Dodgy Joysticks

[awergh]

So I felt like some Roland on the Ropes which also happens to be my favourite game from the small collection of game I have also it has the adventure of seeming completable compared to games like Caves of Doom which aren't completable without cheating or saving lots,
and decided to check out which joysticks worked unfortunately it doesn't look to good.

Joystick 1:
has one fire button that works and the joystick works for up, down and left but not right
No idea what it is called there are no markings on the joystick


Joystick 2:
all directions work fine but it seems to automatically fire all my bullets
ARCHER is the only identification on the joystick if that helps


Joystick 3 (AMSTRAD JY-2):
up, down work and it seems to go right automatically, the buttons seem to be a bit stuck and not working to well


Joystick 4 (AMSTRAD JY-2):
it works, seems kindof hard to use but that might partly be because I'm not really used to using joysticks much


So is there any solution to these problems cause its not very nice to have only 1 out of 4 joysticks working properly

[Bryce]

Hi Awergh,
        most joystick problems are just dirt build-up on the contacts. Open the Joysticks, clean the contacts and see if that helps. Some joysticks (eg: Quickshot) have open microswitches, which are easy to test (you can see it switching) and clean, however, sometimes the spring breaks or splits, causing the switch to malfunction, but you'll see this when you examine the switch. Others (Competition Pro) have encased microswitches, which you'll need to open first, but this is also easy. The one's that cause the most problems, are those that had a PCB with metal pod switches. For a start, they were rubbish, they broke easily and are difficult to repair. The metal pod was usually just taped to the PCB. They either loose their tension, bend, move out of place, or even wear a hole in the PCB track. As far as I can remember JY1 and JY2 were pod type joysticks. But open them up and it's usually obvious what's wrong.

Does the Archer Joystick have an Auto-fire? If not, it's probably just a jammed switch.

Bryce.

[awergh]

As far as I know the Archer Joystick doesn't have autofire it didn't use to have a problem, I had a look inside it looked ok the buttons seemed to work when using a multimeter to check them. I'll probably test it another day like tomorrow or something as well as look at the other joysticks.

I tested it and it appears I stopped it working properly since it cant move right now (the game I tested it on doesn't use up and down. Looks like its harder to fix joystiscks then i thought

[Cholo]

Well, youd obviously want to fix those joysticks (especially  as some of them are getting kinda rare), but you may also want to get a new joystick too.

Is a few year back that they made a fresh new batch of Competition Pro joysticks (has a switch so its compatible with most 8bit and 16 bit computers). Still in stock around the net.

Like:
- http://www.protovision-online.de/catalog/index.php?cPath=25&osCsid=d29c1dc6121c6ae1860f8c03a3e4ad6f
- http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=610
or you can try google.
There is also a usb version but that one is only for pc of cause.

[awergh]

a new joystick might be nice but I would like to have more then one working joystick particularly since the JY-2 hurts my hand after a while playing anarchy (yay success in getting game from cdt to tape i think, i really need an easier way though).
maybe im just failing at using a joystick but i dont think i should get sore hand from using a joystick right?

I seem to be terrible at "fixing" these joysticks I seem to just make them work less is there some tips to fixing them, Joystick 1 is kindof just pads that the joystick pushes down, the ARCHER joystick seemed to actually have a metal contact that did stuff I think maybe it was the same sort of thing. The ARCHER one is the nicest so thats the one I want to fix