Joystick guides for both 4 and 8 way directions

[Dartful Dodger]

I'm having an issues with games that are only 4 way and for a few that are 8 way.

When pushing up if the joystick is slightly to the right or left the it doesn't register as an up and sometimes it registers as diagonal when it needed to be straight up.

 I had an idea to force the joystick in the up/up & right/right/right & down/down.... positions. It's really simple so I assume it's been done before, so I figured I'd ask.  If someone’s already tried this out I want to know how they did it, or why they decided not to do it.

In the hole the joystick goes through I was thinking of putting 8 small round headed screws that would be positions so they would straddle the joystick when it was in any of the 8 directions so the user would know for sure they had it in the right position.

[BadMouth]

That would probably work pretty good for pacman and qbert,
but it might be a hinderance on fighting games where you have to roll the joystick.
I'm using octagon restrictors.  I'm actually finding them good for 4 way games.
Push the joystick in the general direction and the wedge guides it to the center of that direction.
I didn't know how much I liked them until I went back to the regular 8-way restrictors.

[yotsuya]

Are there octogon restrictors for Happ?

[Dartful Dodger]

it might be a hinderance on fighting games where you have to roll the joystick.

I wasn't thinking of that.  I assumed it wouldn't be much trouble to go from up to up/left when moving a character, but for the times you need to go up to up/left to left to... that could be a problem.

An octagon restrictor sounds perfect, thanks.

I checked on Happ's website (it's only a few miles from my house) it doesn't look like they carry it.

[MJ]

I'm not aware of any "alternative" restrictors for Happ.  The one in the picture is for a Sanwa.

[RandyT]

I'm not aware of any "alternative" restrictors for Happ.

How about now? 

[Dartful Dodger]

I'm not aware of any "alternative" restrictors for Happ.

How about now? 

Cool, can you post a direct link?

I went to your website and could only find the SUPER 4-way™ Precision True Restrictor.

[RandyT]

Cool, can you post a direct link?

I went to your website and could only find the SUPER 4-way™ Precision True Restrictor.

At the moment, they are a "by request" item.  I have some on the shelf and they are the same price as the 4-way restrictor.

RandyT

[ragnar]

That would probably work pretty good for pacman and qbert,
but it might be a hinderance on fighting games where you have to roll the joystick.
I'm using octagon restrictors.  I'm actually finding them good for 4 way games.
Push the joystick in the general direction and the wedge guides it to the center of that direction.
I didn't know how much I liked them until I went back to the regular 8-way restrictors.

What is your impression from playing 8 way games?  q-bert?

[BadMouth]

What is your impression from playing 8 way games?  q-bert?

Eh, it's weird.  First off, the action on the Sanwa JLF's is so light, that it doesn't feel like an arcade stick to me anyway (at least not from my day).
The 8-way gate makes it feel even less like an arcade stick, but it does make you extremely conscious of exactly where the stick is.
When I do a quarter roll in a fighting game, I know that I'm doing it properly because I can feel it it go into the right notch, slide easy to the diagonal, then I can feel resistance when it hits the diagonal point and changed direction.

It feels like training wheels...but I need me some training wheels.    Some day I'd like to have enough control where I can move the joystick just far enough to do the moves without having it pushed up against it's limits.  Then I could take the training wheels off.  Not sure I'll ever get there.

I hadn't played Qbert with it until this evening.  I did a LOT better than usual.
I did move the joystick up and down instead of on the diagonals a few times,
but for the times I was in the right general direction, the gate guided me in.

On a side note, a while back I hooked up a Sanwa JLW with the restrictor set to 4-way.
I wanted to see if it was worthwhile to add a separate 4-way to my control panel.
It really didn't do anything for me.  I didn't do any better at the games and it didn't feel any more authentic to me.
I think I'd need an old Wico for it to feel authentic to me.

Everyone has their own tastes though.  Your results may vary.

[MJ]

I'm not aware of any "alternative" restrictors for Happ.

How about now? 

Nice!