What are these "spring contacts" actually called?

[Sensato Kuro]

Any idea what they're called and/or were I can find some of these?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/jpbsun/DSC00113.jpg

Last night, I wanted to go ahead and beat Rik's Coleco Pac-Man High Score. Put batteries in the game, selected the right mode and started thinkking about nothing but eating dots and chasing ghosts. My concentration soon went away when I realised that two of the tabletop's first player joystick directions weren't responding very well.

Opened up the thing (took some time and research to find out about the two screws underneat the sticker)... there, two of these "spring contacts" were broken. I temporarily solved my problem by swapping the Player One's contacts with Player Two's. Nonetheless, I'd like my Tabletop fully fonctionnal. Thanks in advance!

[Marc]

What a coincidence! I was also looking for these
They are exactly the same as used in the Puck Monster game of Gakken.
My game has the problem that the 'down'direction does not work well.
Although the 'metal contact' is not broken, it seems that it somehow lost it's 'force' to get back into neutral position or so.

Cheers,
/Marc

[Neil UK]

I've no idea what they are called but probably the easiest way to get some would be to buy a tatty non working game that uses them on Ebay and take the parts from that. Maybe a helpful seller would just post you that section of the games internals to cut down on postage costs.

Rik has a parts bin and he may have a few spare .

Happy hunting,

Neil.

[Rik]

These and the triangular shaped ones used in the Mattel sports games I'd love to find a source for! The only way to get them that I know of is to scavange them out of other games... I don't know if switches like this are still used in anything, but if they are we might be able to buy a pound of them or something...

I'm thinking of replacing them with little surface-mount micro switches and seeing if that works. Harder procedure than just replacing them, but it would probably make the game play a little nicer... (Would that still qualify as a game I could use for a high score? )

I might have a few of these things I can pull off an old game, I'll let you know if I find any. (In the mean time, I probably would have suggested swapping player two's...)

BTW- Coleco repair guide here:
http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Coleco/ColecoRepair/index.html
I keep getting Emails asking how to open these things...

[Marc]

I also thought about microswitches, but I think they are too big.
(Especially the 'height' might be a problem). There is only very little place for these things, as otherwise the joystick will not fit anymore.

/Marc

[spacemonsterviras]

[Rik]

I think I put it in about 8 months ago... I've also documented the complete dis-assembly of the Adventure Vision, and I'll be adding that as well... Other games as I think of them (in terms of games people might need extra help opening).

Wildfire's a fun one... There's the two obvious screws, and then it's still held together by 6 snaps. One each just above the flipper buttons, one on each side about half-way between the flipper buttons and the bottom of the game (directly next to 'Free Ball Gate'), and then two on the very bottom. The clips are attached to the bottom piece of plastic and hook into the top part, so you want to push in on the bottom piece to free them:

Press on the bottom part about a centimeter above the power switch, and it should slightly come loose. Do the same on the oposite side of the game. Then do it to the the other two side clips near the bottom. Finally, carefully free it from the very bottom clips (don't try to rotate the top up like it's hinged, might break the clips. Best to grab the little 'lip' at the bottom of the play field and gently pull it forward until it frees itself.)

Careful at this point, as it will promptly fall to pieces on the table...

Hope that helps some... Good luck! Maybe I'll make a photo-guide for this one too...

[spacemonsterviras]

Thanks again Rik, you are the Guru of game repair. I suspected there would be snap-type tabs there, but didn't want to break them by forcing the case open. I'll try your directions on the weekend. Hope I can resuscitate it, it's in very good condition otherwise.

Ooh, just noticed I'm now an Entex Crazy Climber. Wish I owned one...
_________________
"If I want to see freaks, I can just look out the window." - Johnny Eck

[Sensato Kuro]

I believe I've seen some of the triangular switches (like the one's from Mattel's sport games I assume) used in some audio equipment of some sort, a 15 years old stereo receiver if I'm not wrong. They were used in conjunction with the front panel buttons. It should not be so hard to find a batch of these.

Very nice guide Rik, well explained and easy to follow. I only recently learned about VDFs and was happy to know more about them through Futaba?s site.

[Sensato Kuro]

Not sure of this is going to really help anybody but, while cleaning a Colecovision unit earlier today, I realized that the controllers of this system uses the same metal switches found in the Coleco tabletops. Look for these in yard sales!