Best components

[Jagoe]

I'm getting ready to start building my control panel and I want to use the absolute best compnents available.   I've been doing tons of research and am learning a lot about this stuff.  However, I'd like to hear from the veterans here.  Who, in your experience, makes the best:

Joysticks?
Buttons?
Guns?
Yokes?
Spinners?
Trackballs?
Flight Sticks?
Steering Wheels?
Pedals?

I am talking about construction and useability here and price is no object.  I am not interested in any sort of "platinum trackball",  "jewel encusted buttons", "solid gold light guns" or other extravagances.  Just really well-built and practical components.

[shmokes]

Take a look at:

www.retroblast.com  and   www.oscarcontrols.com for some good reviews and comparisons of various arcade related products.  That will answer most of your questions right there.

While you're at Oscar's website check out his spinners.  He and www.slikstik.com make the best spinners.

www.happcontrols.com is one stop shopping for all your joystick, trackball and button needs, but http://www.therealbobroberts.com carries most of the stuff at significantly lower prices.  Bob carries authentic Happ product so don't worry about quality.

For Joystick/trackball/spinner interfaces check out www.ultimarc.com.  Andy's got everything you need.  Keep in mind that you don't need a separate interface for a slikstik spinner as it comes USB ready, and Oscar also has his own methods of interfacing his spinners if you don't want to spend the money for an Optipac from Andy at Ultimarc.  A somewhat less expensive alternative to Andy's keyboard encoders is Randy's Keywiz.  It can be found at http://www.groovygamegear.com .   Both Andy and Randy have a selection of other arcade parts available as well, joysticks, buttons, trackballs and what have you, and it is safe to expect them to be good quality stuff.

Act-Labs seems to make the most accurate and versatile light guns currently on the market, but they look like ray guns and feel a bit light and flimsy.  Most people would agree, though, that despite their shortcomings they don't have any serious competition at this point.

If you're looking for a 270 wheel (it only spins so far in each direction) which would be for any current PC racing game on the market and classics like outrun, spyhunter, cruisin series, etc. my personal favorite is the Logitech MOMO force feedback wheel.  It's the one with the red base and a MOMO designed, real leather-wrapped steering wheel (it does not have a built in gear shifter -- that's another, inferior wheel in their product line).  Act Labs also makes some really nice 270 degree racing stuff (including a pedal set with a clutch and and an awesome stick shift that can be integrated into any 270 wheel/pedal setup, regardless of manufacturer).  There are also 360 wheels (spins and spins indefinitely in either direction) for games like Pole Position, Off Road and Super Sprint.  All games that use 360 wheels are classics, you'll probably never see another game ever made that uses one.  Some of these 360 wheel games play pretty acceptably with a spinner.  If you want to go the 360 wheel route your best bet is to just get a wheel from an old arcade game and and interface it with an Optipac from Ultimarc.  If it doesn't come with a working optical encoder wheel and board you'll have to get that too or do a mouse hack or something.  It's a little work, but the parts are by no means difficult to obtain and anyone can do it with a little research and elbow grease.

Buttons?  Happ Horrizontal, concave pushbuttons are the way to go.  A very small minority of people prefer leaf switch buttons, especially for authenticiy if they are doing a restoration project as most of the old classics used buttons with leaf switches.  For multi-game mame cabinets, though, just go with microswitch buttons.  They are extremely easy to come by, and almost never need maintainance -- neither of which can be said of leaf switch buttons.  An even smaller minority of people prefer the Happ Competition style (still microswitch) buttons that are convex rather than concave.  Don't even bother.  If you grew up playing arcade games, chances are your senses will be offended by this type of button.

Lastly, www.gamecab.com just made a new Starwars Yoke replica, but I think they are in short supply at the moment.  They're pretty pricy, but there are no comprimises.  You can also try to find an original, but good luck.  Finding one on Ebay is practically an impossibility, and all the alternatives, like Twisty-grips, or flight yokes made for games like MS Flight Simulator are not really acceptable.  Just do without until you can afford one of Charlies replicas at www.gamecab.com .

Phew....that was long.

Good luck on your project!



Edit: fixed Bob Roberts URL

[paigeoliver]

Joysticks?
Wico used to make the best ones. Look for their old balltop sticks. Both the leaf switch and microswitch varietys are quite nice. They use a rubber centering grommet that simply has a better feel than any spring based stick. Pick the leaf switch variety if you like older (pre 90) games, or pick the microswitch variety if you prefer newer games.

Buttons?
I USED to think that it didn't really matter much, but lately I have begun to prefer old leaf switch buttons. You can press them faster and they don't click. I am pretty sure they still make these, and if not, then NOS ones are common.

Guns?
No clue, not spending any money in this area until someone makes one that actually works, and actually looks like an arcade gun.

Yokes?
Atari. They came in Star Wars, Return of the Jedi, Hydra and STUN Runner.

Spinners?
Original Sega ones, and Oscarcontrols ones, and slikstick ones are all great. Avoid "arkanoid spinners" as they suck big time.

Trackballs?
The Atari design in the industry standard. Which is what happcontrols.com mostly sells anway.

Flight Sticks?
You don't really have a lot of choice here, few options, happs sells them, and they cost A LOT of money. I do like the ones Sega uses though, as used on their newer deluxe analog games.

Steering Wheels?
270 wheel. I have always like Sega wheels.
360 wheels. Taito ones, used in Chase HQ, SCI, and Super Chase (perhaps others).

Pedals?
Doesn't matter.