Alternate 5200 controllers?

[OldSchoolGamer]

I've heard the Atari 5200 had notorisly bad controllers, were there ever alternate 3rd party controllers or perhaps
easy to make replacements? I wonder because if I decide to get a 5200 I want good control, also was wondering was the 7800 more powerful, I mean were the games/graphics any better? THANKS!

[omnedon]

You can get 5200 controllers completely refurbished. Once rebuilt with better than new parts, they work great. First analog stick ever.

[Kamino]

otherwise you can go to the bloody bother to build a box that allows use of jaguar pads.
Saw the schematics at www94.pair.com/jsoper .

[Ze_ro]

There were some alternative controllers released "in the days" for the 5200 from companies like Wico... but I don't think any of them had the phone pad on them, so you had to use a Y-cable to have them both hooked up at once, which (in my opinion) sucks.

If you're willing to spend the money, AtariAge has some adaptors that let you use 2600, 7800, or Sega controllers, but you still have to do the Y-cable thing. $50 also seems like a damn lot to me.

--Zero

[Kamino]

There were some alternative controllers released "in the days" for the 5200 from companies like Wico... but I don't think any of them had the phone pad on them, so you had to use a Y-cable to have them both hooked up at once, which (in my opinion) sucks.

If you're willing to spend the money, AtariAge has some adaptors that let you use 2600, 7800, or Sega controllers, but you still have to do the Y-cable thing. $50 also seems like a damn lot to me.

--Zero

$50 is horse shit. for that price, you can put gold contacts in your original sticks, or build the box above.
My solution? i track down the atari computer or coleco versions. Same shit, different pile.

[video_game_addict]

$50 is still cheaper than buying a Masterplay Interface. Still need the start/pause/reset & keypad buttons with Redemptions or a Masterplay.

Only Wico offered a keypad for the 5200.

Wico & keypad makes for a nice setup, or the Wico & spliter if you have some original controllers with working buttons.

Comp Pro is another, again you still need an original controller to even start most games.

Starcon is another, this one had a built in keypad, but this one is also very rare.

A working Wico & Keypad could be bought for less than $100, maybe cheap if picked up in a mixed lot. I think it's the best solution, gets around having the original in the mix.

[NE146]

Good working 5200 sticks are fine by me. When people say the 5200 sticks were "bad"... basically it's because they broke so easily.

However when working, to me the control on them is fine. I mean, I could do without the mushy buttons but that's pretty minor.. especially with the tinged lenses of nostalgia

Incidentally.. I picked up an extra 5200 console from Kamino one time. It had a perfectly pair of working sticks.. go figure

[NoahsMyBro]

I share NE146's opinion regarding the 5200. When the sticks work, I think they're great.

In fact, just this evening I was inspired to get my 5200 sticks working again. So I drove over to Radio Shack around 7:30pm, and bought something called 'CircuitWrite'. I've read for years about using rear window defroster repair kits, but never actually saw one in any store. Circuit Write might be it. It is basically a tube of silver, conductive paint, with a plastic tip that allows you to 'write' it onto a surface. I 'painted' a dot of the silver paint on the carbon dots underneath every button on a couple of my sticks, and underneath the fire, start/pause/reset, and # & * keys on a third controller (it felt as if I was beginning to run out of the paint).

I then played Beef Drop a few times to test the sticks out, and when I got bored of that I popped in Archon. And I really stunk up the joint with Archon. I remember it being a lot easier on the C64, but that might just be my imagination.

To get back to the point, the sticks worked very, very well after I performed this repair, and hopefully they'll stay fixed with this type of repair. Time will tell.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Great responses on my main question, thanks everyone!
Can I get some replies to my 2nd question?
"also was wondering was the 7800 more powerful, I mean were the games/graphics any better?"

Thanks in advance.....................
You guys rock.

[RickHarrisMaine]

I have both the 7800 and the 5200. I prefer the 5200 though, because I think the games actually capture the arcade versions a bit better than the 7800 does. Of course, the 7800 can play 2600's too, so that helps it out, and the 7800s are a bit easier to find.

I have an extra 5200 2 port or a 4 port, both working excellent, and an extra 7800 if you are interested in getting working units from a reputable seller like myself.

I think the best setup is to have a 5200 and a 7800, then you can play everything you need to.