5 replies to this topic

[elviticus]

I'm planning to buy an odyssee 2 .... Do I want one with detachable joysticks, or hard wired?

The answer seems obvious (detachable) but I've read in an FAQ that they have weird RF cables that are hard to find converters for.



Thanks in advance for any help.

[Hydian]

The RF is normal except the plug is shaped kinda funny, but I don't think this is really an issue.

Detachable controllers? Harder to find. If one of them goes south you'll have a much harder time replacing them (the ports are 9 pin but not compatable with Atari joysticks.)

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

There's a way to switch the cable so you can use a standard, Atari-style RF modulator.

I heartily recommend the detachable joystick model of Odyssey2 - it may be harder to find, but it's worth it.

[desiv]

Personally, I chose attached.

Why?

Are they more reliable?

Are they easier to replace? *

Are they more compatible?

Nope.. to all..

I wanted one of the attached because I had an attached model when I was younger.

As for ease of replacing. It's a few screws to open the case and the joysticks plug into the motherboard. Easy. I just got a spare broken O2 so I could have spare replacement sticks just in case...

If you're good with a soldering iron, building an adapter O2-9pin to Atari-9pin would be trivial and make the external plug appealing. But I love my O2 sticks.

desiv

[Ze_ro]

elviticus said:

The answer seems obvious (detachable) but I've read in an FAQ that they have weird RF cables that are hard to find converters for.

This is true... however, the RF cable can easily be replaced with a standard one. All you need to do is open the system up, and plug a different cable in (There's actually an RF jack inside the system, you don't have to solder or anything). Of course, if you get the proper RF switch with the system, then there's no need to change anything at all.

You should also keep in mind that Odyssey^2 joysticks (the detachable ones) are not compatible with Atari joysticks... so if you go for the detachable model, make sure you get joysticks with it, because modifying the joystick ports is a much bigger job than switching the RF cable.

I'd say go for the detachable O2... but only if it comes with joysticks, or you have a source for joysticks. Otherwise, get the built-in one. If you have problems with an unresponsive player 1 joystick (which shouldn't be too big a problem, since the O2 sticks are quite good), you can easily open the system and swap it with the player 2 joystick without soldering.

--Zero

[JagDiesel]

And if you need a replacement detachable controller, I have 2 which I'd gladly swap.