49 way joystick to 8 way joystick

[Sirgubster]

Have a blitz 99 arcade cabinet and Im looking to have it be 8 way joysticks instead of what it is now which is 49 way joysticks.  How do I go about making that change?  is there a tutorial anywhere?  Mine is 4 player and I have no idea what wires to remove and what to splice in.  I hear people talking about having a 8 way joystick blitz machine, but nobody ever says how they made that happen.  any help?

[Sirgubster]

any help from anyone on this?

[paigeoliver]

any help from anyone on this?

Look up the wiring schematics for it, there will be all the information you need, if you can't read that then nothing in a messageboard post is going to help you. Not sure why you would want to downgrade the sticks anyway. Not like you are playing much anything else in the Blitz cabinet with that medium resolution monitor.

[jdbailey1206]

I was reading up on this last night.  sir gubster I have attached a link to the manual here. 

paigeoliver or anyone with better knowledge on the subject correct me if I'm wrong but if I'm reading the manual correctly don't the dip switches also need to be changed as referenced on page 32 of the pdf?  ie Dip Switch 2 (U8) Switch 1 needs to go from the on to off position?  Along with changing settings in the menu system referenced on page 25?

Gubster also reference page 10 of the pdf where Williams calls out game play modification in number 12 stating "Standard 8 way joysticks may be used with this kit if desired...However, the game will not have the same fine control of character motion and speed when using standard joysticks."

Good luck Gubster.  Still trying to figure out why you need to go from 49 down to 8.  From what I read you just need to upgrade the sticks as many people thought they were junk.

[RandyT]

Are the 49-way sticks shot?  That's the only reason I could see someone wanting to do this.

If the rubber centering spiders are bad, I happen to have some NOS ones.  They aren't cheap, but they are probably the last ones in existence

[BladeZX]

Is there a way to use an 8-way joystick with the a1up blitz pcb and encoder?
I know the arcade had a dip switch that could be changed between 49way and 8way

[RandyT]

Is there a way to use an 8-way joystick with the a1up blitz pcb and encoder?
I know the arcade had a dip switch that could be changed between 49way and 8way

Doubtful.  To my knowledge, they can't even be used with a real 49-way.  Whatever protocol they used between the stick and the main PCB would likely need to be reverse engineered and an active interface developed, which is very unlikely to be worth the effort as, if one were to go to that trouble, it would probably make mores sense for a proper 49-way, rather than an 8-way.  Although 8-way could be added to that without much extra work.