Star Tech Journal

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Atari Gauntlet
Joystick Probleni
Matt J. Mccullar
Forum Fair Arcade
Fort Worth, Texas
ACME '90 at the
Chicago Hyatt
Show Committee Chairman, Bill Cravens,
announced plans for the 1990 American
Coin Machine Exposition during the AAMA
Annual Meetings held in Washington, DC.
PROBLEM
Not long ago I was called to fix a problem with
one of the joysticks on a Gauntlet. I expected
to just clean the leaf switches and get of
there, but it turned out to be more compli-
cated than that. For some reason players
could not physically move this particular
stick to the north, or UP position. I needed
both hands to even budge it. Finally it
unjammed, but it still felt sluggish. I could
move it left and right, and it would stay there
without returning to center!
~
SOLUTION
Since there is no easy way to get inside these
controls from the outside, I unlocked the
control panel and proceeded to remove the
entire joystick. That done, I then worked on
taking this unit apart. After thirty minutes
all the nuts and bolts came loose and the
joystick came apart ... a token fell out of it!
CAUSE
Near as I can tell, players leave extra tokens
on the panel while playing the game so they
can add extra "life" without having to dig into
their pockets. During game play, the ma-
chine gets banged around, making a token
or two roll off their handy parking spaces.
Sometimes one will slide in between the
joystick's plastic collar and the control
panel, or in between the collar and the
joystick's inner workings.This has hap-
~ened to me twice and I don't know of any
quick fix for this problem. At least you won't
have to go buy a new one if this happens to
you. But be prepared to spend a lot of time
working on it. It's a very time consumingjob.
"Hotter Than The Chicago Fire" has been
selected as the theme for ACME '90 to be
held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, Friday,
March 9 through Sunday, March 11.
Last year's show in Reno at Bally's Hotel
featured 153 exhibits occupying 509 booths,
and attracted nearly 4600 manufacturers,
distributors and operators in the coin-oper-
ated amusement industry.
In addition, more than 1200 arcade and
route owners/operators attended ACME
Educational Sessions which included man-
agement, technical and legislative topics
addressed by leading industry experts.
For more information, contact ACME Show
Management, William T. Glasgow, Inc.,
16066 South Park Avenue, South Holland,
IL 60473, Phone: 312/333-9292 or FAX:
312 / 333-4086.
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Murphy's Law #1105