Voice your opinion... which joystick is best?!?!

[danvan]

Hi all...

Thanks to all for helping me get my baby back on her feet. The monitor now has perfect vert hold and the new PC has sound.

Now I have a perfectly operational arcade machine but it still needs fine-tuning. At the moment I have 2 Happ Ultimate joysticks which are good... but are not great. I am experiencing issues particularly with blocking on Street Fighter 2 in the heat of the moment. Can anyone suggest the best joysticks to have GENUINE 8-way arcade experience on a JPAC/MAME setup running a 6 button per player setup?

Thanks in advance!!

Daniel

[(+_+)]

I think the Ultrastiks are the best due to their flexability. You can map them to work in whatever way you'd like. 4-Way, 8-Way, 4-Way Diag... You also have the different spring options to give you a different levels of stiffness. You can also map up to 8 buttons using the optional wiring harness. I love the thing and will probably incorporate 4 on my next build. They are smooth as silk without the constant clickety click sounds. But that's just my opinion.

http://www.ultimarc.com/ultrastik_info.html

[Lutus]

Do you have the competition version.

It has the square piece that actuates the switches instead of the round one.

I believe that's what SF's used originally.

But I am NOT an expert in this area by any means.

[Kajoq]

My personal favorite (by quite a large margin) is the Sanwa JLF joysticks.  So tight and precise, I hate having to play fighting games without one now

If you don't like japanese sticks, then upgrade your ultimates to Competitions would be my suggestion.

[Stub]

Ultrastick period. But you can only have 4 per cp ( and get full on the fly functionality )

I need two more in addition. I am looking for the best top fire out there. Maybe a top fire and trigger.

[divemaster127]

For the money the happ competition is the best as far as value, if money does not matter go for the u360 sticks from ultimarc

[JKJudgeX]

I've read on these forums that there may be some slight delay in the ultimarc 360 ones as far as fighting games are concerned... though I've never used one, there was a thread a couple weeks ago that pretty much made up my mind to go with Happ 8-way...

That being said, for fighting games, etc, the Happ 8-4-way joysticks I went with reproduce perfectly the dynamics of the sticks used in SVC Chaos.  I play that and other fighting games in my local arcade a WHOLE lot... so, I am very used to the feel and performing the techniques, and those Happ ones really feel like the real thing. 

They feel *just* about like the ones on a Soul Calibur II machine as well, but I think the soul-calibur II feel is a bit more... *chunky* I guess?  Anyway, slightly harder to do HCF QCF type moves on SCII type sticks than on SVC Chaos type sticks for what it's worth.

I'm not the kind of person to chip in on this kind of discussion just because I spent the money... if I didn't like even the smallest thing about those sticks, I'd slam em for ya to prevent you from making an important decision badly on my tip.

[Level42]

[JKJudgeX]

Wow.  What a useful reply.  A picture of a man beating a dead horse.  So... on topic... so... polite. 

[Stub]

I have 4 U360 in my test panel and I have been playing a lot of fighters and I have no issues with lag. Dont know what you are referring to.

[Level42]

Wow.  What a useful reply.  A picture of a man beating a dead horse.  So... on topic... so... polite. 

Hey, I'm entitled to a bad mood too.

[JKJudgeX]

I can't find the post that made me decide against the U360, but it had something to do with them being analog controls when most arcade games are made for digital controls, and the controls not sending the commands at the same precise instant that an actual competition joystick might have.

I'm not sure, myself, but having done business with ultimarc in the past and knowing that andy is a great guy and it's a cool company, I still had to go with traditional Happ joysticks because my favorite genre of game in the arcade happens to be 2-D fighter.

I'll look for that post I'm referring to a bit more:

here's part:
"My only complaints with the stick are how soft the movement is (several people have commented not liking it) and how easily the bat handle gets loose. The throw of the stick is longer than the Happ Competition sticks, but I don't find it to be a problem. I saw that Andy sells stiffer springs for the stick, but I can't justify spending $14 on shipping for a $5 spring so I can't say how much they improve the stick's softness. Has anyone else tried it? I also just noticed something on Andy's site about the stick having a screwdriver notch at the base for tightening the handle which I will have to try to solve the loosening issue.

So, would I purchase the stick again? Yes. I am considering getting another one for player 2, but will not do so until I can confirm whether the stiffer spring improves the softness of the stick. I prefer a bit more resistence than the stick currently provides."

From: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=54569.160


And there's another one somewhere, I swear to it, where someone who knows the ins and outs of how a fighting game is supposed to feel talks about the slight nuances...

Anyway, if I WASN'T a big fighting game fan, I'd have definitely gone with the U360 setup, but, I like to practice fighting games a lot and learning on non-standard controls might cost me valuable milliseconds in the real arcade.  If that's not important to you, the U360 replaces the need for a plethora of controls, I've heard .

[Level42]

Suzo Inductive.

Best of the best.

[danvan]

Sorry guys, I know this must have sounded like I was flogging the proverbial... I had a few glasses of white before that post so forgot the key point.

The Happ Ultimates I have are too ... soft. They have may too much spring, they make a lot of noise, and they are not firm enough. (someone asked which sort - I don't know for certain, but they do have a square guide at the base of the shaft for the microswitches, so I guess Competition?).

What I am looking for is exactly not that.

I want the old-school joysticks that don't bounce for 5 seconds after releasing. The only games I really play are fighting games (90+%) and occasionally platforms like Wonderboy, Oscar and Shinobi. I am willing to sacrifice gameplay in the platforms for better fighting response.

Ideally it would still be "comfortable" - i.e. after a few hours of play my hands don't feel like they're going to fall off.

I am running my cabinet in Windows 98 DOS mode (no gui), but my BIOS does have some mention of USB support from memory. I guess the Ultimarc USB one may be worth a try. I'll start checking the others mentioned, but if my clarification makes any recommendation change please let me know

[Hoopz]

Original Tron joystick.

[danvan]

What's the difference between a Sanwa JLF and a standard Sanwa? Is it just the easy connect/disconnector?

Thanks