I can't decide on sticks!!!

[MrDetermination]

Long story highlights: Fell in love with the Knievel Woody ~10 years ago.  Also influenced by Bill's Wild West.  About six months ago a cool arcade near me opened up where you just pay for half an hour, hour or all day at the door and everything in there is free play.  Maybe ~50 machines or so.  Then three weeks ago I saw this: https://imgur.com/a/lSusJ  Showed my wife.  She finally said "okay"!

I have always been more afraid of the wiring than the cabinet making and I knew of the Porta Pi Kickstarter project so I pulled the trigger on that kit three weeks ago and built it over the course of just a couple days.  Been playing with that for a couple weeks or so and now I'm in!  It comes with Suzo Happ buttons and I think it is a Suzo Happ stick.  GREAT icebreaker project by the way.  I'm almost 40 and have done projects of all types off an on my whole life.  But this took me back to building models like when I was a kid.  A little bit radio shack, a little bit computer nerd and a little bit building stuff.  I love all that stuff.  And the finished project works as advertised.  The stick is fine but I'm not in love. 

The arcade I go to has everything CP wise.  I'm 100% decided on concave buttons.  I'm not sure about 6-8.  I love MK2's bats (Ultimate 8 way) but people seem pretty convinced that the ball is really better.  I also play the crap out of some older 4 ways (LOVE the OG PacMan stick - sits low, short range, and you can rack the hell out of it).  I don't see wanting to emulate any consoles that need analog in the cab.  Mostly I'll play pre-2000 stuff with a few NES, Genesis and SNES excursions here and there. 

Anyway, I understand the Ultimate 8 ways from MK2 went to crap somewhere along the way?

The Ultimarc drop ins are interesting but I'm leaning more towards Knievel's layout except maybe not the trackball.

Is there a widely agreed on best bat that is a safe bet and nobody would turn their nose up to?

EDIT: Also, I want to go all black on the sticks and buttons so that may limit my options. 

EDIT 2: OH, also, I have seen pictures of printouts of Knievel's CP layout but I can't find a printable version.  Anyone have a link?

Thanks!

[bulbousbeard]

The best "American" style bat joystick is objectively the IL Eurostick.

http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/eurostick/165-il-eurostick-black.html



You can always get a bat top for a Sanwa joystick, too.

[harveybirdman]

Welcome.  To get the best recommendations it would be helpful to know what genres of games you most want this project to do well.

Also no one here is going to come to a consensus on any stick, that's like asking what's the best car or soft drink, and is matter of personal preference to some degree.

Based on what you've said so far I see somewhat of a conflict....  If you want a great four way feel for some of the games you mentioned, I'm not sure you're going to find it in an American style bat top variety.

You should first decide if you want this to play a subset of games perfectly, or if you want it to play most everything well, and that will probably help people make better suggestions.

[Generic Eric]

Also no one here is going to come to a consensus on any stick, that's like asking what's the best car or soft drink, and is matter of personal preference to some degree.

I've meet people from Maryland, and other places, who identified every carbonated beverage as coke.  Coke was coke, Pepsi was Coke, Dr. Pepper was Coke, and even Mountain Dew was Coke. 

They were a strange bunch.


I bought supers from the Real Bob Roberts years ago.  There were 3, supers, competitions and something else.  Oh the back and forth. 

My suggestion is to buy one.  Try it out.  If you don't like that one, buy a different kind.