Replace 8-way Joys with 49-ways?

[Rocky]

Would any of you recommend using 49-way joysticks on your main 2 player panel.

They are "seen" by MAME as an analog Joystick through the SJC USB controller.

I originally was going to make a new CP for my cabinet. Then I thought... why not just swap out the microswitch joys on my main CP for these!?

Any recommendations?

[Minwah]

I like my Happ 49-way for numerous 8-way games.  The only games I am not sure about is fighters (SF2 etc.) - I think it might be a bit harder to pull off some of the moves, but I have not yet done any serious testing in these games.

In all honesty even though they are great, at this point I wouldn't replace my 8-ways with 49-ways, FWIW.

[Rocky]

Thanks for the advice. The more I think about it, I'm going to build a new panel for the 49-ways

[Silver]

How do 49-ways perform when used for 100% analogue joystick games?

I am debating whether to include an analogue joystick (just a pc one) or a trigger/topfire..... but could consider 49-ways if they work well too.

any feedback on how they fare?

[Minwah]

How do 49-ways perform when used for 100% analogue joystick games?

Very well on the whole.  Best thing I have used for these games bar a real arcade analog stick (which are hard to find).

[Ben]

Would it be possible to double wire a 49-way using Dave's SJC board? Basically, using both the analog connectors and the buttons on the board for a 'digital' 49 way (similar to what is shown on Urebelscum's page.)?

I'd be curious to know how the 49-way played using his ctrlr ini files. Espscially for Tron and whether the 4 way feel was just as bad as normally trying to play a 4 way game on an 8 way.

Ben

[NoOne=NBA=]

My guess would be that the digital 49-way would make a better 4-way than an 8-way stick.

My reasoning here is that you could set the 49-way to read only the extreme positions on the stick, so a position of x=2/y=3 would yield the same UP signal that x=0 and x=1 do.
You would still be able to hit the diagonal, but only in the exact diagonal area x=3/y=3.

The problem that 8-ways have with playing 4-way games is that they trigger the diagonal too close to center.
You can play 4-ways with a worn out restrictor (worn to a circle like the 8-way) because the switches sit farther away from the actuator on the 4-way than they do on a properly adjusted 8-way.
Also, the actuator is smaller on the 4-way.
If you bend the leafswitches on an 8-way away from the actuator, it will perform better on 4-way games because it gets harder to trigger the diagonals.
If you bend the leafswitches AND replace the actuator, it becomes even harder to hit the diagonals.

That is why the Tron sticks are able to do the 4-way/8-way thing.
They have the diagonal restrictor that guides them away from the diagonals, but the leafswitches are close enough that they will allow 8-way in the sweet spot.

[NoOne=NBA=]

As far as double-wiring them goes, you would need a cut-off switch to choose between the two modes.
You'd have to check with Dave to see if this could be a hot-swap switch though.
For safety, I would probably unplug the USB cable, THEN flip the switch, then plug the USB cable back in.

[spidermonkey]

I recently picked up a SJC from Dave to wire up at least one of my Arch Rival sticks. I'll post my results as well. I'm pretty sure Dave said that you'll need to tell him if you plan on using two 49-way sticks at the same time so he can send a pair of SJC interfaces that won't interfere with each other so I guess that means you have to buy two. I'd check with Dave as I could be completely wrong on this.

[Rocky]

Dave's SJC board will only work with one 49-way stick at a time. If you want to use 2 or more, you need an interface board with each one.

[Harry Potter]

How do 49-ways perform when used for 100% analogue joystick games?

Very well on the whole.  Best thing I have used for these games bar a real arcade analog stick (which are hard to find).

You can get nice analogue joysticks from Happs but the prices are high. The 49 way joystick is extremely cheap by comparison.

[Ben]

Has anyone tried some of the Sega analog games (like Afterburner or Space Harrier) with a 49 way?

Ben

[Minwah]

Has anyone tried some of the Sega analog games (like Afterburner or Space Harrier) with a 49 way?

Yes.  It seems to be a bit low-resolution for these two.  Not a big problem in Space Harrier but in After Burner I seemed to have difficulty aiming at enemies because of this.  Still did better than ever before on it tho...

Quite similar in a way to how Star Wars / ESB are (hard to aim totally accurately), but I would say not as bad as these two.