I took a bit of time recently to take apart two of my Atari Jaguar joypads. The rubber/plastic screwhole covers, over time, had disintegrated and melted into a gooey, sticky mess on the backs and front of the joypads. It was gross.
If you’ve got old videogame equipment (10+ years) and you’ve noticed the rubber/plastic screwhole covers on the backs of the units or controllers getting soft, I recommend taking them off and avoiding the cleanup you’ll be facing in the next couple years. Otherwise, you’ll have to do what I did and use Goo Gone. The good news is that Goo Gone is amazing and it’s fairly cheap.
![Melted screwhole cover gunk](https://johnrockefeller.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/atari-jaguar-rubber-gunk1.jpg)
![Joypad gunked up](https://johnrockefeller.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/atari-jaguar-rubber-gunk2.jpg)
![Type 1 and Type 2, respectively.](https://johnrockefeller.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/atari-jaguar-joypads-type1-type2.jpg)
![Type 2 (left) and Type 1 (right)](https://johnrockefeller.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/atari-jaguar-joypads-type1-type2-2.jpg)