Monroe sticks are kinda cool. Their biggest problem was that the pivot ball could get gunked up and rusted / stuck in place.
(Metal ball to metal housing) Then again, I only know this because of the used ones that I had picked up. Maybe they had sat out in some warehouse with high moisture... and possible didnt have such a problem in the arcades.
The thicker shaft was a bit odd too. But, when they were working good, they really made Time Pilot and Gyruss play smooth.
In some respects, the Japanese sticks resemble them, with their center pivot ball and small footprint. However, as you said,
the Japanese sticks are in fact really low durability, compared to western sticks. The throw is often too short, and IMO, leafs feel and play 1000x better for classic games.
I still prefer the feel of the Wico 8way leafs.. though, now Im curious to see how well the Monroes would perform with Robotron.
I never got to restore the sticks, and try them out thoroughly. =(
I also remember the Nintendo Sticks. Tiny, but surprisingly long throw. Very sloppy and mechanically clunky. Then again, a lot of their games, like Donkey Kong, DKJR.. etc, were also Clunky and Slow moving. heh
Im 42 now... so I played a great majority of the Classic era games on original hardware. Of course, you dont always appreciate that when you are young and have never seen the inside of a cabinet.
I didnt learn the differences in controller types in depth, until I became a manager at an Arcade. At the time I came in... leafs were just about phased out. Only a few games in the arcade had them. Maybe it was around 1998... Its hard to recall now.
At that time, there were some really funky microswitch sticks. Some that resembled happs... but they used slightly different parts. Most were awful, and it was hard to find part to rebuild them with, due to their similarities.. yet varied evolutionary changes.
The Happs sticks that started to come in new, at that time, were Ultimates. They worked good for a few months... but then the plastic spacers would Shred themselves to death.. and have to be flipped over. You would see a pile of plastic dust in the control panel from them!
Finally, the Happs Competitions came out... and wow, what a difference. They lasted so much longer... not nearly as aggressive on spacer shredding. They were a godsend, saving me tons of maintenance work.
I also remember the Wico Microswitch balltops. We had one machine that used them... and I recall them feeling really nice. Actually, they were more durable and better playing than those wretched Ultimates. However, they were pretty much phased out of stock by then.
If I recall correctly, the Wico Microswitch balltops used the same rubber grommet centering system. Much smoother, quieter, and less end-of-travel "bump-fatigue".
I wish I could tell my former self, to save those spare leaf parts. The District Mgr. said to toss them, and most of the rest of the unused "obsolete" parts, that were taking up shelf space. >_<
Even at that time... while I knew of the mechanical differences in leafs and micros... I didnt fully appreciate the difference. The leafs I was repairing at the time, were old and fatigued, .. so maintenance was high with them. I got ticked off, at an already high workload of repairs... and didnt know why Leafs should be kept in certain machines.
One day I decided to replaces all remaining leaf games with micros. I thought... this is going to be sooooo much better. Less work for me... less customer complaints... and customer compliments on the new controls!
Nope. Immediately people who played Galaga and some of the others... were not happy. The control and feel in micros is far different.
Only then did I 'start' to realize their value.
But the thing that really drove it home... was playing a Real Robotron machine about 5? years ago... with real Wico 8way leafs.
I didnt care for the game much when I was young... cause it raped me of my money in mere seconds. But now, I was older, more coordinated... and was able to hang in there for a while. I totally got hooked on it, dumping quarters in it for several hours at a time on the weekends. Highest level I got to was probably about 32, and I was laughing, sweating, panicking, and giggling like a little kid... the whole time! I quickly preferring it to Smash TV... as it is FAR more adrenalin intense, and far more skill-balanced. (Not an unfair 'continue' based quarter-eater)
Not much later, I had played Robotron on someones Multi-Jamma cab... it was with Micros.. and it was Wretchedly unplayable. I walked away after one bad game... and instantly went to ebay to snap up what remaining NOS Wico 8 ways leaf sticks that I could find.
(For the record... I also had tried to play with typical PS2 style gamepads.. trying both directionals, as well as the mini-analogs. Neither were quick enough for that games intensity)
I still wouldnt fully appreciate Leaf buttons... until playing and later owning, an Asteroids Deluxe. The key here.. was learning about "Floating" (vibrating) the leafs contacts... rather than fully depressing them all the time.
Once I understood that method... It caused me to completely re-think my whole Mame cabinet designs. Classics, especially rapid-fire (Halleys Comet, Asteroid Deluxe) or long-repeated-firing games (like Galaga) ... really need a Leaf... or your fingers/hand will fatigue in mere minutes of play.
(More recent Arcade games started making all shooters have Auto-Fire, as standard... probably due to no more leaf button availability / use. While this works fine... it does rob you of an additional challenge that could have been had, making the games more easy. Then again, they added a "Continue"... so it really didnt matter what difficulty there was... as you now buy your victory, rather than earn it through practice and developed skills)
My Suggestion, is to include at least One real classic Leaf button on your control panels. Maybe place it as the 7th button, diagonally downwards in front of the typical fighter 3x3 layout rows.
As for sticks.. I recommend using 2 sticks per player. You can place a 2nd stick almost vertically above the typical stick position. Just move the top most stick a little inwards, at a slight diagonal. It will allow you to use either stick comfortably, and will barely take up much more space:
_____________________
_ _
_ (o) _
_ O O O _
_ (o) O O O _
_ O _
_____________________
You can space them vertically almost touching. Maybe a cm needed at most. Just need a little diagonal separation, so that the sticks do not get in the way of each other when gripped and rolled around.
Of course, you could also do typical swappable controls / panels / multiple machines...etc.
This layout also wouldnt solve the 4way issue... as true 4 way physically restricted sticks are the Only way to play games like Ms.Pacman.
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Topic: What's the best arcade button?!!!!?? (Read 12302 times)
