4 Way Stick in Wooden Panel ?

[webby]

Ok,

I've had a look at what Happ and Suzo offer in the way of joysticks and I've already got some 8 way sticks (went with suzo because they were dirt cheap and got good reviews, seem fine to me). I now want to get a dedicated 4 way stick for pac-man and the like. I had a look at what was on offer again and this time I haven't a clue what to go for. The pac-man like sticks that both companies offer seem fine but a little short. Any observations, opinions ?

I was wondering in the happ universal joystick would fit the bill ?

[Lilwolf]

No... don't go for a super (think it's the only happs one) that can convert between 4way and 8way.  They kinda suck and you can get the functionality out of mame with the setup of up notleft notright, left notup notdown...  

Go with either a true 4 way or the oscar plates.

I'm happy with my wico leaf 4way that I got for 10 bucks.  But finding them are harder and harder.  

but with the optional plates from oscar, the plates are really cool.  4way plate, QBert plate, 2way plates without changing the amount of space!

I'm actually considering adding a super (for round corner games like timepilor) and the plates at some point.

[Dan]

I've installed a 4-way Wico joystick in a 3/4" wood panel and it works great!  It is lower than the 8-way joysticks, but that's how I remember the old-school joysticks to be.

Dan

[Steve]

Hi,

Quick question?  You had mentioned that you can get the 4 way funstionality from mame in games like Mspacman?  I've been trying to figure out where you would enter the upnodown leftnotup etc.  Are you editing the mame config file, or are you entering it in the joystick setup within mame, while you're running the game?  I'm running Dos mame 57.


Thanks!

[Lilwolf]

left up up down down (I think) to get left no up no down.

but remember.  4ways are used for 2 reasons

1) to get rid of diagonals since many games don't know what to do with a diagonal (frogger is one of the worse in my mind.  it seems to make up what to do)

this is fixed with the up not left not right since it wont send the signal at all

2) get rid of the diagonal dead zones.  IE, you think your going up, but you are really going diagonal so nothing is sent.  This really sucks.  

btw, with the up noleft noright setup, I ended up rather playing with a keyboard then on my cabinet.  to many times it just doesn't act right.

[1UP]

The best thing is to get a real 4-way, not an 8-way with a 4-way conversion.  Happs Ms. Pac-Man replacement stick is pretty good.  It's basically a Happ Super with a different stick and a diamond-shaped hole in the base to restrict it from hitting diagonals.  If the stick is too short, you can either: A) cut and router down into your panel so the stick is flush with the panel, then cover the panel with an overlay to hide the hardware (this is what I did); B) replace the actual stick with one from a Happ Super, which will be long enough to go through a 3/4" panel (if you can find someone who will sell you a stick by itself--http://www.therealbobroberts.com might have the replacement parts; or C) construct a metal control panel, which will be thin enough to accept the shorter stick.

Good luck.