Atari Jaguar Dev Journal 002

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
One of the screwhole covers.
Joypad gunked up
Joypad gunked up. Note the cat hair that got picked up along the way. Gross!
Type 1 and Type 2, respectively.
Type 1 and Type 2, respectively.
Type 2 (left) and Type 1 (right)
Type 2 (left) and Type 1 (right)