response 1 of 28:

Aug 31 01:25 UTC 1991

Probably the "best" solution is to get a surplus military joystick.
The military is prone to overengineering these sorts of things,
and what they paid thousands of dollars for, you can pick up lots
cheaper -- and it'll last you much longer than you'll care to look
at it.  The only tricky part is the interface - you'll want to
learn just a bit about the PC's weird game port first.

Or you might be able to buy a dictaphone foot pedal (or sewing machine?),
and wire the switch from that in place of the broken hand one.  Should
be interesting to see if the increased foot reaction time is a handicap.

response 3 of 28:

Aug 31 23:38 UTC 1991

You could call up the company and ask about spare parts.  Chances are,
however, that it's essentially non-repairable - and that the only
solution is to buy a new one.

response 5 of 28:

Sep 2 02:21 UTC 1991

Buy an over-built fottswitch, like one of the many they make for guitarists
and other musicians, and patch it into the existing wiring, or more easily
build an new adapter that the old joystick would plug through.

response 7 of 28:

Sep 3 12:12 UTC 1991

I know of a company (but don't have the info at hand at this minute)
that makes a foot pedal that connects to the parallel port.  It comes
with software that generates any keystroke you choose in response to
actuating it.  Don't know if this will do the job for you, but I
thought I'd mention it.

response 9 of 28:

Sep 3 20:46 UTC 1991

If you want a long-lasting all-weather design, you could purchase a door
bell switch & use it.  Many designs are even lit, making them easier to
spot in rooms only dimly illuminated by the fitful glare of the CRT.

response 11 of 28:

Sep 5 16:35 UTC 1991

Or go somplace like surplus electronics.

response 13 of 28:

Sep 6 02:37 UTC 1991

I think they mean the PC boards that are plastic coated with little bubbles o
over the contact points.  Theres some conductive material under the bubble
thats jumps two concentric contacts on the PC board.  Original Atari 2600
joysticks were like this.  When you moved the stick one way or the other,
a plastic tab pressed down on one or two of the bubbles.  These switches
never get dirty inside, and last fairly long.  I don't think I've come
across a firing button like this, though.

response 15 of 28:

Sep 6 14:09 UTC 1991

The 'plated membrane' is essentially a piece of thin flexible platic that has
conductive metal traces on it (I think that they are either put on with some
sort of plating process). These sheets, with matching contact points, are
separated by a third sheet that has holes where the outside sheets are supposed
to make contact. When you push down on a key, a pad pushes down over the
contact area on the top sheet, deflecting it enough (pushing it down through
the hole) that the two plated areas make contact and the electrical connection
is made.

response 17 of 28:

Sep 6 20:04 UTC 1991

The atari joystick designs that I have always seen were the 'metal dome' type.
As marcus describes, there is usually a metal dimple that insures contact
situated at the vertex of the partial spheroid.  This object in turn lays 
above a set of contacts and under a sheet of adhesive coated plastic.

response 19 of 28:

Apr 4 07:54 UTC 1996

Ther are quality joysticks out there, you just have to search for them.
About 10 years ago, a company named "Wico" made digital joysticks for
things like Atari's and Amiga's that were just amazing. Metal parts
where others used plastic. Their trackball was the best I've ever seen.
I was used to big expensive trackballs on commercial arcade video games
that would roll long after you stopped pushing them, but the consumer
grade things that showed up in computer stores were junk. They were stiff
and rough and you had to *push* the ball fairly hard to make it turn.
The Wico trackball just *glided* wonderfully. I took it apart and found
that they had used a good heavy billiard ball as the ball and the ball
was supported by heavy metal rollers and precision sealed ball bear
assemblys all attached to 2 quality optical encoders.          ^^^^bearings

Today, the best made, and solid feeling, analog joystick I've seen are
the CH flightstick products. They may not have all the fancy features
of some of the others, but they are much more *solid* feeling than
anything else I've tried.

response 21 of 28:

Apr 5 07:14 UTC 1996

I still have a homemade one from my Apple ][ days, but it was designed
for basic functionality on a $5 budget, not for high quality :-).  I
bought an MS joystick recently, the one with a handle that swivels for
VR-ish apps, but I haven't used it enough to have much of an opinion.
Well...I guess the main opinion I have is that it takes up a honkin'
lot of desk space, and it could use redundent buttons for wherever your
fingers want to be. On its plus side, I expect software support for it
will be quite good as more VR apps come out.

response 23 of 28:

Apr 6 03:21 UTC 1996

Re #19:  I've got a CH Flightstick, which I bought after one of the 
plastic gimbals snapped on the Gravis Analog joystick I was using.  This 
one's plastic, too, but the construction is really beefy.  It has trim 
pots, too, to adjust the center location.
I've got one of those Tandy joysticks -- I took it apart and rewired it 
as an IBM joystick, and I now use it as a 2nd joystick with Flight 
Simulator.  The ability to 'turn off' the X and Y spring centering 
independently is nice.