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yet another "u360s are awesome" thread
severdhed:
i know it has been said too many times to count..but "i love my u360s"
i have had them for about 2 months now and i am just constantly impressed with them. i expected them to work good in 8way mode, but what really surprised me was how well they work in 4way mode.
i just recently got into playing Donkey Kong again...i suck at donkey kong. i had the high score on my cabinet, as well as the cabinet at my friend Dave's house. both of which were around 16000. the other day, dave, and another of his friends were playing Donkey Kong, trying to take the high score...after a while, Dave took 1st place with 19000. i had to go defend myself at this point. i picked up and had one really good game and managed to get a little over 32000, which is still the high score. his cabinet is a 4 player unit, with an ultimarc Jstick ball top in 4 way mode as a dedicated 4way stick. it is a great 4 way stick. i was a little worried that my u360s could not perform as well...so this afternoon, i was playing on my cabinet by myself, just trying to see how good i could do...i had a few games that were in the 16000 range..and then i had a really good one and made it to 34,900.
now i know that isn't reallly a great donkey kong score..but i normally cannot get anywhere near that...this just proves though, that the u360 works just as well in 4 way mode as a dedicated 4 way stick.
so if there is anyone out there holding off on purchasing them because they are afraid they wont work good in 4way mode....don't hesitate...they are awesome.
Hoagie_one:
how does the stick know to change from one mode to the next? Do you have to setup INI's for every game?
Ginsu Victim:
Nope. Either let MAME automatically map it for you, or you have basic sets, like 4-way, 8-way, 2-way, 49-way, analog, mouse, lightgun, etc that you have it load from your FE upon launching a game.
1UP:
I have both, and I love the capabilities of the U360 as an analog stick, but I still think the J-stick has a slight edge over the U360 as a dedicated 4-way, simply for the fact that it has the 4-way restrictor built in. With the restrictor on, you know you're headed straight in the direction you intended, and it's a quick snap from Up to Right for a perfect 90 degree turn.
On higher levels of games like Ms. Pac-Man with the speed hack where things get really REALLY fast, that becomes very important. Even with mapping, it's just too easy with an unrestricted stick to get nervous and let yourself get into the 45o zone and turn a corner when you didn't mean to, just because of the rounder action. I have gotten up over 380,000 in this game using a restricted J-stick! I could probably get close with the U360, but not having distinct corners just makes me feel like I don't quite have control.
I've thought about getting a restrictor kit for the U360, but I'd rather not reach under the panel to switch back and forth when the J-stick is already such a perfect 4-way. I'll probably end up getting another U360 and put the boards on my dual tron sticks instead. :)
severdhed:
i have to agree...the Jstick makes an absolutely awesome 4way stick, and if you have room for a dedicated 4way, then by all means, do it. but if you are looking for simplicity, the u360s are amazing...they work very well as 4ways. my Donkey Kong score is up to 100200 on my friends cabinet with a Jstick, and on my cabinet is at 97,600 with the u360s.. so far i dont feel like the u360 is holding me back at all...yeah, my score is a little lower, but as you all know, scoring over 100,000 in DK is not an easy task. i still can't get through the elevator stage in level 4...:(
as for how the switching works, it is all painless. i am using MALA as my front end, and there is a u360 plugin for it that will switch to the proper map automatically for you. all i had to do was tweak the maps a little, and now everythign works great. (i had to change the 2 way map to match the 8way map, otherwise i couldn't navigate through the mame "Tab" config menu, because the joystick only moves left and right"