What do you think about Sanwa style joysticks becoming so popular?

[LightningBolt]

So on many other forums (for things like modern gaming, fighting games etc) it seems to be like a 99 to 1 ratio of ball top Japanese sticks to American style bat tops. It struck me as strange at first but people can tend to be trendy.

Do you use them? Did you ever recall using them growing up?

[keilmillerjr]

I've always hated the bat tops, even as a kid. I can't control them for ship. Ball top, I use less wrist action. I wish more machines here in the USA used them. Fortunately, I can buy a sanwa jlf and swap everything to my comfort - switches, actuators, gates, springs, shaft, etc.

[RandyT]

It often depends on what the player cut his gaming "teeth" on.  In this case, you can point primarily to the age of the player and where they are located.  Older US gamers who started with the Atari 2600, as well as playing with myriad different controls in the heyday of Arcade gaming, tend to be comfortable with either style.  A player's ability to adapt to different controls was a necessary part of the gaming skill set.  Battops were mostly seen on early fighters, and were very popular in Europe, being used almost exclusively.

Asia, on the other hand, uses what we see a lot of on the market now.  Arcades are still popular in that area of the world, so this style is plentiful and there are many options.  Add to that the fact that many of the commercially made "fighting" panels for consoles being manufactured in that part of the world, used these types of sticks, so there's a very good chance that modern gamers started out using these "arcade" style panels before building their own.  So given few other options on the market, they went with what they knew, what their peers related to them, what was readily available and sometimes, what they considered affordable.

Personally, I'm not a big fan, but fighting games aren't my main focus, and I've "tasted" better. 

[BadMouth]

Never used them growing up.  I bought a set of Sanwa JLFs because of how great everyone said they were for fighters and they seemed to be the modern standard (parts availability).
The first thing I found out was how friggin' light the spring was.  I read that Japanese players don't ride the restrictor like me and only move the stick as much as is necessary to actuate a direction.  It makes sense that they would want a very light action then.  Personally, I hated it and described them as "dainty".  So I swapped in stiffer springs.

Next, the clickity click of the switches drove me nuts, so I went to Toodle's Spark CE optical setup.  I didn't like the square restrictor, went to an octagon for a while and settled on round. Originally I had bat-tops for them, but switched to groovygamegear's Hand Candy balltops and will never use anything else ever again.
Actually my favorite part of the Japanese style sticks has been the ability to change the tops. 

So I really like them now, but I've changed everything about them and spent a lot of money doing it.   

If I were building a cab today, I'd probably try Randy's nifty new leaf sticks.
I also miss having concave buttons.  I feel less anchored and less sure of what buttons I'm mashing with the flat top Japanese style buttons.

[Vigo]

I grew up loving wico's the most. Even had a Wico for my C64, so I have a predisposition to love the leafy, grommety joysticks. Those happ batts that flooded the scene in the 90's were not my cup of tea, so Sanwa would not have been on my radar at all, except I was curious about all the buzz around it. When I was selling encoders a few years back, I took advantage of having routine packages from China and had them send me a bunch of goodies for cheap that I wanted to try out.

I got the JLF balltop, and was actually blown away. It was light, it was elegant. The shaft was narrow, but it still felt strong. It slide in and out of position with minimal effort. I really didn't mind that it was a clicky joystick, because it was so nimble. It was like handing a rapier to a guy used to swinging around a battle-axe.

Then it came to product testing. Fighters, and beat-em-ups were stellar. vertical shooters, other 8-ways it was ok, but I have tried better.  Then I tried playing classics, pacman, donkey kong etc...terrible, especially the 4 way games. I couldn't get the movements I was trying to achieve. Well, that is common of 8-way joysticks on a 4 way game, but I had also ordered restrictor plates, and tossed on a 4 way diamond restrictor. Ugh..even with the restrictor, just couldn't get the action I wanted out of it. It was like the joystick was too smooth and made me incapable of making harsh, decisive movements.

So my verdict is, if you are out to play more modern 8-ways, the JLF is a damn good joystick. It is a little to lopsided to be a good all around stick. At least without modding them like BadMouth talked about.

[pbj]

Sanwa's are a nice stick and they're readily available at a good price nowadays.  That was NOT the case 10 years ago. 

Hence you see more of them now. 

 

[Grasshopper]

I think another reason why the Sanwa/Seimitsu type joysticks are popular is because, from the operator's point of view, they're easier to maintain than the Happ/IL bat style equivalents. The balltops can be unscrewed, and that means they can easily be replaced if they get damaged. It also means it's much easier to remove the joysticks from a panel if the entire joystick need replacing. The Happ style joysticks can only be removed after the circlip at the end of the shaft has been removed. That's fiddly if you're having to do it upside down.

Also, the Sanwa sticks occupy very little space under the control panel. That makes them more suitable for many of the modern candy style cabs where space under the control panel is often limited.

Personally, I find the feel so-so, not terrible by any means, but not that great either. However, they're definitely a more elegant design than the older sticks.

[shponglefan]

I didn't use them growing up, but I do like them now.  They're just good sticks and work well for fighters in particular, so I can see why they have gained popularity.

[LightningBolt]

I actually bought one in 2005 to use in a Tekken 5 replica arcade stick that never happened. But at the time it was very scarce I had to order from one website that apparently had a lot of drama later on with the seller up and disappearing. Now they seem more frequent.

Also they're on the new Battle Royale Pac-Man game.

[mgb]

As said, bat tops really came about in the 90s.
In the eighties, most of the sticks were ball tops while there were a couple of other oddballs but then in the 90s we started seeing the bat tops on fighters and the like.
I went with sanw originally back in the early 2000s with my first controller. I had comps for my main sticks and I bought a JLF to use as my dedicated 4-way. I figured with the restrictor rotated diagonally it would be the best choice because the happs that were so readily available didn't really have true 4-way restriction.
At that time I was only able to find the Sanwas from one guy here in the US and that stick cost me a little over $30.
I wasn't thrilled with the dainty feel and loud click but it was good enough.
A few years later, I was building a 60-in-1 for a customer and I picked up a JLW for it. I liked it and by the time I built my current cabinet, I was preferring balltops so I went with JLWs. They modify nicely.
I have cherry switches and heavier springs on mine and one of them has a round gate and it plays great. With the cherries, they're very quiet too.
I really think that bat tops would ruin the sleek look of my cp

[WindDrake]

Most of what I grew up on had a mix of bat and ball-top, with a circular or non-existant (circular) restrictor.

That said, I ---smurfing--- hate Sanwa sticks. If I can feel the restrictor, I'm not using it.

[mgb]

Most of what I grew up on had a mix of bat and ball-top, with a circular or non-existant (circular) restrictor.

That said, I ---smurfing--- hate Sanwa sticks. If I can feel the restrictor, I'm not using it.

true, square restrictors suck. But modified with a slightly heavier spring and round gate and the jlw is a well built work horse of a stick.

[DeLuSioNal29]

true, square restrictors suck. But modified with a slightly heavier spring and round gate and the jlw is a well built work horse of a stick.

Yup.  I just upgraded my JLW's spring to a slightly stiffer one for a mere .95 cents and it feels MUCH better.  I love that there are TONS of options for Sanwa sticks.  Colors, mods, etc.

D