Pitfall! Down Direction does't respond on 4 port 5200

[Henry Lee]

Hi,

 

I ve got an unopened new Pifall!

The Down direction to go down the stairs or to leave a the Tarzan style Vine doesn't respond .

I tried my other games all directions work fine.

Is it a common problem in Pitfall? Do you have an idea what coul it be?

 

Thanks!

Henry Lee

[+Cafeman]

Just a guess.

 

Your controller might not be calibrated correctly. Some of your games might detect the DOWN press more quickly than Pitfall. Pitfall might be checking that you've pressed the stick down almost the entire way, and the controller might not send out values that high because it isn't calibrated properly.

 

Like I said -- just a guess, but I've experienced weirdness like that left-right, too. You can take your stick apart and try to adjusting the potentiometer setting. You'd have to be careful though, and since I've never done this I'll just shut up about it right now.

 

Do you have more than one controller? Does Pitfall fail to recognize down in more than one?

[Henry Lee]

Thanks for the reply, I tried with my three controllers, no luck... Last time I opened my controllers they were calibrated the exact way as Best Electronics do in their Instructions!

[NoahsMyBro]

I haven't heard of calibrating the pots in the controllers. I have heard of calibrating the controller ports in the console itself, and I've done so.

 

I don't know the 'official' way to do this, but basically I stick in Missile Command, and then verify that the controller can travel full-range in all directions. I double-check using Super Breakout, to again make sure the controller can move all the way to either extreme, right or left.

 

If things aren't just-right, I tweak the controller port pot until they are.

 

The other pot you'll see is used to adjust the color displayed, so if your colors are off you can adjust it a little bit.

 

More knowledgeable folks than I are around in the hardware forum, in case you want more skilled advice.

 

-- Steve

[jsoper]

I had to tweak my 5200 console pot because Haunted House II wasn't working completely

(both with a normal controller and masterplay), so guess some games are programmed more "on the edge" than others.

[Henry Lee]

Thanks you all!

 

That was it! The pod in the console now everything is back to normal!

 

Henry Lee