When did Happ Supers fall out of favor?

[Crowquill]

I was just thinking. When I first started reading up on this site back in '99 or '00, it seemed that Happ Supers were the preferred all-around stick. This is why I ordered them for my desktop project at the time. While there are now many other options, it seems that most people favor the Competitions among the Happ sticks these days. When did this change?

Personally I prefer the Competitions that came on my JAMMA cabinet, as the Supers are a bit stiff. Maybe it was that heavy, rugged feel that sucked people in.

Maybe it was Oscar's review. He also did a comparison between the Super and P360.

[Grasshopper]

I think the Supers have the edge over the Competitions as a general purpose joystick. The competitions tend to favour the diagonals too much which make them useless for 4-way games. Also the Super's handle is a nicer shape IMHO.

As to why the Supers fell out of favour, I think it's simply because there are so many other options available these days. They're still decent general purpose joysticks, and also relatively cheap and easy to get hold of. But other joysticks are better for specific games.

[NiteWalker]

I prefer competition sticks because they're great all around sticks and work extremely well with fighting games (my favorite genre). Supers I don't like because after a while the levers on the switches can bend outward. It's easily fixable but I prefer the comps because they never have that problem.

Also available in more colors.

[Kremmit]

Also available in more colors.

Supers are available in the various Happ colors now, too.

[NiteWalker]

I know, not in yellow or green though. Yellow I don't care much for but green I use.

[ahofle]

What exactly is the difference between the Ultimates and the Competitions?  They both seem to have the same actuator.  I only ask because the Ultimates totally suck for games like Gauntlet.  The joystick constantly wants to hit the diagonals -- very hard to just go up/down/left/right.  I guess maybe that's good for fighters, but sucks for most everything else.  I yanked my ultimates for supers and have been MUCH happier.

[NiteWalker]

From what I read ultimates are just poorly built. I still need to order one to try out.

[Crowquill]

Like I stated, I bought a new Super for a desktop controller. My Primal Rage JAMMA cabinet came with used Competitions, and my Neo-Geo cabinet came with used Ultimates.

The ultimates feel flimsy and unresponsive. Spring pressure is weak and the throw seems greater than the others. When you roll the stick, you definitely "hit" the corners the hardest of the three. Still pretty smooth, though.

The competitions feel tight and responsive. You can feel the corners, but the stick rolls through them nicely for fighters. I have no real complaints with them at all.

The Super I have seems a bit stiff to me. Control is responsive and you can roll through the corners nicely with the round actuator. Comparing them, I prefer the slightly smaller, smooth handles on the Competition.

[Organic Jerk]

The most definitive comparison of the three Happ joysticks (Ultimate, Competition, Super) I've found is still the one at Oscar Controls...


http://mirrors.arcadecontrols.com/www.oscarcontrols.com/joycompare/joyreview1.shtml.html


After reading that review/comparison, I was certain that the Competitions were the one for me, and it was correct..

[Level42]

IMHO they all suck because they use microswitches 





And they're not Suzo's