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New Product: Ultrastik 360 Front-Mounted Restrictor Kit

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tedhowe:

Well, I got the step bit I needed at Harbor Freight and I got the U360s and restrictor plates installed yesterday.

My first impression is that I'm in love with these joysticks.

As I said before, I don't really have anything modern to compare to. I had 10 year old Happ 8-way joysticks with cherry microswitches installed before, and now with the U360s with top-mounted 4-way restrictor plates, it's just night and day.

Initially, after enlarging the hole just enough to get the restrictor plate through, I mounted it without spacers, so the restrictor was sticking up through the panel. As Andy had suggested, this was a bit... odd... not bad really, but everything felt just a little bit off as the plane of movement for the joystick seemed wrong.

A quick trip to the hardware store for some longer carriage bolts and nylon spacers and about an hour later, I had the sticks mounted just about flush with the surface of the panel - leaving just enough room to lift the restrictor and rotate it as needed.

I'm mainly interested in old 4-way games - Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Dig Dug being the most important.

Once the sticks were recessed, it was the closest I've ever felt to the real arcade Pac-Man or Ms. Pac Man at home - crisp, even movements with no wrong turns (at least none that could be attributed to the equipment - and not the operator).

I was concerned when I received the sticks about whether the design was going to feel solid, but once I had everything tightened up and in place, the restrictor does feel solid - no extra wiggle or noise.

Next, I played a few favorite 8-way classics - Time Pilot, 1942, 1943. The stick feels very good in this mode as well. No complaints whatsoever.

My next task in resurrecting my mame machine is to get Hyperspin/Hyperlaunch/Ultramap all working together well to automatically download the maps to the sticks.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the restrictors and the U360s themselves.

I've been waiting for a couple of years to make this change in my machine... I have a converted Dynamo Solitaire Challenge - it has a very small control panel since the original game was just a track ball with two buttons. The CP is no more than 7" x about 24". In that space, I have two joysticks each with 5 buttons, a 1 and 2 player start, a coin up button, track ball and a left and right mouse button.

Shortly after completing the cab back in 2000, I realized that I wasn't satisfied with 8-way joysticks - but I had no room for a dedicated 4-way so I lived with it. For the feel of physical restriction, I needed to have something that could be changes from the top side - and Ultimarc's latest addition was finally the right product for me... and it arrived just at the right time.

Thanks Andy for a great product.

I'll try to post some pictures tonight of my machine/panel. I think that the way it turned out is very good and you might want to consider offering a metal cp "upgrade kit" for the top-mounted restrictor - it was just a matter of longer screws and nylon washers and I think it all looks great from above when complete.

Ted

VanillaGorilla:

Cant wait to see the pictures of it installed! Curious how the act of switching the restrictor looks? I'd love to see a video...

tedhowe:

Okay... here are some photos.

First, here's the overall CP on my machine - not a lot of room.


Next, here's a close up of the mounted U360 - the restrictor ring sticks up just a bit above the panel


Here's a shot with the restrictor removed


Finally, here's a shot with the Control Panel opened showing the nylon spacers. I wanted 5/8", but the store only had 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 and larger, so I went with 1 1/4 and 1 3/8"



I've played a bit more this evening, and I really like it - it has not made me any better and the lock levels on DK Jr. however, :)


Red:

Will these easily fit into an X-Arcade Tankstick or is there going to be some modding required?  Thanks.

yotsuya:

You know, there on your CP, those look great!

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