Parts List Help

[railz]

So this morning I spent a while surfing Happ's site (and was appauled at the prices of some things. $400 for a mini joystick?) and I'm starting to think what I need.

I noticed that they have different styles of joysticks. What do people reccomend (they all are more or less the same price, except for that mini one)?

So far I have a partial parts list:

4 Player Buttons (1,2,3,4)
Two "main" joysticks (unsure of the type yet)
center trackball
center Joystick
Seven buttons per player (arranged in a curve to feel like Neo Geo and classic SF layouts)

I'm still at odds if I want a modular system for the control panel. I probably should since it would make the entire thing easier to move and add panels for other games.

Any thoughts?

[RedSquirrel]

Are you planning to use it also for Playstation, SNES etc? Cos you don't really need 6/7 buttons for every player. I would say fine for player one and 2, but p3 and p4 would be okay with 4 buttons (hardly any 4 player games use more than 4).

But if you are emulating other consoles, fair enough..

[pointdablame]

Why do you need 4 player buttons if you only have 2 "main" joysticks? Is this going to be a 4 player CP or a 2 player?

I'm also in the same spot wondering which joystick most people prefer, so here's to hoping you get some good answers  

[railz]

I like to play a lot of fighting games (mainly SSF2 and such), so I want the six buttons per player for that, plus an extra one at an angle for Neo Geo stuff.

As for the joysticks, I guess I should have two 8-ways as the normal joysticks plus a 4-way for things like Pac-Man, Defender and such?

[Mike]

Dont forget to plan on a spinner. i have to say i probably play spinner games twice as often as trackball games. You might want to check they sticks that andy has at ultimarc. They are truley switchable between 4-way and 8way and I've heard they have a nice feel. Personally I have the happs supers and use oscar restictors for my 4-way games. If you play a lot of fighting games you don't want the supers. I think it's the competitions you'll want the ones with the square acuator on the bottoms. They work better for hitting clean corners to execute moves.

[cdbrown]

"4 Player Buttons"  - are you talking about the white start buttons with the little men on them?  Don't forget about having credit buttons (I personally like having seperate start and credit buttons).

I also went for the 7 button layout but only for players 1 and 2, only had 6 for 3 and 4 despite what people have said.  Standard mame only has 4 inputs for 3 and 4 at the moment so that's something to think about if your only going to use mame.

Make sure your centre joystick isn't in the way of the trackball.  In a fair few games you need a clear area around so you don't bash your hand.

Check out Bob Roberts for cheaper Happs products.  Also check out Oscar's 1st Review and his 2nd Review of various joysticks.  And while your there you should also have a good look at his fantastic spinners.

I went for Happs Optical Rotarys for players 1 and 2, and Happs Supers for 3 and 4.  The rotary's are based on the supers so there's no real difference except perhaps a little extra weight on the bottom of the shaft.  I went for Supers as they seem to be a very good all round 8-way stick.  They are good enough for someone like me (a hack) that plays all different types of games.'

I also got some t-sticks from Andy which will go on another control panel check them out.  Also check out the Ipac's and Optipacs for the interface.

Good luck.
-cdbrown

[unclet]

You might also want to have a couple extra buttons on the side to use for pinball buttons......and dont forget to have some other buttons for ESC, PAUSE, TAB, ENTER commands.....

[SirPoonga]

What do people reccomend

Buying from Happ as last resort.

[Sasquatch!]

There are some good joystick reviews / comparisons at oscarcontrols.com's site:
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/joycompare/joyreview1.shtml
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/joycompare/joyreview2.shtml

The theme I keep hearing over-and-over is the the Happ Super is probably the best "overall" (or "do it all") joystick.  The Perfect360 is "better" (subjectively) than the happ, but requires a bit more work.

Although, you said that you do a lot of fighting games, and the Happ Competition seems to be better suited for fighters.  See what Kelsey had to say here.

[jakejake28]

maybe i missed something but wy do u need 1-4 player buttons on a 3 joystick cp?

[railz]

DOH!

Well, the original idea was for a 4-player control setup, but now I've decided to go modular.

In fact, since I cannot find a MAME-able cabinet anywhere near me, I have to build from scratch so the who thing is going to be modular.

The plan is to create the cab in two halves and use a side-panel (sort of angular - I don't have a scanner or I'd scan my sketches) that contains the side art to hold them together with pass-through bolts. The CP will be reomvable too.

The whole idea is so that I don't end up with a cab that I cannot move and packs away easily when I come to move (which will be after Xmas sometime).