How long before a joystick gets shiny/smooth?

[blueoakleyz]

Or another question is "how much use", which would probably be more accurate.

I never realized this until I got into controllers, but for most of my arcade life (in heavily played arcades) I only saw arcade joysticks that were worn from play that they were shiny/smooth and basically lost the orange peel/soft grit feeling of new joysticks..

[paigeoliver]

No, no, no, no. Some are shiny smooth and some are orange peel. An orange peel one might eventually get shiny spots, but is is never going to just morph into a shiny one from wear.

Also you'll probably never wear a new joystick out in home use, although you MIGHT break one if you are using asian ones, as some of those are really flimsy (not so much the Asian ones I se resold in the US as the Asian ones I see already installed on imported cabinets). Its easy to tell an Asian cabinet, $800 monitor and 80 cent joystick!  

[Gunstar Hero]

(laughs) Uhhh... it depends on how much you handle it.  

[Hoagie_one]

you could put it in a drill and buff it with some soft cotton or something.

[daywane]

No, no, no, no. Some are shiny smooth and some are orange peel. An orange peel one might eventually get shiny spots, but is is never going to just morph into a shiny one from wear.

Also you'll probably never wear a new joystick out in home use, although you MIGHT break one if you are using asian ones, as some of those are really flimsy (not so much the Asian ones I se resold in the US as the Asian ones I see already installed on imported cabinets). Its easy to tell an Asian cabinet, $800 monitor and 80 cent joystick!  

man you do know the ins and outs  
I also have noticed that Asian arcades need to be beefed up. Aladins castle always sent me there Asian arcades and I would beef them up before I put them out on the floor or I would be fix and repair daily. I just figure we Americans are just rough on arcades. One takes a .25 and its going to get $1.00 beating

[blueoakleyz]

lmao at the 800/.80cent

so they actually sold SHINY/SMOOTH joysticks?
I've seen a pic of a Ms. Pac-Man reunion 4way, does that have the new joystick/grit to it or is it already smooth?
I remember in arcades pacman was smooth

[Apollo]

The MsPac/Galag reunion stick has a textured finish i.e. not smooth.

[blueoakleyz]

that's what I was thinking
and I like the textured but all the old pacman games I played in arcades had a smooth one, I'm pretty sure it just wore off kinda like how a game controller for a video game system will wear down from oils etc

[pointdablame]

No, they definitely didn't wear down to a smooth finish.  There is no way it would ever wear down in that uniform a way.....think about it, why would the underside of balltop be as worn as the sides, and the sides be exactly as worn as the top, etc.

[RayB]

You might want to polish your knob.

[blueoakleyz]

So who sells these smooth bat shaped joysticks?
Were they common at all on any arcade machines?