Ok so I'm finally getting back on track to finishing my cabinet
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=38049.msg341501#msg341501. Its been a while since I've looked at this stuff... But I was fairly certain that I needed an analog joystick. I see that there are quite a few more s/w tools available for arcade making, including
http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/ RomLister. Either I'm having trouble figuring out how to use RomLister or there are no playable games that use an analog joystick which I'm sure isn't correct. Right off the top of my head, I can think of Afterburner. I can also think of some helicopter cabinet (can't remember the name, can someone help me with this?) where you sat down and had an analog control for tilt and a throttle control for up/down. Can anyone help me figure out how to get a real list of MAME roms that use analog?
As far as options for the stick itself, I saw that Happ has its B8 stick, but the interface isn't very clear... Does it go into the joystick port of the PC? Or is it something I've got to wire up? If its a hassle, I'd be happy with a PC stick that I can just plug into the USB (like a saitek or something). Anyone have experience using both that might have some suggestions on usability, feel, control, authenticity? Is the MAME interface for a USB PC analog stick fairly easy and work well in-game? I just want something that has a trigger, 1 or 2 thumb fire buttons and that has a fairly reasonable profile so it is easy to permanently mount to the panel and doesn't take up a whole lot of space. I see quite a few options and would like some opinions on the topic.