Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Reviews => Topic started by: Minwah on October 31, 2004, 05:57:42 pm
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Since not many people seem to use 49-way sticks I thought I would present my findings...
If you haven't already seen it, paige's 'first look' thread is a good read: http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=23393
Also u_rebels 49-way page: http://www.urebelscum.speedhost.com/49waySticks.html
Anyway, I have just bought a Happ 49-way stick ( http://www.happcontrols.com/joysticks/a219391.htm ) and SJC interface ( http://dave.bit2000.com/ ). First impressive thing was I ordered the SJC after the stick, and received the SJC (all the way from the US to the UK) a week before the stick (Happ have a UK depot).
The stick itself has quite a nice feel to it, although it had a bit (1mm or so) of up/down movement (sloppy-ness) - this was a bit irritating. I placed a washer between the e-clip and the nylon spacer (had to trim this spacer slightly as the washer I had was a bit thick). No big deal but the stick does feel surprisingly improved by this.
The SJC board made interfacing a piece of cake. I used an old IDE ribbon cable as it fits on the 49-way connector quite well - probably the hardest thing about the whole install was picking the correct wires on the IDE cable (I took off the middle connector on the ribbon cable and traced the individual wires back to the pins)!
Once connected, I calibrated the stick in control panel, although it seemed to be OK anyway. Now onto the games...
8-way: the stick works well for 8-way games overall, I doubt you'd want to play fighters which use special moves (I could do a Haduken fairly well but not so hot at Shoryuken!) with it but for platform games, shooters etc. it works great.
4-way: again the stick works pretty well for 4-way games, but the usual problem associated with 8-ways playing 4-way games is apparent (ie diagonals). No worse that most 8-ways I have used tho. I used the stick for Snake Pit along with my trackball, and it works very well once you get used to it. Also I tried Sente's Off The Wall with my spinner, and course it worked great (only 2 way required for that one).
Analog: these are the games I most want to use this stick for, and for the most part I have not been disappointed. I got further than ever before on Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters, S.T.U.N. Runner and Road Runner, and completed After Burner. On some games it is apparent that the resolution isn't as good as with a true analog stick (or yoke), which is to be expected really - Star Wars is one which suffers from this, it can be hard to get the crosshair in the right place at times. For the majority of games tho I didn't really notice the low resolution to be a problem.
49-way: I am not the best person to just these games really, as to my knowledge I have never played on a 'real' 49-way arcade machine. I also haven't played many 49-way games in MAME as yet...but I had a few goes on Sinistar, Blaster and Arch Rivals - they seemed to play just great.
One thing I should mention is that I have the scaling on the SJC board set to 'linear' - I think exponential may be preferred for some games, the Williams 49-way games presumably. I'll try this when I get chance...
So overall very impressed with both the stick and SJC board - a great alternative to an analog stick which I found are pretty difficult to find (particularly non-flight stick types).
Here's a pic of the back of the stick (you can see the washer I added here, and also the SJC):
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Again with the cable plugged in:
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And from above:
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Looking good (the pic).
No, keep it set on exponential and only set it as linear for 49-way games.
The reason being that it is too diagonal sensitive in 8-way games on linear. If you are on exponential it doesn't register a direction in an 8-way game until you hit that second switch in a direction.
I just sold a mame cabinet with a 49-way on it.
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No, keep it set on exponential and only set it as linear for 49-way games.
Ah, thanks for setting me straight, I have it on linear - I'll try it on exponential tomorrow...
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You can also leave it on linear and goof around with the deadzone settings until it is not registering on 8-way games until it hits the second switch.
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You can also leave it on linear and goof around with the deadzone settings until it is not registering on 8-way games until it hits the second switch.
Does it only really affect 8-way games? I commented on it but I will only be using the stick for analog/49-way games really - I have another panel for 8-way...
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I do believe deadzone only effects digital games. When using exponential my machine does not trigger a movement in digital games until I hit the second switch. But in analog games I can very clearly hit all 3 switches one at a time. I even tested it in the service mode of Blaster.
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I do believe deadzone only effects digital games. When using exponential my machine does not trigger a movement in digital games until I hit the second switch. But in analog games I can very clearly hit all 3 switches one at a time. I even tested it in the service mode of Blaster.
Thanks I'll have a play around with the settings later...
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btw, I have a button that will (haven't mounted it yet) change between linear and scale on the top of my control panel.
Some games really work better with one or the other. but I'm running an older joystick with the spider on it (not sure what games it really came from, probably sinistar). But for 49way games I found that the scale was necessary to get each possible direction registered in game.
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You can tell the game the spider sticks came from by what color they are.
Orange is Arch Rivals
Red is Sinistar
Blue is pigskin
Baby blue is Bubbles but that one is 8-way (same stick otherwise).
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Its an arch rivals then. I wasn't sure if it was a definate.
Thanks!
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Minwah,
How does it play on Food Fight?
What about Return of the Jedi? I know it's a yoke game, but it seems like it would work great on an analog stick.
I've been thinking about getting a 49-way plus the SJC interface. I like the idea of optical controls (pots wear out and always need calibrated). This seems like a great solution. I'd better start saving my pennies!
Thanks for the information so far.
Rocky
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yoke games suck...
and I haven't (man I suck) played food fight yet. I got mine working right before I moved.. and just got my computer back in the cab last weekend... and it really needs some work (software wise)
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ROTJ seems to play great - as I said above I had a bit of a problem with Star Wars tho.
And Food Fight works great also :)
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Thanks for the information :D
I might have to divert some $$$ to a new CP instead of my other 3 projects :P
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Just what I was looking for!!!
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Minwah,
How does it play on Food Fight?
What about Return of the Jedi? I know it's a yoke game, but it seems like it would work great on an analog stick.
I've been thinking about getting a 49-way plus the SJC interface. I like the idea of optical controls (pots wear out and always need calibrated). This seems like a great solution. I'd better start saving my pennies!
Thanks for the information so far.
Rocky
I agree with Minwah,
Food fight plays well, not sure about ROTJ though.
Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back do not work well for me, so I still just use my trackball to play those games.
Allister Fiend
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Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back do not work well for me, so I still just use my trackball to play those games.
Yep, I think those type of games definately require a pot-based stick/yoke for perfect control. As you say trackball is better than 49-way.