…written by someone that’s never done it before.

I’ve been slowly getting better at Mario Bros. I got my highest score to date the other day – 193,220. I’ve been trying to beat it, and have been getting annoyed by the fact that my joystick keeps sticking to one side and won’t return to center like it should 100% of the time. This causes mario to keep on running right into things when I want him to stop.

I’ve been wanting to pick up 2 repro joysticks from MikesArcade.com. They are great from what I hear, but I don’t have the cash right now to buy them. I decided to try and grease the old joysticks I have, and it worked great! They now center fine, and move much more easily. Here’s how I did it. If you have better suggestions let me know.

Here’s how they look from up top:

I used white lithium grease that I picked up awhile back at Ace Hardware:

I think the key here is to know where to put the grease. I think I figured that out by playing with the joystick while watching it from underneath. This should explain it:

I didn’t have to remove them to do this. I put the grease on a q-tip, held the joystick to one side, and put the grease right under the metal washer type thingy that the spring sits on. I only put it on one side. Then, I let the joystick go to center, and turned the joystick around a few times to spread it evenly. After doing that, I just moved it back and forth a few times, and repeated the whole process 3 or 4 times. It made a huge difference for me. I’m guessing this may or may not help depending on how worn out the pieces are that are inside that area.

Maybe now I can break 200k.