Anyone Own a Ultimarc UltraStik 360 Joystick? Food Fight Issues

[Dai Shan]

I love my U360 for how I can properly play 2-way, 4-way, Q*bert, etc.. but oddly pure analog games like Food Fight are not quite right. The character can stutter and freeze at times. It doesn't freeze is a predictable way either, but it seems like diagonals are more of an issue than most, second would be going right. Left and left diagonals seem ok most times.

Just wondering if anyone owns this and figured it out already. My guess is the answer lies in "Analog Controls" within the MAME settings for the game, but I don't have a clue as to how any of those settings work.

Here's how mine's setup:

Input (This Machine)

AD Stick X Analog - Joy 1 X Axis
AD Stick X Analog Dec - Joy 1 Left or Kbd Left
AD Stick X Analog Inc - Joy 1 Right or Kbd Right
AD Stick Y Analog - Joy 1 Y Axis
AD Stick Y Analog Dec - Joy 1 Up or Kbd Up
AD Stick Y Analog Inc - Joy 1 Down or Kbd Down

Analog Controls

All "Digital Speeds" are set to 10
All "Reverse" are set to "On"
All "Sensitivity" are set to 100

[bobbyb13]

Not sure how to link to another thread here properly yet- I'm VERY new at posting here!
I was having issues like this myself until I stumbled onto this thread.

Copy, paste, and go with this maybe?

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=78608.0

Aloha,
Bobby

[Mr. Peabody]

Performance will be different, the gap between mechanical and virtual significant.

[Dai Shan]

Not sure how to link to another thread here properly yet- I'm VERY new at posting here!
I was having issues like this myself until I stumbled onto this thread.

Copy, paste, and go with this maybe?

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=78608.0

Aloha,
Bobby

Thanks man. I look forward to digging into that post and making adjustments this weekend.

[Dai Shan]

Performance will be different, the gap between mechanical and virtual significant.

Not sure why the lag would be significant. I notice nothing in other games with the U360. It's hard-wired via USB with nothing else on the bus that would interfere with the signal.

The issue with Food Fight is definitely a settings/sensitivity issue and the analog control. It's almost akin to having to tune an instrument it's so picky, but non-analog games? Works like a champ.

[JudgeRob]

Food fight presented a unique problem for me.  The arcade stick had a wide "midrange" area that allowed you to point in a direction without moving the players body.  It would only move at the extremes of the stick ranges.  I could never adjust this properly with the U360.  If you figure it out, I would love to know how!

[Mr. Peabody]

@Dai Shan: sticks with mechanical switches 'give', and allow a different kind of radius.

Food fight presented a unique problem for me.  The arcade stick had a wide "midrange" area that allowed you to point in a direction without moving the players body.  It would only move at the extremes of the stick ranges.  I could never adjust this properly with the U360.  If you figure it out, I would love to know how!

The U360 zones are on/off/hold. Perhaps the controls emulation of Food Fight (and perhaps related games) in MAME lacks....

[Dai Shan]

Food fight presented a unique problem for me.  The arcade stick had a wide "midrange" area that allowed you to point in a direction without moving the players body.  It would only move at the extremes of the stick ranges.  I could never adjust this properly with the U360.  If you figure it out, I would love to know how!

Think I just figured it out.

Good tip by bobbyb13 above. That post helped me at least understand what was not used and what was.

After a bit of digging through the settings, I made a few changes that fixed everything for me with Food Fight. Now, I don't know if 1 or all 3 need to be done, but it's working for me, so I'm not messing with it.

• I use MAME 0.192. So just run "mame64.exe". Everything is done in "Configure Options". I did nothing in "Analog Controls" in the game itself.
• Go to "Device Mapping" and set "Adstick Device Assignment" to joystick
• Go to "Advanced Options" and set "Joystick deadzone" to 0.15 and Joystick saturation to 0.2
• The above two things are all I changed that got Food Fight working. Also, make sure U360 is not set as a controller for INC or DEC under Player 1 Controls for Adstick..um...oh yeah, remember to Save Configuration in MAME before exiting.

The only odd thing about Food Fight now is that when the joystick is untouched and centered, the guy looks right by default, instead of left towards the ice cream cone. Since it's not really an issue, I didn't bother trying to fix it, but my hunch is that the fix is under Analog Controls within the game, and fiddling with the X-axis sensitivity.

Anyway, it's really nice to FINALLY gave this favorite working!! I got myself an Arcade1Up to give me accurate controls and play of the three Star Wars games. I think out of all my favorite games, the only thing I can't play now is Spy Hunter and Ikari Warriors for obvious controller reasons.

[Dai Shan]

@Dai Shan: sticks with mechanical switches 'give', and allow a different kind of radius.

