Your Joystick of Choice in MAME??? Opinions sought.

[Games001]

Looking for opinions on my next build.  Joysticks.. endless choices of joysticks.

What have others sampled and what were the opinions on a 'general' MAME cab and the sticks used?

OMNI-Stick 4/8 switchable?
Perfect 360*?
Analog or Optical?

Just want to get a good idea of what others have been happiest with when using MAME.

Thanks all.

[RoninEditor]

I don't have anywhere the experience of a lot of the people on here but from my research, I went with the Ultimarc 360s for a number of reasons.  My main concern, I have to admit, is that I wanted a balltop without having to buy a batstick, then an extra balltop for $15 each or whatever they go for... so ala cart, more balltops are around $45... I kicked in more for these since everyone recommends them.  Plus, it's just USB connections, you don't have to deal with the microswitches, grounds, etc.  It's just like a regular joystick and I've found it to be super accurate, no deadspots for me yet.

From what I've gathered, I think most people go with this... which is why I chose them.  Here's the link if you don't have it:

http://ultimarc.com/ultrastik_info.html

My oooooonly super small thing is that it's not very 'stiff', but I hear you can change that, it's super fluid.  Personally, I'm going to undermount these so I can have the short feel to it, like Ms. Pacman.

[paigeoliver]

Perfect 360 upgraded with the Happ heavy spring that Bob Roberts sells with long repro wico handles installed. Best stick I ever used. Sort of pricey though, as it costs about $50 per stick to set them up that way.

[RoninEditor]

Paige... is it possible to set it up with a heavy spring on my own...?  I don't wanna try to open mine up to mess with them. 

I did a deadening sound insert (to get rid of the hollow clicking sounds) which tightened my springs in my Happ buttons to have a more old school feel and I'm shocked that those worked... but with a U360, it's obviously a whole different ballgame - $2 button vs. a $50 joystick

(OP, for the record, one of Paige is one of the people on here I was talking about, the ones who really know their 'ish', haha... listen to what he says re: joysticks.)

[paigeoliver]

It is cake to do. A couple screws come off, the old spring comes out, the new spring goes in. You won't be nervous about it if you actually see it in front of you. Changing the spring out is no more difficult than installing the joystick in the first place (in fact it is easier, much easier).

Note, you only put the heavy springs on these if you are putting long wico balltop handles on (which are a direct replacement for the handles on the P360, because the Happ p-360 is actually a member of the classic Wico family of sticks).

P360s are optical and thus basically silent in operation, no clicking to worry about.  But remember I am talking about Perfect 360 sticks, the U360 is a sanwa stick isn't the same thing.

[RoninEditor]

Ah, okay... makes sense.  No wonder (re: the U360) felt very asian to me.  I still dig it though, it's just a lot lighter than I'd hoped for but it's so long that when you undermount it, it maybe mentally feels more legit to me, well, ya know, more like Ms. Pacman (which is gonna be the theme of my cab, pretty close to having it done!).

[Games001]

Which games in MAME do you say you lpay the most as to have made your P360 a good buy?

For myself, it's games like:

Rygar
Rastan
SiniStar (I know this was a special form of stick)
Kung-Fu Master
Pheonix
Crazy Climber
Rampage

And so on into the different ages of Arcade.

Also, is there a place were BYOAC members might have made a list of pre-set Ultra 360 Stick Maps?

[kowal]

Happ Perfect 360 upgraded with the Happ heavy spring

this stik has stock hevy spring:P
only oryginal old WicoP360 has soft spring.
if you licke hard spring better to buy U360 +hard spring 3$, because all wico base is crap. they are executed noexactly. quality Sanwa 100 light year > Wico.

[Chunce DeLeone]

Old Skool Wicos leafs,  Don't have the 200+ for a 4 pack of 360's

[Stormrider]

Suzo Universal STC 500. Nothing like a short throw for precission. It's the best I've tried yet.

[telengard]

Most if not all games I enjoy Wico Leafs.  Can't play Robotron with anything but.
I had a Happ's 360 in the past and had all kinds of issues with accidental triggering, mostly due to my sloppy technique.   

~telengard