I took the generally good advice, and installed a 4 way joystick on my control panel in addition to my 8 way supers. Before I got things fully hooked up, I was testing things out with one of my supers..
Anyways, I found out out that it is indeed difficult to play pacman etc with a 8way enabled super. However it is not impossible. In fact, after a little time with it, I didn't hardly notice it. My hand finally got the hang of it, it just takes a little practice. Soon after, I was doing just as well with my 8 way on Pacman as I did with the 4 way.. granted you still have to make sure that you hit exaclty the direction you want to go.. you just have to get the hang of it.
The strangest part about it is, I actually think that practicing on the 8way has improved my game! The 8 way will teach you to be much more precise.
If I were to do the control panel over, and I did not want to make an emphasis on the 4 way games but still might want to play them every once in a while, I might just stick with the 8 way supers. If however, you want to play the 4ways a lot... nothing beats a good 4 way.