But the U360 doesn't have mechanical switches. Sorry, still not understanding the point you're trying to make. Regardless, I've fixed the issue and it has nothing to do with hardware or digital vs. analog. It came down to the analog stick settings in MAME. They were not intuitive at all. lol

[Mr. Peabody]

@Dai Shan: you said other games, versus other analog games. Still, the original hall effect sticks were more like digital sticks in mechanical operation.

I'm glad you got the response for Food Fight satisfied. I haven't cared for its design and game play - like Tasmanian, which is rather monolithic. Perhaps I will re-visit it, with the above controls settings in mind.

By the way, a yoke can be used for any analog wheel game. Spy Hunter has five buttons, but the weapons van button seems not critical.

[Dai Shan]

@Dai Shan: you said other games, versus other analog games. Still, the original hall effect sticks were more like digital sticks in mechanical operation.

I'm glad you got the response for Food Fight satisfied. I haven't cared for its design and game play - like Tasmanian, which is rather monolithic. Perhaps I will re-visit it, with the above controls settings in mind.

By the way, a yoke can be used for any analog wheel game. Spy Hunter has five buttons, but the weapons van button seems not critical.

I see what you're saying now. Yes, I do use the U360 for 2-way and 4-way games that would normally be mechanically switched. Oddly, while it's obvious that the feel is not the same as you said, I've never felt something being "off" or even remotely different when using the U360. Which is good because I have no room on my controller for all those dedicated sticks and using an 8-way definitely has issues.

In my rig, adding a yoke wouldn't be practical for Spy Hunter, not to mention too much money than it's worth. While my Star Wars A1Up cabinet might potentially fit the bill with some future modding, it's still lacking the Weapons Van, pedal, and gear shift abilities. The Weapons Van is essential to gameplay as being able to call it to gain a weapon or just get out of a bad situation is valuable.

[Mr. Peabody]

I have found the weapons van comes as it will. The horizontal axis of the yoke is the throttle, holmes. I forget what button I have set for gear shift. Machine gun? Perhaps oil, as losing a touch is nothing. If you watch experienced game play, 'low' is used from a stop, and in emergency, the rest of the time staying in 'high' and backing off the throttle when needed.

[Dai Shan]

I have found the weapons van comes as it will.

Yes, it does. It also comes when you want it, when you press the lit button.

The horizontal axis of the yoke is the throttle, holmes. I forget what button I have set for gear shift. Machine gun? Perhaps oil, as losing a touch is nothing. If you watch experienced game play, 'low' is used from a stop, and in emergency, the rest of the time staying in 'high' and backing off the throttle when needed.

Ah, the yoke. Of course, however...the horizontal axis? Side-to-side? Wouldn't the x-axis be for swerving the car? I can see the y-axis being used for throttle though.

So nothing dedicated for gear shift or the van button. I guess multiple presses would work. Definitely doable in theory I guess with my A1Up, but I'll have to wait for people more talented in the electronics part to figure that mod out. I would give it a go though. While not perfect, it's better than nothing.

[Mr. Peabody]

Spyhunter: recall the weapons van button is in the middle of the wheel. A button on your panel is similar.


yoke: depends on your consideration of orientation. Relative to planet-dwellers, yoke axes are perpendicular to the horizontal plane - they are y and z. Paperboy has x and z, so yoke y becomes x.

[PL1]

Standard naming convention for flight yoke axes:
  X-axis = left/right (turn like a steering wheel)
  Y-axis = up/down (tilt the handles or push/pull on Cessna-style controllers)

yoke: depends on your consideration of orientation. Relative to planet-dwellers, yoke axes are perpendicular to the horizontal plane - they are y and z. Paperboy has x and z, so yoke y becomes x.

That is a . . . unique . . . perspective.




Scott

[Mr. Peabody]

@PL1: Holmes.....I am so far ahead of you, you are down in the valley wheezing.

I wrote this up Sunday night: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,161387.new.html#new

[JudgeRob]

Thanks for the info Dai Shan.  I've been playing around with the settings.  For some reason, when I used your values, I couldn't look/aim without moving.  I've set the deadzone as low as it can go without the player moving on it's own.  The lower the deadzone, the faster the response time.  Zero actually worked OK, but I bumped it up just a little in case other games are more sensitive.  If the saturation is too low, the stick will not differentiate the middle zone with the far zone.  If lowered too far, the player will move but be unable to look around while standing still.  This means you can't stand still on a pile of food and launch it all over the place.  This is nice to do especially on the bonus watermelon rounds.  If the saturation level is too high, like 1, it will sometimes studder a bit before running.  So, bumping it down a little from the upper limit can make it feel more smooth.

It probably changes depending on the specific system, but these worked really well for me:
Deadzone:  .02
Saturation:  .85

Thanks again.  Seems like a good game to test the ranges of the analog stick settings. 
Happy Thanksgiving!!

[Mahoneyt944]

I created a joystick hack for food fight to make it playable in mame2003-plus with any joystick. You no longer face right! Read here how to use it and post a review or questions. https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/25593/food-fight-joust-joystick-troubles-solved/119