how to make Happ Ultimate joystick 4-way?

[melarky]

Hello,

I picked up a couple of Happs Ultimate joysticks a while back for some future projects, well last night I finally got around to sticking them in one of my projects, and I can't seem to be able to stick them in 4-way mode.

The little paper that came with them shows a round 4-way actuator, but I think I only have the square 8-way actuator.  Does anyone know a way to make this 4 way still (is there some sort of plastic ring that I could substitute or any other way of making this 4-way?).

Any help is appreciated.

[paigeoliver]

Let me save you some trouble. It sucks in 4-way mode. The big 3 happ's sticks all have terrible 4-way modes suited only for Puzzle games like tetris, and not for classic games like Pac-Man or Dig Dug.

If you need a switchable stick then your gonna have to look at some of the asian sticks or the Happ "Universal" stick.

[melarky]

well, I'm using this stick for the classics (like pac-man), in a dedicated classics cab.  Would you say that the Ultimate stick works better for these old classic games in 8-way rather than 4-way (I know you are saying they suck, but I bought them and don't want them to go to waste, the cab is for my brother in law who doesn't want anything big, he doesn't play much and just wants something for his kids mostly, so the cheap ultimate stick seemed a good solution for this situation, but I am not sure whether it is now worth trying to put it in 4 way mode from what you said, maybe I should just leave it in 8-way.  Any suggestions on that?)

[RayB]

What he's saying is that the stick itself isn't suited for 4-way games. The reason for this is the "hole" at the top is round. A true 4-way has a diamond shaped hole. This lets you slide the stick from LEFT to UP in a straight swift movement without getting caught in the corners.

[NoOne=NBA=]

You're never going to get a TRUE 4-way feel out of them, so I would probably leave them set up so that they do 8-way well.
That increases the number of games you can play, and you can always do a stick swap down the road (relatively cheaply too) if it's an issue for him.

The diamond shaped hole mentioned above should PREVENT the stick from ever hitting two directions at once.
Swapping the actuators on the Happ's sticks only makes it HARDER to hit two directions, it doesn't actually PREVENT it.

Basically, by swapping the actuator, you make the stick work worse as an 8-way, without making it work WELL as a 4-way.

[Khoumic]

I'm not sure anyone actually responded to the question "how to make Happ Ultimate joystick 4-way?"

I'm on my second project (first post, since almost all my questions where answered via search), so since I just converted Ultimates from 8-way to 4-way I thought I could answer the question.

First your going to need to buy a couple parts from Happ:

1) 4-way Actuator (2) - Happ code: 95-1307-00
2) 4-way Bracket (2) - Happ code: 95-1314-00
3) Flat Washer (2) - Happ code: 43-0057-00

Now once you replace the old actuator, old bracket, and install the washer you will not get true 4-way feel, but this does make it impossible to accidentally hit diagonals. Actually in my experience its sometimes hard to even hit all the 4-way directions without a little tweaking of the actuator (seems a little small).

So even though this is an old post, I hope this helps any future conversions.

[mytymaus007]

This is your best bet for 4 way especially for speed up pacman,  Other wise you'll need to get an original pacman midway stick which you can find but hard to come by. IMO there in no substitute for the original pacman stick (Leaf switch)

http://cgi.ebay.com/HAPP-MS-PAC-MAN-ARCADE-BALL-TOP-JOYSTICK-JAMMA-MAME-TM_W0QQitemZ260470226771QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ca53c3f53&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

[Ginsu Victim]

Also available here:
http://www.tornadoterrys.com/surplus.htm

We gave one away during the BYOAC High Score Competition #14 - Ms Pac-man (speed up)
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=90149.0

I own one and it's excellent.

[Malenko]

or you can get a 4way restrictor plate or just a diamond shaped whole in the CP