Joystick/Button Questions

[mattnb]

Hey, I've been toying around with the idea of building a MAME cab ever since I got my hands on a free Double Dragon Cab . I bought Saint's book which has helped a ton but after reading through it and many posts here I have a few questions that I hope someone can answer before I start building my cab/purchasing stuff.

1. I would much prefer buttons that don't click when you press them. At the same time I don't want to spend a fortune (that I don't have) just for that preference. Any suggestions?

2. I'm looking at getting the mag-stik plus for my joysticks. I couldn't find anywhere if that clicked or not, which I hope to Yod that it doesn't. I would love to get Ultimate 360's but I just can't justify that kind of cost. I was wondering if mag-stik plus would be alright for games where you need a pretty good stick (fighters).

I'm sure I'll have more questions later but thanks in advance for answering these!

[Paul Olson]

The magstick had way too short of a throw for me. You will have to test it for yourself to see if you like it. Some of us can't stand it, others love it. I don't remember if it clicked.
Look on ebay for the leaf switch buttons, they show up every once in a while for a comparable price to the Happ "clicky" buttons.

[Green Giant]

Asside from leaf switches, you could go with the micro-leaf pushbutton switches from groovygamegear.

For a lower cost switch free controller, you could try and find some cheap perfect 360's.  It is an optical joystick, no switches to click, that can be 4 and 8-way.