Thanks to a great trade with CongoBongo, I've had a 5200 for a few months. I haven't used it much due to the inconsistent response I had from the controllers. Now, the 5200 is notorious for having unreliable controllers, due to it's early analog stick design.

I'm very fussy about perfectly functioning hardware. I tried to get all axis of my 5200 controllers to work when I got it (NB-they worked every bit as well as CongoBongo described them ), and failed. I'm a pretty handy guy, and this was hard to swallow. Some posts over at AA, and Mr.RetroGamer pointed me to the Pete's test cart repro at the AA store. With that, he said, I could properly calibrate the potentiometers to baseline, possibly restoring all stick function.

He was dead on right! A bit of fiddling, and using the test cart to set pot baseline, and I was in business! A fibreglass brush on button contacts to get better button response, and voila! Perfectly working 5200 controllers.

You know, when working properly, these controllers aren't bad at all....

A big Thank You to all of you who routinely share your knowledge and experience with others, to help them keep the old hardware working!