Ok, so long story short...
I've always loved Sinistar but sucked badly. I recently had a session on my MAME cabinet and was frustrated due to the poor controls - I thought I must be doing something wrong and looked for some tips.
I then discovered Sinistar uses a different joystick (I never knew this!) - anyway, a quick look suggests buying anything like good enough will be ~£100 which seems excessive for one game I will rarely play...so I have these questions;
1) Do other games benefit form this joystick
2) If I did get a 49 way joystick could I just use it as my default player 1 joystick? (I have a 2 play cabinet)
3) Would I be better off just buying a PC joystick and just using for this game?
I'm completely open to advise/suggestions. It would be really great to replay this close to the original...I bought a proper trackball for a dozen games and have components to build a spinner for a few others than utilise it, I feel this is probably the last piece of the jigsaw?
Thanks in advance for any input
1) There are very few games that utilized 49 way sticks. I believe a few are: Arch Rivals, Food Fight, (NFL Blitz... however, this uses a different type of stick)
2) Sinistar's 49way stick, will not be optimal for most other games.
3) That depends...
In the past, I made a modified PC analog joystick, to play this game. I made a rubber "X" spring system... out of a bike tires inner-tube.
I had cut the plastic shaft mostly off, and made a Pin to attach a metal shaft to the original shafts shortened end.
Then I epoxy'd a Ball-Top on the metal shaft end.
The "x" spring was placed between the joystick assembly... and the metal mounting plate I had made for it.
I used Grommets to keep the rubber X together, and for the mounting holes... to keep the rubber from shredding apart.
I think I may have had to use a total of 4 strips (two for each line), to get the proper resistance I desired.
In the end... it worked even smoother than the original Arcade 49 way stick. It also was good to use on many other Analog games.
Despite those saying the game can be played with an 8 way digital stick... they are out of their minds.
Sinistar was designed to have a very high range of speed control. To accomplish this... the rubber spider "x" spring... multiplies the resistance
the further you are out from the center of the stick. It also eliminates the need for a large "Dead-Zone"... which is typically needed on spring
based joysticks... as the springs can interfere with fine control in the center.. as well as can be off-center, due to wear of the springs.
The mechanical advantages allows you to be able to easily mine, dodge, and collect crystals very delicately.. at slow speeds... and in an instant..
you can go full throttle... moving at near warp speed... to avoid danger, or find another asteroid. Its absolutely genius.
The game is Insanely difficult, even with the original controller. I know I have defeated 3 Sinistars... and actually... I think I once
even beat the 4th... which was a damn miracle. To do this... I first practiced in mame using an invincibility cheat... to get a good feel for
the levels and strategies. After that... I turned off cheats... and was eventually able to get to the 4th wave or so... on my own.
After that, however... it seemed like there is a wall of pure impossibility. The enemies are too fast... and Sinistar gets built way too
quickly... far to soon to be able to collect enough crystals.
Tip: Make sure to mine fast, and fully fill your capacity of bombs. When Sinistar shows... make sure not to bomb him until he is as close as
can be... otherwise, a bomb may fly into a different enemy... wasting it. Also.. do not fire bombs until they run out. Only use as
many bombs as needed.. to destroy him. Exiting the level with the most bombs left.. means less mining to do. Because the intensity gets
harder each round... you will need as many bombs left from the previous round... as possible.