Did I choose the wrong Joystick for fighting games??

[Postalp]

Hello all, My 1st post!  

I was always into Emulation and finally got inspired to build a MAME cabby (Primarily for fighting games)

Everything is going according to plan (Thanks to Lucid's Plans) so far structurally.

But I just wired up my CP temporarily with a hacked Microsoft Sidewinder joypad (Planning on an I-Pac2 ultimately).

Honestly, I am disappointed with the Happs Competition Joysticks I got. They can barely hit the diagonals, thought it was my soldering job or the Thick CP panel (3/4") but both are fine, the joystick's range of motion clears the hole. I can't pull off a mere Fireball/Dragon Punch for the life of me!!!

Help! The main reason for the Cabinet is Fighting Games and these Joysticks dont seem to cut it.

My questions are:

Is it the Sidewinder interface that isn't working properly?

Is their some kind of modification I can do to the sticks?

Or maybe break them in?

Or do I need to just find another type of Joystick better suited for Fighting Games (Like a Perfect 360)?

Thanks in advance!!

[Goz]

I'm not a fan of the competition joysticks myself, but I do like them better than the ultimates. Oscar did a great comparison write up Here

I personally like the tstick plus' and wico 8ways (yeah they are totally different from each other), but thats just a matter of preference.

Hope the link helps.

-Goz

[exian]

I have the Tstick Plus' on my CP and have been doing some testing with Fighting Games and IMHO they are great...

[Sylentwulf]

I got the Super's myself, and they seem to be perfect. I was expecting you to say you got the ultimates, which are by FAR the worse.

[RayB]

Could the actuator be on upside down? Could that other little white plastic part on the TOP be upside down?

Mainly, does it FEEL like you can move the joy in a CIRCLE, or does it feel more like a SQUARE? I think that would make all the difference...

[8bit]

Is there a possibility he/she got bad sticks sent to em?

[whammoed]

I have competition sticks and the diagonals seem very easy to hit due to the square actuators.  I thought this was the point for that design?  Don't know why you are having trouble.

[Tiger-Heli]

Could the actuator be on upside down? Could that other little white plastic part on the TOP be upside down?

Mainly, does it FEEL like you can move the joy in a CIRCLE, or does it feel more like a SQUARE? I think that would make all the difference...

I thought only Supers had the actuators you could flip. . . But as previously stated, I thought the square actuator was supposed to make the Comps better for diagonals.  And I don't play fighters so I can't be much more help.

[monkeybomb]

I play primarily fighters and I really like the perftect 360s.  I have a set of supers that are good too but realize that they have a circular feel to them.  I am also suprised that you can't hit the diagonals with the competitions.

[NoOne=NBA=]

Can you post some pics of the installation.
That might help determine why you can't hit the diagonals.
My comps did almost nothing BUT hit the diagonals, so something is not right.

Does the stick move easily?
Does it have a square actuator on the bottom of it?

[Postalp]

Okay,

I just wired up 2P side with another hacked joypad (Pro Pad) and it works Great! Throwing my 15+ hit combos in MvsC with ease.

Now that I've tried both the Competition Sticks, the 1P side won't hit diagonals unless you really hold it there (sweeping motions like fireball arent recognizing the diagonal) but the 2P side (Also a Happs Comp stick) performs beautifully!

So that narrows it down to 2 things possibly:

Either the Microsoft Sidewinder Pad I hacked isnt used to diag controls.
or
I got a defective stick.

Thoughts?

So far your input has been great, thanks and keep up the good work.

[Lilwolf]

sounds like a mechanical problem.

Take your control panel apart... and rotate player 1 and player 2 joysticks in circles while looking at the bottom.

you should see a difference.  

If you have one bad one... consider swapping them... and then telling your friends when they come over that you 'always play player 1'... and you will almost ALWAYS win!

but really... goto happcontrols.com and search joystick \ compitition \ expand view... and you will see how it works... you might only need to take the player one joystick apart and put it back together and get it working.

[Lilwolf]

Testing loading image from tmp directory

[NoOne=NBA=]

If I'm understanding you here, the stick itself will hit the diagonals easily; but you are not getting a signal to the computer when the diagonals are hit?

Is this true on ALL the diagonals, or only a certain one?

If it is ALL of them, you should probably try hacking a different controller.
If it is only one, then I would try to isolate it to the switch, or the hack, by wire swapping the joystick switches around.

[BULL]

Try connecting your P1 stick to your P2 hack and see if it works ok, if it does - your P1 hack is defekt, if it doesn