Newbie trying to decide which joystick to get for bartop

[Rogles]

I'm planning out a 1 player bartop mame build with a vertical screen and I'm having trouble deciding which joystick to get for it. I'm mainly looking at the Mag-Stik Plus, the J-Stik, or the Ultrastik 360. I was originally leaning towards the Mag-Stik plus, however I hear it doesn't have much movement range and I'm not sure if that's something I would like (not to mention noisy clicks). Is the Ultrastik 360 basically a J-stik that has a circular restrictor and an onboard interface? How's the J-stik? Does it feel decent or does it feel like a toy?

The only arcade cabinet with a joystick I've played recently (in the past 10 years) is Ms Pacman/Galaga Anniversary (the blue and black one) and I found the joystick on that one to be satisfactory (good resistance). Does anyone know if that's what the J-Stik is like?

[keilmillerjr]

Your dead on with the facts of the magstik.

I went with a jlf because it's highly customizable. I can change just about anything to adjust it as my preference may change when I finish my build. I'm not saying it's the best stick for a particular game/style out of the box. But paradise arcade and toodles sells tons of parts for it.

[mgb]

I agree the JLF is a good choice as long as it's modified. It has a small footprint which is important in a bartop.

Being that you're going with a vertical screen and you mention Ms Pacman, I'd assume you want to go with a 4-way stick.
Other small form sticks include the zippyys and Seimitsu's.
Keep in mind that most these sticks will take some switch reacement to get rid of clickiness.

GGG has a 4 way leaf stick that seems pretty shallow and of course has no click

[BorgDog]

I got my zippyys from GGG with the quieter switches and have been pretty happy with them in both my 4 way and 8 way setup.

[Rogles]

Wow, there's more to choose from than I thought! So is the J-Stik pretty clicky? I plan on having both 4 way and 8 way games (and possibly dual joysticks which would require another stick), so being able to switch between the two fairly easily would be nice. Can any joystick switches be replaced with quieter ones or only certain models?

[DeLuSioNal29]

If you go with a Sanwa JLF, you can always get the optical mod which completely eliminates the microswitches.
http://www.focusattack.com/gamerfinger-optical-joystick-pcb-for-sanwa-jlf-joystick/

[DeLuSioNal29]

Or just simply go with a Dominux 4-way leaf joystick.  This has leaf switches which I have a hunch you would like.  (Older classic Ms. Pacman joys usually have this, which is why it's not clicky).

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=407

D