Pelican Accessories REAL ARCADE joystick?

[arcadecab]

I recently saw one of these new joysticks by Pelican Acc. at a local Gamestop for $49.99.  It is made of wood (Partical board) similiar to the X-arcade, etc and supposedly uses real arcade parts, ie the joystick and actual arcade buttons.  I have a Playstation 2 to USB adapter that works well and I currently used with a Playstation 2 controller.  I am tempted to look into the Real Arcade joystick as it would be half the price of the equivalent from X-Arcade.  I am sure it is probably not to the build quality level as the X-arcade, but perhaps at half the price, it may come close.  Any thoughts from anyone?  Anyone take a look at one and/or used one to have any input? I would use exclusively for MAME and other console emulators via PC.
Thanks.

[aricade]

Why dont you build one!
You'll have much more fun.  You dont need much experience

It might cost about the same.   Get yourself a sacrificial psx pad.  some wood.  check your local arcades for used joysticks and buttons.  If you really dont want to build your own desktop control box  buy a premade box from redoctane or some place like that.

If you do it wisely and econimacally it could be much cheaper, but it will also be much better.  A one of a kind, a masterpiece

I picked up 2 joysticks and 14 buttons for $20 from a local arcade, when I started out.  Sometimes they have so much of the stuff they dont really mind selling you the extra parts.   While your there buy an old cab too!!

Although in retrospect I would have put more money into the joystick initially.  Note that I have tried Ultimates, Supers, and competitions.  I prefer the Competitions for fighters ,   But I like supers to for most other things...   But I had to spend some money to find out..   I seem to alway have that "this still isn't right" feeling.  It never goes but it gets better over time, and spending cash on your arcade projects....

There is a bit of investment for tools. but you'll use em again on your next project.  Once you start you never stop...

very basic tools:
Jigsaw,
drill
1 1/8th spade drill bit
soldering iron (particularily for psx hack)

Luke, Join The Dark Side!!!
 
Cheers,
Aricade

[CthulhuLuke]

YOU ARE NOT MY REAL FATHER!! AHHH.... *damn star wars*

Anyways, yah you'll probably hear it from everyone in here, buying a pre-made joystick, especially one that doesnt have the REAL stuff, not 'real' stuff, but the REAL stuff, your just not going to get the same kinda play that you would from a home built one.  They are pretty simple to make, if you have BASIC wood working skills you can make one easily, even Snaaaake can make them by the dozens *hah, j/k snake*  I have a few friends who all got those pelicans, and they are pretty close to the real thing, much closer than a cheap 19.99 turbo fire crappy one, but honestly if you want the real thing, its probably 15-20 bucks more if you make it yourself out of nice parts, and you'll be 100% more satisfied when you fire it up and start playing games on something YOU built.
              -Chu  

[eightbit]

The x-arcade is a nice solidly built unit and the controls are arcade controls their just on the cheap side. Quality joysticks and buttons can really make a difference. If you never tried them side by side and you weren't a arcade fanatic you would never know the difference.

[SNAAAKE]

even Snaaaake can make them by the dozens *hah, j/k snake*  

EVEN ?  
Dude,I build a whole cabinet in less then a week(the oak laminte one).
Yeah I should get an award for that one
Cab in a week...

as for the pelican real arcade,its "ok" compared to plastic crap you can buy from eb games. The buttons are kinda sticky and slight smaller then standard 1 1/8" and they are transparent.
Dont look right. And the stick is even worse then the x-arcade's super clone.Its very similer though.
AND they use screws instead of carriage bolts with smooth top.
Dont know about other people but I have a problem with screws around the stick.I mean...how hard is to install 4 bolts...
But since you already found BYOAC,I am sure you wanna build your own

[Cameronj]

I messed around with one at the Store the other day and liked the feel of it. I may just buy one for one of my consoles
Cameron

[slicer_d]

Hey arcadecab I think I was in the same spot as you a couple weeks ago I wanted a stick for my PS2 so I could play GGXX and such.  I ended up going with redoctane.com's empty shells and let me tell you it was kind of a pain in the --I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules--!  I'm going to post a review later tonight I will link to it later in this post.

Here is the review
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=13067

But I did play  with the Pelican "Real" stick thing at gamestop and it seems pretty decent probably the best arcade type stick you can find in a big name store thats not the x-arcade and at half the price it seems pretty good.

Personally if you have any access to a router and some basic drills and saws I would just build my own stick.  But if you live in a apertment or have not tools besides a screw drives and wire cutters you I think the pelican stick would be pretty decent.  Persoanlly I would rip out all the crap buttons and joystick they have in it though compared to happs parts they are crap.  Go to TheRealBobRoberts.com and get your buttons and super or comp from him and you would be in biz.  It would be about 80~90 bucks all told if you went for the pelican.  This is of course assuming the button holes are the right size to fit the happs stuff I really dont know about that though.  Getting one from redoctane.com is cheaper at first but with the cash I spent to get a drill bit (10)  and lexan(5) and chisels to sink the stick(15) it would be about the same and less work even.  

Thats just my thoughts though if you have tools and even a small amount of skill I would suggest building your own you could probably come in under less then 60 bucks and then it would be totally customized to your own specs.  Maybe try to find a friend to build one with to thats my plan over winter break anyway I think it should be fun and hopefully a good intro to making a cab in the neer future.

Hope that helped
Slicer_D

[Cameronj]

Hey I was back at the gamestop again today and played around with it a bit more. I really like it! It is really close to my happs ones and they have an "Ultimate" model that has interfaces for XBOX, GameCube and PS2 in one unit for $10 more than the dedicated units. It has a little card holder on the top to hold button layout diagrams for each system. Another nice thing is that the cords store in the control panel too.

I think that the buttons are not standard Happs size though so you might not be able to replace them that easily. I don't know about the joystick though. I have spare happs parts. I should have bought the dang thing today but I bought an Eyetoy for my PS2 instead. It looks pretty fun.

Cameron