Damn I’ve been busy lately! Feels good to get some arcade stuff done, even if it is small stuff.

The Rampage I got a few months back had an oddball joystick (Wico?) for the middle player:

In the interest of making this look original, I’ve been keeping an eye out for a replacement joystick. The one that should be there is a Monroe 4 way. Before getting this game, I never noticed these joysticks before. After getting it, I really started to like the feel of them. They are very different from standard Wico style joysticks. They have a smoother feel, especially when you are rotating them. They were used in Gyruss probably for that very reason. Here is a video showing the one on the right in action for all you people into arcade pron:

I had a saved search in eBay for awhile and just recently saw a NOS (new old stock) one turn up. It ended up going for big bucks…$108.50 to be exact! I wasn’t about to spend that for a joystick.

Anyways…another one turned up shortly after that was used, and a 2 way. I guess no one was as interested in a 2 way compared to a 4 way (can you blame them? ) , so I was able to get it for $10 ish. I figured all I had to do was put 2 more leaf switches on and hook it up. Alas….it was not that simple.

The joystick was very stiff (please no jokes) and didn’t move nearly as well as the 2 that were already on the game. I took it apart and greased it up and it was moving much better…BUT it wouldn’t move up or down easily. The other 2 can actually be rotated around 360 degress, like in the video above so something was up. I took a good look at the mounting plate:

The whole was an oval, only allowing movement from left to right. The other 2 had a perfectly round hole there. I ended up drilling it out to make it match. I had to go buy a new cobalt drill bit to get the job done, and it was a major PIA:

Here is a pic of it all apart:

The joystick in the upper right corner was one of the original ones, for comparison. There were some other differences. The white plastic actuator jutted out at the top on the original and was completely straight on this 2 way. The new one is also slightly higher and the ball is a little bit bigger but hardly noticable.

Here it is assembled with 2 more leaf switches added:

And….BAM! Here it is installed:

So much better! Now if only I could find a NOS control panel overlay…