Ultimarc U360/Joystick questions for project

[killbill]

Hi,

For a long while now I've been planning my rotating monitor bartop machine. I am at the point of selecting the joysticks. My panel will be a standard 2 sticks 6 buttons per stick, a P1 button and P2 button, and P1 credit button and P2 Credit button. So 2 sticks, 16 button layout total. My original choice was the Ultimarc 360s. After doing a few searches on the web regarding these sticks, I have several questions. I searched the forums here which ended up leading me to even more questions. 

A little more about my project: wil include the following emulators/games: MAME, Daphne, Kega (Sega), FCEUX (nes), ZSNES (snes), Freedo (3do), Taito Type X, Demul (Sega Naomi), Doujin games, MUGEN games, Openbor, MESS (Atari 2600, 5200, 7200) and many PC games, for example (GTA: Vice City, HALO and Terrordrome).

I will be running latest Hyperspin and Rocketlauncher as my front end/launcher an am running Windows 7 64 bit.

My goal is to play as many games as possible as right as possible, with the limitation of only having one stick per player in the panel. I've read that U360s are the best option out there for this right now. I know that joystick feel differences are very individual. I'm looking at it from a much more practical way - functionality.

Here come the U360 questions:

1. Using the stick encoders or buying an ipac? - If getting these, I'd like to use the onboard encoders and supplemental button harness. I've read that since the buttons will pop up as gamepad buttons and not keystrokes that can be a problem with older emulators that don't support gamepads. I know about X-padder and Joy2key but have heard of instances of these programs not working for all emulators/games. Can anyone suggest whether this would be true for any of the emulators listed above or have you had any instances where these sticks/buttons haven't worked for certain systems or games? From your experiences is using the stick encoder the best option?

2. Ultrastik 360 Front-Mounted Restrictor Kit - I've read this is a great add on for mechanical restriction. Any experiences with this? Has anyone flush mounted it to allow the use of dust washers? I know that the inserts need to be accessed to change restriction, but am hoping there might be a trick to being able have this and have dust washers on the sticks too.

3. Hyperspin - I heard Hyperspin was hard to control with the U360s because of the stick being analog. Was this an old issue that has been fixed?

4. Instances of sticks breaking - I know that this is very arbitrary, but has anyone experienced these sticks failing? It seems that with the encoder and everything built into the sticks and some hard gaming, this could be an issue. Other more simple joysticks would be less likely to have these issues?

5. Mapping - I've read online where stick map profiles sometimes have failed to load up on system or game startup. Has anyone experienced this? Also are the stock mapping profiles good, or is customization required?

6. Other controls - Lastly I am also going to want to have hot pluggable added USB controllers (for ex. Aimtrak gun, hacked Logitech steering wheel, and a trackball) I will create separate panels for the driving and trackball games that will sit in front of my existing control panel. My question is, with the 360 sticks being USB powered, are there any issue with plugging in additional USB controllers on the fly for certain games? Controller profile issues, etc?

If I've posted questions that have been discussed in other threads, I apologize. Nothing I read here or online really answered all my questions. Basically, I'm deciding on either the U360s or a couple of Mag Stik Pluses and an ipac, or maybe a third option?

Any advice, suggestions are much appreciated.

[yotsuya]

With all that you want to do with this, why limit yourself to a bartop?

[killbill]

Hey Yotsuya, I have been obsessed with creating a killer ultimate bartop for awhile now. I've built cabs, but this is my first bartop. It's going to be a large one though with a rotatable HP LP2065 20" monitor.  It's actually more like a half cab really.   

[behrmr]

I wouldn't think flush mounting the top mount restictor would work.  You would have a hard time grabbing it to rotate it to change the restriction.

[yotsuya]

Hey Yotsuya, I have been obsessed with creating a killer ultimate bartop for awhile now. I've built cabs, but this is my first bartop. It's going to be a large one though with a rotatable HP LP2065 20" monitor.  It's actually more like a half cab really.   

[killbill]

Hey behrmr, yeah I thought so. I thought maybe if I made the joystick panel hole slightly larger, I could raise up the dust washer and use a thin fingernail file or something to slip in between the panel and restrictor to ease them out when I want to change them. Just a thought.

[behrmr]

You don't really need a dustwasher.  Besides they are supposed to be underneath the control panel where you can't see them anyway.  If you really want one then I would drill it out so that it fits snugly around the restrictor.  It's difficult enough to rotate as it is without it shooting across the room on you.

[killbill]

Anyone have any experiences with these things? Any help is appreciated.

[GeoMan]

I have no problem using my U360's with Xpadder for those emus that only support keyboard input. You can also program the sticks to work as 8-way or 4-way so you will have no problems with MAME games like Qix or Pacman that require 4-way movement.

For emulating consoles which have shoulder buttons R1,L1,R2,L2 i use a PS2 gamepad with a PS2/USB adapter - it is easier and more natural to use it than the U360's. Maybe you can add a USB port at the back of your bartop in case you prefer that solution for certain consoles/games (i find it ideal for MAME games which require dual flighsticks - use the the two PS2 sticks for movement and R1, L1 for fire).

[artyfarty]

I use the FMRs for 4way/8way restriction, and really like them. You don't want to flush mount, as the FMRs have to be raised enough above the panel so you can lift and rotate them 45 degrees to switch between 4 way and 8 way.


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[deepblue]

I have owned U360's for a number of years. I have the restrictor plates also. Quick answers:

1) I don't think U360's have button encoders unless this was added later

2) Kits are great and best option I have found for quick, on the fly changes vs screwing around with the bottom plate mid session. You won't be able to use dust washers.

3) don't use HS, but you can program the U360 to be analog, 4 way, 8 way, etc and change profiles depending on the game launched

4. My sticks broke - not really a question of build quality as my young kids got in the habit of "hanging" on them and the boards eventually failed. Easy replacement.

5. Never had this happen.

6. I have a USB hub with 9 or so things running including the 2 U360s. Trackball, spinner, mouse, keyboard. No issues with interference.

Hope that helps.


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[mahuti]

1. There is a button encoder. I think for like 8 buttons or so. I can't remember. I use them, they work great for Mame on a PC. I've also used them on Raspberry PI, and they work great on that. There's nothing to dynamically switch the maps on the Pi yet, but it's being worked on.

4. I haven't had a problem with them breaking. The sticks are a bit thinner than some you might be used to, but generally unless you have kids literally hanging on them, they should last for a long time. They are tougher than any normal home game joystick (IMHO)

5. Never had this happen. The default maps are good. However, I did make a custom Qbert, Zaxxon map. But by and large the defaults are really good.

6. I hot swap panels. I haven't had troubles. The controller maps don't have a problem with other stuff being plugged and unplugged.

[GeoMan]

U360s support 8 buttons and you can connect as many as 4 of them at once (you have to change their ID first).

There's also an option for hard spring (highly recommended)

[mahuti]

Yes, hard spring and a longer shaft.

Sounds laughable. But still true.

[killbill]

Thanks for all the input guys. Sounds like I'm sold on the U360s. Has anyone had any issues using them with xpadder or JoyToKey on older emulators like Daphne (or other emulators that do not support gamepads or on PC games in general?? Any issues? Also, which one do you use: Xpadder or JoyToKey?