Ultimarc T-stik and E-stik

[marcopolo]

Has anyone used the E-Stik, J-Stik, or T-Stik joysticks from Ultimarc?  From the data on their site (http://www.ultimarc.com/controls.html)  they seem to have the best 4 / 8 way switchable solution.   The biggest problem with Happs Super's are that they are not great for 4 way games, you can easily get stuck in the diaginals.  Looks like these joysticks solve that problem..  and their priced right.

Anyone have any input?

[MinerAl]

I bought 2 T-sticks, and am very happy with them.  I don't have any first hand knowlegde of Happ sticks, so I can't compare them directly.   I can say that the T-stick is very nicely put together, and has the nice firm action that I prefer.  It is clicky, because of the switches not being leafy, but I've found them very responsive in both 4 and 8 way modes.

The toggle lever to switch between modes is fairly easy to manipulate if you plan your wiring around it.  If you are going to be toggling make sure you can get to the switch through your tangle of wires.

I ordered my Ipac, buttons and joysticks together so that I wouldn't have to wait, and I was very pleased with everything!

[Smack]

I've got Tsticks and Happs supers on my cab. I agree that they are VERY clicky, but work great. Much stiffer feel than the happs supers.

The T sticks are great for the old school stuff 8 way games but I don't care for them on fighters. (I'm not a big fighter game guy anyways...)

The 4 way blocking is superb on them too.

Well worth picking up. (The mounting holes are different from the happs so you wouldn't be able to just switch them out for happ sif you don't like them without redrilling.

Word.

[mikenotbob]

The biggest problem with Happs Super's are that they are not great for 4 way games, you can easily get stuck in the diaginals.  

marcopolo,
How is it that they get 'stuck' in the diagnals? I've been using my supers on 4-way games and haven't had any problems. I wonder if the sticking problem stems from a software or interface issue...

-mike

[hyiu]

I think I have wrote this on another thread...
but anyway.... here it goes again....  

I've used the Super, Competition, and J-Stick on joysticks...

now, they're all very solid and have very good feel....
but I think J-stick has the best "solid" feel....
(btw... I only tried the red ball top J-stick...)

the above 3 have the same mounting point, so, if you really want, you can switch....

Super - you can NOT feel any corners... if you move it around, its a perfect circle.  I feel this is better for 4-way games (among the 3) .... and a very good overall stick.  If you play fighter games with characters like Zangief (which requires 360 degree moves), this is the stick for you....

Competition - I think this one has the longest shaft (just by a little bit...) it has a feel like Super, but if you circle it around, Competition is not a perfect circle, you can feel the corners..... Personally, I need to feel the corner because when I'm playing like fighting games, I need to pull the stick to lower left/right for blocking....

When I'm using Super, the pblm is, I pull it to lower left, but because I did not pull to "PRECISELY" lower left, so, the joystick registered as just left or down, but not diagonal....
(it might be just my pblm....) but since I can "feel" the corner in Competition, no need to adapt and it just works for me...

J-Stick, its good and there is a rotating plate at the bottom that you can turn to switch it from 4 way to 8 way.... if you can open up your control panel easily (and have a screwdrvier), this is a good stick to use.... now... if you turn the J-stick 360 degree, J stick feels very much like a square... and plz picture this... if you start from the center point of a square and go straight up, the distance is shorter than going diagonal.... (this is kinda how I feel when I was using it as a 8 way...) when my playing gets intense and I want to push up, sometimes, I ended up pushing too hard and it went to a diagonal (which is deadly in some games...)
also, 1 more pblm is the rotating template at the bottom... I can rotate it to 8 way mode (and use my fingers to tighten the screws...), and if I play hard for like half hr or so.... if I don't screw the template tight... (using a screw driver...) the template will actually shift by itself and gradually roates to 4 way position.... (if I screw it tight... it'll be fine...) this is deadly cos first few times, I was playing fighting games, when I get to the boss... suddenly, I realize I can't do fireball... no diagonal jumps... (you know... this is suicide....)

hmmm...  as I'm typing this, may be because the template and the base of the stick is too smooth.... what if I rough it up a little with sandpaper or something.... that might cause it not to move even if I use finger to tighten it.....

but anyway, I got used to the shorter distance (u/d/l/r) after I played with it for a few days.... and once I start using a screwdriver to tighten the template, it seems fine.....

which one did I ended up using on my control panel ?? Competition.... (cos I play a lot of fighting games and this is better for me....) but I'm going to build "supplemental" sticks with J-sticks for player 3&4 also... heee hee...

hope this helps....