Sticks and Fighter Motions

[DrakeTungsten]

I'm asking for advice on improving my fighting game experience. I'm having a hard time getting the special joystick moves out (QCF, HCF, etc), especially in the Samurai Shodown games. Are there certain joysticks that are better suited to fighting games than others? I don't know what model I have now, but I didn't go with anything expensive. I bought it from Groovy Game Gear years ago, and it has a switch on the plate to change from 4-way to 8-way. I think it was $40.

When not inputting a special move, I've noticed that I'm often hitting diagonals when I just want a straight up or down or left or right. I know it's not a case of faulty hardware, because when playing shmups, I can always go in the direction I want. I understand that most of my problem is simply being a novice at fighting games, but if there's anything else that's holding me back other than skill, I want to remedy it.

[Well Fed Games]

A good question, and one that has been discussed a lot. Search around here ("best fighter joystick" or something similar) or at http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?forums/tech-talk.6/ (where a lot of folks build controls specifically for fighting games). A lot of people swear by Sanwas for fighters, and the gate (square or octagon) used will affect feel a lot too.

I'm asking for advice on improving my fighting game experience. I'm having a hard time getting the special joystick moves out (QCF, HCF, etc), especially in the Samurai Shodown games. Are there certain joysticks that are better suited to fighting games than others? I don't know what model I have now, but I didn't go with anything expensive. I bought it from Groovy Game Gear years ago, and it has a switch on the plate to change from 4-way to 8-way. I think it was $40.

When not inputting a special move, I've noticed that I'm often hitting diagonals when I just want a straight up or down or left or right. I know it's not a case of faulty hardware, because when playing shmups, I can always go in the direction I want. I understand that most of my problem is simply being a novice at fighting games, but if there's anything else that's holding me back other than skill, I want to remedy it.

[Jack Burton]

How long have you been playing fighting games? What game did you start with?

Samurai Shodown and other older fighting games are not nearly as forgiving with motions as the new stuff like SFIV or Marvel. 

[Well Fed Games]

I would say I am a novice at fighting games... last one (really, the only one) I could hold my own in was Tekken 3. A little bit of the SF Alpha series, too. I tend to prefer an octo gate where I can really feel the notch in all 8 directions.

[phil_p3]

I'm asking for advice on improving my fighting game experience. I'm having a hard time getting the special joystick moves out (QCF, HCF, etc), especially in the Samurai Shodown games. Are there certain joysticks that are better suited to fighting games than others? I don't know what model I have now, but I didn't go with anything expensive. I bought it from Groovy Game Gear years ago, and it has a switch on the plate to change from 4-way to 8-way. I think it was $40.

When not inputting a special move, I've noticed that I'm often hitting diagonals when I just want a straight up or down or left or right. I know it's not a case of faulty hardware, because when playing shmups, I can always go in the direction I want. I understand that most of my problem is simply being a novice at fighting games, but if there's anything else that's holding me back other than skill, I want to remedy it.

Check if you're using eswitch microswitches. I've found these are terrible for hitting diagonals.

[DrakeTungsten]

I've only been playing fighters for a couple months, and even then, I've been more sampling games than playing through, to see which games are going to stay on my hard drive. Samurai Shodown has been the hardest for me, to the point that I can rarely pull off a move. Capcom's Marvel/X-Men games are forgiving enough that I can't complain too much about them.

How can I tell if my stick uses the eswitch switches? I did a google image search, and from what I can see peeking inside my CP, the sticks have switches that could pass for my Google results, but then again, how different can different brands of switches look?

I was wondering if there is a known tendency for players to pull the stick more to the left than intended, since the stick is being held with the left hand. Also, I've never used cheats  and haven't looked into how they work, but I know emulators make use of cheats of some kind, and had a faint hope that there might be cheats or hacks to make the more difficult fighters more forgiving in regard to joystick motions.

[paigeoliver]

Most of the Street Fighter series originally shipped with Happ Supers. I have found those to be a good all around 8-way joystick. They don't favor the diagonals like many other sticks tend to do. Neo Geos used one of the other happ sticks, but I have always ended up swapping those out for Supers on the Neo Geos I have owned.