Exactly what Kowal writes. These are the best joysticks ever.Period.
They are ideal for MAME IMHO. I've got 2 (38 mm) on my Mame cab. I've always liked the Suzo joysticks because I grew up with them. Not only on the arcade machines we played, but also at home I had a Suzo Competition Pro with leafs (yes the very first one's were with leafs !) I loved the short travel and throw. Very accurate and extremely durable. They still work fine today and I use them whenever I play my Atari 8-bit computers.
For the inductives:
Only if you play games like Robotron (with lot's of rotary joystick action) you will have to file out the "edges" that guide you to the 8 positions normally.
I even "hacked" the potmeter set-up so that I can switch between 4 and 8-way electronically. Very easy to do.
It's also the ONLY stick that you can set-up for Q*bert _perfectly_. You just configure the left-up, right-up etc in MAME so that it acts as the correct directions in the game. There is no physical problem with this, there is no 2 switches having to be "pressed" that way, because there is no physical contact anywhere. This also makes it extremely durable.
I never use the included red connector as it sucks big time. Instead I used those white connectors that you need to clamp pins in. There must be a thread about it somewhere. Those are much sturdier.
Indeed I think they must be about 20 years old now. They still have "STC Rotterdam" on them,so Suzo was still in Rotterdam at that time, and that's already a long time ago that they moved.
I totally forgot Kowal, but didn't you make dedicated replacement shafts and ball-tops for these ? I think I even ordered some from you ? I _completely_ forgot about it !!!
[Edit] White connectors story here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=58328.0Kowals' custom made shafts:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=53719.0