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New Product: Ultimarc UltraStik 360 Analog/Digital Mappable Joystick
Pasqualz:
Does anyone know of the existence of a review of this joystick yet? I await more info. . .
sirwoogie:
No review yet. Only announced a few days ago.
markrvp:
Assuming your 8 buttons are: Player buttons 1-6, Coin, Start, then yes, two of these joysticks and 16 buttons plus a USB trackball should be all that is necessary on a 2-player panel - once you have everything setup.
Kremmit:
--- Quote from: tonyarcade on June 12, 2006, 12:54:59 pm ---
...eliminate the need for a dedicated 4-way ..... the need to buy a keyboard encoder.
--- End quote ---
First, the keyboard encoder:
If you want 6 action buttons, coin & start for each player, then you won't have any inputs left for admin buttons- if you want any. Not everybody wants admin buttons, and if you do want them, you can always hack a junker keyboard or PC joystick/gamepad for the non-gaming buttons.
I can see two problems with using these sticks as a 4-way:
Hardware restriction vs. digital restriction
A digitaly-restricted analog or 49-way stick will play better than a standard 8-way on 4-way games, but not as well as a true 4-way (in my opinion). Hardware restriction provides an authentic feel for 4-way games, and helps you to more quickly move the stick to the proper position (depending on your joystick handling style). Hardware restriction can be added with the optional restrictor plates, but these cost extra, and will have to be installed and uninstalled. A true 4-way will also never suffer from the issue below...
Grid Mappings
Dead squares in the joystick grid mappings create delay in direction changes, and "sticky" squares will sometimes send a directional signal to the game that you don't want to send. The 9x9 grid shown in the Ultimarc programming utility will always have a "middle" row of boxes between the directions that must be set to dead or sticky when mapping a 4-way mode. A 10x10 grid (or 8x8, or any even number) will not have this problem. Unfortunately, a 10x10 grid does not divide up evenly for 8-way modes, so Ultimarc's damned if they do and damned if they don't. The only solution I can see is to either a) use an odd # of rows for some grid mappings, and an even number for others; or b) use a much higher resolution grid, like the 256x256 grid the stick likely uses in analog mode. While this won't divide evenly for 8-way modes, the dividing line can just be off by one square; this will leave the joystick 1/256 out of alignment, which is probably too small a distance to ever be noticed (doing the same on the current 9x9 grid would leave you 1/9 out of alignment, which is too much, IMO). Using the hardware restriction plate could also overcome the deadzone and stickyzone problems- just leave the stick in true analog mode if you're using the plate.
Before anybody thinks I'm Ultimarc bashing, I'll point out that the 49-ways as sold by GroovyGameGear have a 7x7 grid, which also cannot be perfectly divided for 4-way modes, and that 7x7 number is built into the actual hardware, not the software, so it cannot be changed. GGG has never released their grid mappings, so I don't know if they use dead and/or sticky squares, but I haven't heard anybody complaining about dead or sticky squares, so maybe it doesn't really matter in the real world Either both products suffer from the same problem, or the problem isn't really a problem at all. Or maybe Randy's purple wizard works around it with magic. ;D
The above notwithstanding, I expect I'll still be buying at least one, and maybe more. I won't be using one as a 4-way, but not everybody is as picky about the hardware restriction issue as I am, and I'm too lazy to be attaching-detaching a restrictor plate. But I'm pumped about the analog part, and there are projects where an all-in-one stick might be the best option- like a bartop with just one stick.
These still look to me like a nice option for people who:
* Don't want a frankenpanel, modular panel or swapable panels.
* Don't care about hardware restriction, or don't mind adding/removing the restrictor plate. OR
* Don't care about hardware restriction and are willing to accept dead/sticky squares in order to get hassle-free all-in-one action.
* Can't add multiple sticks due to space constraints.
* Want an analog stick that's cheaper than the overpriced Happ analog sticks.
* Want an analog stick with a balltop.
* Want an analog stick with a non-floppy feel, for games like Food Fight or Red Baron. (assuming these sticks aren't floppy, hurry up reviewers!)
* Are hoping to add modern console emulators that need analog controls, or build a cab around a modern console (assuming Ultimarc gets console adapters for these)
A software fix for the grid mapping would address all of my issues, except for being too lazy to install/uninstall the restrictor plate. The fix for that problem is probably on my end. :P
Lilwolf:
I think they could be perfect for a bunch of people. But once your talking two of these, I don't know. 120 bucks you can get a ipac4 and a bunch of joystick types..
I'm excited because I think they will be perfect for a cocktail table... But my wife gave me the kabosh on building one :( I thought I had her talked into it a few months ago... but no.
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