Anybody have experience with Happ Grip Assemblies?

[thennomeking]

Ive been out of the build it yourself game for some time so please bear with me.  Truncated version at the bottom:

When goofing off with a friend of mine a couple days ago, we were playing Godzilla: Kaijuu Daikessen (its a Super Nintendo game where the infamous Kanji series has been implemented into the Super Street Fighter 2 engine - very limited Japanese run).  Well when we were taking a break, still in the crazy Japanese fighter mood, when he asked “do you still have Virtual On?” 

Long ago I had planned on buying another Saturn, a link cable, and two twinstick sets – because that is the only way to play it.  But alas all I had was the game.  We gave it a whirl but with the controller it just was not the same.  Then I remembered I had the pc version somewhere.  We found it, made it work on my shuttle pc, and found to our delight that it would recognize two joysticks per player, and joy2key would fix any other problems.  So I hooked up a couple mame control sets, just to see how the competition sticks would work even if we had to wing the buttons.  Well after several hours of gameplay we decided that we, meaning I, need to rectify the problem.  It worked but it was sloppy and we looked fairly ridiculous swinging our pinkies to hit the buttons.

So many hours of search at nearby shops later, I could find only one (1) flight stick.  Kinda sad that in my section of Atlanta only one place had a joystick and it was Walmart…  I really did not want to have to go this way, but it looks like I am at a bit of a wall, a quandary if you will.  I have five ideas for rectifying this:
1. I can drop several hundred to get four quality usb flightsticks (either all ambi or two for each hand)
2. I can purchase four top fire joysticks: Happ number 50-7008-00
3. Use normal competition joysticks and wire up a microbutton per joystick to hold in their hands while they play – it sounds uncomfortable but we use to do it with Battlezone.  It works and is cheap, just not ideal.
4. Purchase Saturn/Dreamcast twinsticks and modify them – which I don’t know if I can bring myself to do.
5. Utilize those devices mentioned in the topic title.
I am open to any other ideas if you have them.

My topic title was if anyone has had experience with Happ Grip Assemblies – product numbers: 50-2501-00 and 50-2502-00 or simply http://www.happcontrols.com/joysticks/50250800.htm
It seemed that these could be the most bang for the buck, seeing that I already have an interface.  But after a bit of searching, both on the site and google, I could only find the product page, Bob Robert’s product page, a write up of a Spyhunter II world record attempt where they used one, and a couple old post on here (mostly about Tron controls – which I also thought of but decided against).

I should mention that I am planning on a wood mount and they will be in just a control panel.  Portability/Ability to hide from the family and friends is a paramount.  Cant let the girlfriend no Ive been wasting all that time in the home office on arcade controls instead of real work.



So the summary:
In short, I am attempting to make two sets of twinsticks for use with a pc.  I am open to other opinions on how it should be done, but I am curious to if anyone has ever used the Happ Grip Assemblies?  For what I can tell they look to be right for what I am looking for, but I do have some questions about them.

Any and all help on this will be vastly appreciated.  Thank you for your time.


Postscript/links:
Happ Grip Assemblies:
http://www.happcontrols.com/joysticks/50250800.htm
Virtual On  In-Game Controls:
http://members.tripod.com/~BeLgDor/cybertroopers/BM.html
Twinsticks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Virtual-On_controls.JPG
Do note that the game requires three buttons, one per stick and a turbo, but in the picture there are five, two per stick and the turbo.  Well I cant really tell you the answer to why its that way on that one, but all I need is one per stick, Ive got foot pedals lined up for the turbo move.


Ammenduem:
Hachi Machi that got long – hows that for a first post after forgetting my old login…

[ahofle]

I'm afraid I can't help you, but I always thought that the very grip assemblies you mentioned there, somehow fitted onto two Ultimarc U360 joysticks would be the ultimate tank/flight stick combo.  You could dynamically cycle between 2/4/8 way mode for the tank games (battlezone, vindicators, assault, etc), analog for flight games (afterburner) and games like food fight and road runner, and maybe even use it as a tron stick (if someone makes a tron mapping for it).  You'd have to figure out a way to get the button wiring under the panel, not to mention attaching the grips to the stick itself (new hollow shaft maybe?).  If I were more capable I would attempt to do this.  Please post here and let us know what you end up doing, especially if it involves the Happ grips.

[thennomeking]

Thanks for the support.

I did not think about building them that way, that would be awesome.  Though I believe I may just take the bullet and see if I can build a set ontop of normal sticks first, test the water and every thing you know.  Then if it works, that idea would not be far off from being an awesome reality.