I need help finding a good 8 way joystick

[The_Roker]

I mainly use my joystick for fighting games, and I've noticed that my X-arcade joystick seems to miss the mark with the common 360 degree specials and fireball motions.  

I heard the X-Arcade joystick is a replica of the Happs' Super, so I definately want to stay away from that.

I like the bat top, but I need something with a slightly smaller throw and better realization of the diagonals.

The P360's are out of the question.

How are the Happs' Competition or Ulitmate for 8-way fighting?

comments, advice, and unwanted insults are greatly appreiciated.

Thanks in advance

[skirge66]

I like my happs comps alot, and they have excellent reveiws from just about everyone here on how well they work for "fighter games"

check out oscars reveiw here:

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/joycompare/joyreview1.shtml

[paigeoliver]

The best bat top microswitch joysticks I have ever encoutered are the black ones that came with Final Fight conversion kits. I am not sure who made them, but I have owned several Final Fight machines and they all had those same sticks. I own a pair of them now (in my Time Pilot cocktail until I figure out what brand of sticks are supposed to be in a Time Pilot cocktail).

Wico balltop microswitch joysticks are also pretty good fighter sticks. A lot of late 80s Sega titles came with those. They have a real short throw and are really firm which is nice.

Wico balltop leafswitch 8-ways are probably the best all around stick, but the microswitch ones are better for the fighting games.

[raist0069]

The P360's are out of the question.

Why?  I ordered some thinking they would be the perfect joystick.  Oscar seemed to really love them.

[The_Roker]

I heard the problem with P360's is the fact that fighting moves have to be ultra precise, couple that with the fact that they're kinda pricey to replace, you spell reasons to not get it.

Then again this is only off of a few people's opinions.

[Grasshopper]

The competitions find the diagonals more easily than the Supers however they have a similar throw.

Have you considered the Ultimarc/IL T-Stik? It has the same shaped bat as the Super but a much smaller throw, and in 8 way mode (it is 4/8 way switchable) it easily finds the duagonals.

[rampy]

One note: I thought people *liked* the supers for their 360 smoothness... If you have the x-arcade desktop controller, you do know you can take the bottom off and adjust the joystick actuator arms to be a little bit more sensitive in the diagonals right?

With that said, seems like the competetions are pretty popular amongst the fighter crowd, because you can "feel" the corners.

I'ts my understanding that p360's are the best, a little pricey, you shouldn't need to replace them unless you spill crap on them... they are more precise in a *good way* from what I understand.  If you catch them on sale, they aren't *that* bad price wise (if you consider buying 2 -3 other sticks and still being unhappy)

*shrug*  good luck!  (although if you ARE using x-arcade controller/interface P360's are right out anyways do to the active HIGH nature of the encoder)

Rampy

[Tiger-Heli]

Well, I don't play fighting games, so just parroting what others have said in the past, but generally, the Comp's are preferred for games that want really distinct diagonals.  The supers (which are similar to X-arcade's standard joys) are preferred for Capcom games where you want round circular motion.

If Howard C. gets out of the software forum, he could comment on this, I might have the games mixed up.

And OSCAR's review above is well worth reading.

[2slk]

 As someone said above, you should check out the T or J stick at www.ultimarc.com. They are both really fantastic joysticks. They are great fighter sticks with well defined but not too 'sticky' corners. If you want to play some classics from time to time, they easily switch to 4-way as well.

[jakejake28]

i bought 4 of those j-stiks, and i would never  choose another type. they are AWESOME. though if those p360s were less than 25-30 each...

[OSCAR]

A year ago, I would have said that I would have died with a Competition in my hand, that

[paigeoliver]

Even that said, I still think the P360

[Tiger-Heli]

An old time tech that I know told me that the Comp?s are even better if you set them up modified as Midway used to have Happ do them.  I tried this, and I agree that this makes the Comp even better!  Midway spec'd the heavy duty spring and D41 type microswitches [available through Happ].  The big difference with the D41 switches is that they activate about 0.025" lower than the standard switch Happ uses, and besides the D41?s are higher quality switches.  This makes the overall stick favor the 0, 90, 180 and 270 degree positions where most 8-way sticks tend to favor the diagonals.  The net result is that they are decent with 8-way games and 4-way stick games, too.

Got bored and surfed Happ's website at lunch and called them also.

FYI -

The standard Comp joystick is P/N 50-6070-1X (X is handle color code).  They are $13.05 from Happ or about $9 from Bob Roberts.

These come with 95-0733-01 switches (4) - $0.89 and a 95-1309-00 Spring -$0.29

The D41 switches are P/N 95-4114-00 - $3.05 and the H/D spring is 95-1309-01 - $0.42

Happ sells a Comp with the H/D spring and D41 switches for $17.70 P/N 50-6071-1X (X is again color code).

I will probably E-mail Bob Roberts sometime later and see if he can get these, but Happ sells them already put together, if anyone's interested.

[Tiger-Heli]

Update: I e-mailed Bob Roberts about ordering or offering these and he sent back the following:

"No. I already stock the springs for those who want to change them & I never go near gold contacts... handle too little a current & blacken in a heartbeat, at least here in Louisiana, anyway, and the scope shows up all their miss-fires once blackened."

FWIW

EDIT - Not to contradict Bob, but his background is in genuine arcade cabs, not cabs running MAME on a PC, it's possible the +5V that an encoder uses would cause the switches less wear than an actual arcade cabinet would.

[Babu]

Umm why dont you get some of those wico joysticks u can switch between 6 to 4 way and they are dirt cheap.

Allthough the word is that wico joysticks have very low quality but I think is a risk worth taking.

[rampy]

Umm why dont you get some of those wico joysticks u can switch between 6 to 4 way and they are dirt cheap.

Allthough the word is that wico joysticks have very low quality but I think is a risk worth taking.

huh?

rampy

[Babu]

sry i dirint mean 6 i meant 8way

[paigeoliver]

Allthough the word is that wico joysticks have very low quality but I think is a risk worth taking.

That all depends on exactly which sticks you are talking about. When I say "Wico" I am ONLY referring to the ones with the ball tops and rubber centering grommets (no springs at all), those are some of the best joysticks around. I have seen those in both leaf switch and microswitch configurations.

My constant Wico reccomendations do not extend to any of their other sticks, because I haven't used those. Just the ones with the rubber grommets and ball tops.

[Babu]

this one :http://www.wicothesource.com/new2/pages/page88.htm
the ball top one a friend told me they r not very good

[IceCold]

I'll trade an extra black competition joystick I have for another joystick.  I like the feel of the supers, and do not really want a fighting stick.  I would preffer balltop.

[AceTKK]

Update: I e-mailed Bob Roberts about ordering or offering these and he sent back the following:

"No. I already stock the springs for those who want to change them & I never go near gold contacts... handle too little a current & blacken in a heartbeat, at least here in Louisiana, anyway, and the scope shows up all their miss-fires once blackened."

FWIW

wow, Bob really knows his stuff doesn't he?

[paigeoliver]

this one :http://www.wicothesource.com/new2/pages/page88.htm
the ball top one a friend told me they r not very good

Oh yeah. That looks like garbage to me. What I speak of are the 80s style Wico sticks, which are probably out of production, but are super common both used and NOS. The balltops on the good ones are shiny and they have chrome shafts, and they are not 4-way/8-way switchable.

[paigeoliver]

The good one looks like this. It can be almost any color though, and the shaft lengths vary. That picture shows the leaf model. The microswitch model is mostly identical, except the actuator is square and it has a microswitch plate rather than a leaf plate.

[Babu]

is someone selling those? if so can you give me the link?