ideal 8-way

[hanelyp]

Been thinking about the ideal 8-way joystick.  Should have:

- 8 equal sectors surrounding center.  The classic 3x3 square array of positions is less than I'd like.

- no mechanical glitching in make or break of diagonals.  When it moves into and out of a diagonal it should not produce a momentary cardinal direction indication.

- mechanical feedback of clean direction vs. somewhere in between.  It's annoying when 'holding' a direction for the direction to drift.  Not too much a problem on better joysticks/pads, but the one on my pocket computer is horrid.
  - shouldn't, of course, fight you on deliberate changes in direction.

- positive feel, rather than mushy.

Any joysticks out there that reasonably approximate this for a resonable price?  Or should I unleash the inventors gene and build one?

[NoOne=NBA=]

A sanwa with an octagonal restrictor is probably about the closest you will get to that.
It has the equal sectors, and mechanical feedback for holding all eight directions.

The only one of your criteria it does not meet is the "momentary cardinal" one.
The only way for a stick to meet that criteria it would have to have eight separate gates that would guide the stick true all the way from center to the desired position and back.
That would prevent you from moving from one direction to another without going all the way back to center though.

The 3x3 array is what makes the joystick an 8-way.
If you have more detectable positions than that, you don't have an 8-way.

[Searcher7]

Been thinking about the ideal 8-way joystick.  Should have:

- 8 equal sectors surrounding center.  The classic 3x3 square array of positions is less than I'd like.

- no mechanical glitching in make or break of diagonals.  When it moves into and out of a diagonal it should not produce a momentary cardinal direction indication.

- mechanical feedback of clean direction vs. somewhere in between.  It's annoying when 'holding' a direction for the direction to drift.  Not too much a problem on better joysticks/pads, but the one on my pocket computer is horrid.
  - shouldn't, of course, fight you on deliberate changes in direction.

- positive feel, rather than mushy.

Any joysticks out there that reasonably approximate this for a resonable price?  Or should I unleash the inventors gene and build one?

I just wanted to point out that drift would only be a problem for the less coordinated players. 

An octagonal restrictor is a prerequisite for what you want, but I'd also like to say that no drift and no resistance to deliberate changes in a single joystick tend not to play well together. 

Darren

[RobotronNut]

there really aren't that many parameters that determine the performance of a joystick:

• the shape of the mechanical restriction (square, round, 4-way diamond, octagon)
• how much angle it travels through before it engages (= size of central "dead zone")
• how much angle it travels through before it hits a mechanical restriction
• the mechanical "resistance" curve defined by the spring, grommet, or spider
• the length of the shaft from its pivot point
• whether or not there are "clicks" when the stick engages (as with microswitches)
• others??

since we're talking "ideal" here: the ideal stick would allow infinite adjustment of all these parameters, so each person could make the stick EXACTLY what they wanted.

if you consider all the time and money many of us spend discussing and trying different sticks and modifying and tweaking sticks, you probably could get a decent price for "one stick that does it all."

of course, it would have to be well-built, allow repeatable adjustments that don't drift over time, and be shipped with good default settings for novices.

bonus points for enabling all these parameters to be adjusted under software control, so that you could tune the stick for different classes of games...

[Havok]

Well, the new ultimarc stick should come close...

[RobotronNut]

Well, the new ultimarc stick should come close...

yes, the ultrastick 360 does allow for some adjustment in most of these dimensions! for most of them, it's "choose A or B," not infinite adjustability, but even that already puts it far ahead of the competition in customizability.

i think if they went from "choose A or B" to "choose A, B, C, D, or E" for everything, their product would be asymptotically approaching perfection! it would also be cheaper and more reliable than something that was truly infinitely adjustable.

for the moment, i'm in love with my heavily customized happ p360's (kowal mod, lighter springs from supers, and wico universal red balltops adjusted to the perfect height - see the website in my sig for details). when i get the urge to tinker, i may try the ultrastick and see how it compares.

[Kremmit]

Such a thing could be built for a premium, but affordable price if the manufacturer was going to be able to sell thousands of units.  Sadly, there just ain't that many hardcore joystick geeks out there.  I'd imagine the immediate market for such a device would number in the tens of tens.