Joystick recommendation needed (Rookie here)

[toopack2]

I plan to build my own arcade joystick primary for fighter shooting games (strikers and raiden 2) and fighting games (marvel vs capcom).  what kind of restrictor plate (square, 8-gate, circular-gate) is best for the games I want to play?

Is it easy to change the plate?  I saw replacement plate with different gate online and want to know if that is the plate you need to change to get the movement you want.  Pardon my English if I confuse you.  I just want to be clear before I buy that let say I have a square and I want 8-gate, so all I need is to buy an 8-gate plate to put it in?

Thank you

[brad808]

Which joystick do you have? Say for instance you have a sanwa jlf, then changing the restrictor is very simple. You simply pop it off and put the new one on, no extra tools needed. It only takes maybe 2 minutes in total.

As far as which one to get different people will say different things. I use square restrictors on a couple joysticks and I use octagon restrictors on other joysticks. My personal preference for fighting games is the octagon restrictor, others will swear by square, and the rest will swear by circle. It's really one of those things where you just have to buy them and try each one out until you decide which one feels best for you.

[emphatic]

Seimitsu LS-58/LS-56 is a great joystick for both fighters and shmups. It comes with a square gate but you can get an octagonal gate for it.