of Paddles?

[Junie]

Is there anything other than the standard Atari paddles for paddle games?

 

As time goes on it gets harder and harder to move the paddle knob fast or acruate, due in large part to carpartunnel in my wrists. It seems Kaboom! is impossible to score over 1000, I once got 2800.

 

Thankfully my carpartunnel comes and goes in it's severalty, otherwise I couldn't do much.

 

I have done a mod of a paddle controller. Instead of turning the knob I have screwed on a plastic tube to the knob. The tube can freely spin on the screw when mounted on the knob.

 

To use the mod paddle I move the plastic tube up and down, when holding the paddle on it's side.

 

I am looking to use a rocker type switch that can be pushed left or right with one finger to replace the paddle knob. The idea is the longer you hold it in a left or right position the more it turns left or right.

 

Of course this would have to be used different than the knob and pot. That's the only thing stopping me from making it now, I am still trying to figure out how to replace the pot.

[Ze_ro]

Well, if you're looking for a higher quality paddle, I'd suggest finding a Coleco Gemini controller... the paddles in them don't seem to get dirty the same way Atari paddles do. They have a different mechanism in them that you might find interesting... although I don't think it could me altered to create a slider.

 

However, it would probably be pretty easy to modify an Atari 5200 joystick (or any PC analog joystick) to work as a paddle. Simply wire the left/right axis to be the paddle, and wire in a 9-pin connector so you can plug it into an Atari. I don't know how much better it would work, but it's about the simplest replacement I can think of.

 

(In fact, there are explanations around the internet about how ro modify the 5200 joystick into a paddle... but you'd also have to replace the connector with something that would plug into the 2600)

 

--Zero