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Hot Rod SE vs. X-Arcade (Opinions Needed)
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Scott84:
Hello all,

I have finally have enough extra cash to purchase one of these bad boys. It all comes down to you guys to help me decide  ;D

Ideally, i want an arcade controller that can best authenticate the feel of an arcade for my home computer. Im looking for a controller that will re-create the exact control experience in the arcade for the following games (note these games are the games i would play the most)

Street Fighter
Mortal Kombat
Donkey Kong
Double Dragon
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Simpsons Arcade Game
Pac Man

Basically a joystick that can handle complex fighting games (ala street fighter) extremely well, but also can give a nice control to the less complex fighters (ala double dragon)....

I would also love to have good control for the classics like Pacman, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Etc... I know 4ways and 8 ways can be problems.

But between the Hot Rod and the Xarcade which would you reccomend. Please note that X Arcades functionality of playing other systems has no desire from me. Im looking for a MAME Arcade Controller for my computer. One that is easy to hook up and play. The less configuration work, the better.

Does either work without configuration changes? As in, i set it to HOT ROD in mame, and games like street fighter would properly have the right controls just like the arcade? (you know the kicks on the bottom, the punches on the top, what ever it was)...?

Any help from you guys would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Alot,

- Scott84
paigeoliver:
Hot Rod uses better quality components than X-Arcade.

Neither one will play Pac-Man or Donkey Kong very well at all.

I don't know the answer to your configuration question, but REALLY, it only takes a minute in mame to tab out of a game and change your default configs.
Minwah:
Both are very quick to setup, and both are very similar in design so will play most of the games you want very well.  As paige said 4-way games are not what these sticks do best  :-\

Note HotRod uses Happ Supers and X-Arcade use a cheaper but similar alternative.  Personally I went for a HotRod, before I built my own :)
Truz:
well i have an x-arcade and i can vouch for the quality of this thing, but playing older 4 way games on this thing is not as good or precise as if you were using an actual 4 way stick.

That being said buying one of these will only make your frothing demand for an actual cabinet/better cp grow tremendously. I am so wanting a Mame cab of my own and am actually in the market looking for a cab right now.
Chemixtry:
As soon as I discovered MAME I wanted a joystick to start playing. I opted for the HotrodSE because it was only $99 for a two-player setup ($50) cheeper than X-arcade. It plays all the fighters great! ;D All you have to do in mame is change the line in the mame.ini file to say ctrlr hotrodse. It takes all of 5 seconds.  It is well built and doesn't move around even during gameplay. I am planning to build my own control panel but this has definately kept me happy in the meantime. I don't know why everyone complains about 4-way games with an 8-way joystick. They work fine for me. The guy at Retroblast has a video review of the two joysticks that you might find helpful
http://www.retroblast.com/video.html
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