Ultimates VS Supers

[GGKoul (Gus)]

During my review of many MAME sites to get ideas regarding my on cabinet that I'm making...

I've been reading about people switching from ultimate other joysticks like the supers. (Yes I read Oscar's review)

But here's my problem... I building a 4 player panel and I'm basing it on the old Gauntlet style panel. (Each player is a different colour and the panel is broken up in to four different colours)  So I have 4 ultimates in different colours so they match my planned panel artwork colour  scheme.  

BUT, since people have rated the ultimates poorly when compared to supers.  I have a question... Do I stay with the ultimate as they match my colour scheme and lose some performance... or do I switch to Supers, and gain on performance and game play, but I lose that
unique colour scheme.

So any input you can provide this matter would be great.

Thanks
-GGKoul

[JustMichael]

It doesn't matter what other people think of them.  The real question is "Do you like them?".  If you do, keep them.  If they feel too loose, would a heavier spring make them feel proper?  Also what about the competition joysticks?  I believe they come are available in the same colors.

[aramis]

Why did you not consider the Competitions? For some reason, people tend to ignore them, when I think they are one of the best sticks out there.

IMHO, the Competitions kick the tar out of the Ultimates. And, I also believe they have a slightly heavier spring in them than the stock Ultimates, but don't quote me on that. Since I play a lot of fighting games, I reasoned that the extra variable of the leaf on the Supers would lead to problems, so I didn't even consider those.

The Competitions are available in Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, and Black.

[hyiu]

Hi there... I'm new to this and I've also read a lot and just finished a couple of joysticks.  I would like to say my $0.02 cents of personal opinions on the joysticks and hope it would help.

I've not used Ultimates joysticks (from Happs) because from what I read, their rating is not as good as "super" and "competition".  So, on the 2 joysticks that I build, I tried both the Super and the Competition joysticks from Happs and my feeling is as follows:

Super Joystick - the stick (the shaft itself) is shorter, and moving the joystick in a circular motion will give you a REAL circle motion.

Competition joystick - the shaft is longer (sticking out more).  if you move the joystick in a circular motion, you do not get a real circle motion (but a little "square-ish").
From what I see, this is the biggest difference.

If you're playing like Zangieff from Street fighter and needs to do 360 degree moves, then I think you might get better feel on a super joystick.

But for me, it doesn't work to my advantage.... (at least so far...) because I don't need to do much 360 degree moves... but on the other hand, when I need to block (down + right), sometimes, if I don't hit the angle right, I end up just going down and still got hit.... (well... you might get used to it and frankly, I like video games but I'm no expert in playing... heee heee....)

The Competition joystick, when you rotate in circular motion, you'll get a little bit of a "square" feel... you can feel you're hitting a diagonal (that is because in the base, you have that square thing that is hitting the microswitch.  I do use it to do fireballs and stuffs (half circle and quarter circle motion) and it still feels ok.

Also, the shaft is longer which means it sticks out more.  I like that because I use 3/4 inch plywood and also, on top of it, I have a thin piece of laxen as protective cover... so my thing is thick....

up to my knowledge, Happs do sell Competition in different colors and they have 2 springs (standard & heavy duty) to control how strong the stick is going to bounce back....
(I've placed an order on the Heavy Duty Spring, but I have not try it yet - and I have not seen what the other colors looked like myself.....)

anyway, my personal opinion is I do like the Competition joystick more than the Super.

(Oh.... 1 last thing.... Competition is a 8 way only joystick... Super is switchable 4 way or 8 way....
so, that can also make a difference in decision....)

Hope it helps...

- Henry.

[Zapper]

The Ultimates are not that bad, I used the Supers for quite a while then switched to Ultimates because I like the looseness and being able to feel the corners. I think most people who like the Supers use them for everything, they do work much better for classic games than an Ultimate in my opinion. I tried a heavier spring in an Ultimate once but it seemed to feel too stiff. Bob Roberts might still have heavy springs for sale in his clearance section if you want to try them. I prefer the Wico leaf style joystick for classic games and stick with the Ultimates for fighting games but I might try a Competition one of these days and see how well they work.

[lakkdainen]

I have both ultimates and supers.  The supers are stiffer and have a nice circular motion which  makes for a much better feel for games such as Mortal Kombat where you have to do precise moves.  Fighting games aside though, I think the ultimate is very good.

Bottom line, if you already have the color coded ultimates, I'd stay with them.  NBA Jam, gauntlet, etc will feel great on those.  Supers do give a slightly better feel for fighters, but I don't get the feeling that it is a priority to you.

[scott]

The supers are by far the superior product especially for street fighter type fighting games.  

You see the ultimates is really an 4-way joystick that can be converted 8-way but in doing so, the actuator is square and as you know, thus the diagnols get stuck a lot.

The supers is meant to be an 8 way joystick and the actuator is a circle and hits all the points evenly.  

Trust me I had the ultimates simply because i didn't know better and the controls for SF sucked.  My friend said to switch to supers and it made everything perfect.