Proper Joystick for MAME Fighting Games on Macbook

[peter_gunz]

Okay, I'm going to withdraw my suggestion for the SFA stick. Now that I drag it out of the closet and play it again, it's quite possibly the most uncomfortable joystick I've ever used (Next to the PS2 shadowblade) and even if you mod it, the height of the casing makes it awkward to play on. (I play all my games sitting in a chair with the stick on a table) Also, one of the boards is defective.

The next thing I was going to recommend is the Pelican Real Arcade Universal, it also has the Chinese parts, but it's a pretty decent joystick as far as retail console sticks go. I still have one, I bought it an a Gamestop the day I bought my Xbox. But unfortunately it didn't work with the PS2 adapter.

I think that leaves you with the Real Arcade. I'd keep in mind that the Shoryuken review was written by fighting game elitists, and less than the best generally doesn't cut it over there. The X-arcade seems to be just fine for everyone else, here's the Digital Press review by Don Evanoff. You don't have to worry about adapters or modding or anything, and if you want a Neo Geo layout without that second button down there, you can always pull it out and stick in one of these bad boys.

So, I think the X-Arcade would be the best choice for you after all.

Thanks, that helped narrow things down. I'd most likely be playing on my laptop so something light yet sturdy would be best.

From what I can tell the folks at shoryuken are a little on the ridiculous side. I used to be a competitive player and laugh at anyone that says Japanese joysticks are superior to U.S. style. The bottom line is you play what you are good/comfortable with. Plus, I hold the stick with 3 fingers, not 2 so it's awkward using 2 (which I do on my Neo Geo AES). They probably prefer sit down cabinets too, not me. I'd take a stand up cabinet any day over a sit down. Something about sitting down playing an arcade game doesn't feel right to me.

Thanks for all of your advice. I think I will get a one player stick as I rarely play games with people nowadays.

[peter_gunz]

I found this thread: http://shoryuken.com/f177/better-hor...-right-177193/

Apparently, if one prefers Happ parts they recommend modding an X-Arcade stick as it is easy to do. Is this why you also recommend it?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I have a full X-Arcade cabinet with the trackball tankstick, and I can't say enough good things about the X-Arcade brand.

They function great with MAME are ultra durable and apparently have a lifetime warranty.

I've opened my tank-stick once to tighten a few of the large plastic nuts that hold the buttons on. They don't have any quick acccess panel, and they don't really seem to be wired with changing out parts, but the wires are pull-off quick release tabs, so if you want or need to swap out parts it's do-able.

[peter_gunz]

I have a full X-Arcade cabinet with the trackball tankstick, and I can't say enough good things about the X-Arcade brand.

They function great with MAME are ultra durable and apparently have a lifetime warranty.

I've opened my tank-stick once to tighten a few of the large plastic nuts that hold the buttons on. They don't have any quick acccess panel, and they don't really seem to be wired with changing out parts, but the wires are pull-off quick release tabs, so if you want or need to swap out parts it's do-able.

Excellent Frankie_Says_Relax this is exactly what I was hoping for. I'm in college and will be using it on my Macbook with MAME. I doubt I'll be using 2 player mode much, should I just get the solo stick for now (would be nice for travel)? I graduate next year (hopefully) and once working plan on upgrading.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Excellent Frankie_Says_Relax this is exactly what I was hoping for. I'm in college and will be using it on my Macbook with MAME. I doubt I'll be using 2 player mode much, should I just get the solo stick for now (would be nice for travel)? I graduate next year (hopefully) and once working plan on upgrading.

No problem. Also I meant to say that it doesn't look like they were wired up with changing out the parts in mind like some of the japanese tournament sticks I've seen (but ultimately I see no reason why you couldn't do it).



There's my setup w/tankstick in the cabinet.

[peter_gunz]

No problem. Also I meant to say that it doesn't look like they were wired up with changing out the parts in mind like some of the japanese tournament sticks I've seen (but ultimately I see no reason why you couldn't do it).



There's my setup w/tankstick in the cabinet.

See now if I could, I'd love to have a controller set up like that little puppy next to your X arcade. Neo Geo is my fav.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

See now if I could, I'd love to have a controller set up like that little puppy next to your X arcade. Neo Geo is my fav.

Yeah, the HanaHo Games Neo Geo Gameroom Classics bartop unit uses essentially the same stick/button/switch hardware as the X-Arcade.

They did the HotRod stick which is nearly identical to the standard 2 player X-Arcade stick.

That's a neat little cabinet. It's real JAMMA hardware in there. Played around with the thought of cramming a 1-slot in there, but according to the experts that I showed the guts to said that they'd need to wire up a separate power supply which probably wouldn't be able to fit in there WITH the Neo Geo AND the monitor, it's already a tight fit.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

See now if I could, I'd love to have a controller set up like that little puppy next to your X arcade. Neo Geo is my fav.

Yeah, the HanaHo Games Neo Geo Gameroom Classics bartop unit uses essentially the same stick/button/switch hardware as the X-Arcade.

They did the HotRod stick which is nearly identical to the standard 2 player X-Arcade stick.

That's a neat little cabinet. It's real JAMMA hardware in there. Played around with the thought of cramming a 1-slot in there, but according to the experts that I showed the guts to said that they'd need to wire up a separate power supply which probably wouldn't be able to fit in there WITH the Neo Geo AND the monitor, it's already a tight fit.

[peter_gunz]

Yeah, the HanaHo Games Neo Geo Gameroom Classics bartop unit uses essentially the same stick/button/switch hardware as the X-Arcade.

They did the HotRod stick which is nearly identical to the standard 2 player X-Arcade stick.

That's a neat little cabinet. It's real JAMMA hardware in there. Played around with the thought of cramming a 1-slot in there, but according to the experts that I showed the guts to said that they'd need to wire up a separate power supply which probably wouldn't be able to fit in there WITH the Neo Geo AND the monitor, it's already a tight fit.

Okay, so you're a Neo Geo/fighting game fan like me and you find the X-Arcade set up to be no problem, right? Why do the folks at Shoryuken.com have it in for the joysticks then? Is it just fighting game elitist propaganda?

Also, I can get a JAMMA joystick, but only for an MVS unit, so I'm waiting til after college to work on that. Emulators are cool, but they aren't MVS/AES perfect and the MVS cartridges are more reasonable moneywise over the AES home carts (Kizuna Encounter went for $12,500 on Ebay).

I wanted a HotRod because the spacing looks a tad better for the Neo Geo set up than X-Arcade, but I know they helped w/the X-Arcade set up. You have both, no noticable difference? Same parts?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Okay, so you're a Neo Geo/fighting game fan like me and you find the X-Arcade set up to be no problem, right? Why do the folks at Shoryuken.com have it in for the joysticks then? Is it just fighting game elitist propaganda?

Also, I can get a JAMMA joystick, but only for an MVS unit, so I'm waiting til after college to work on that. Emulators are cool, but they aren't MVS/AES perfect and the MVS cartridges are more reasonable moneywise over the AES home carts (Kizuna Encounter went for $12,500 on Ebay).

I wanted a HotRod because the spacing looks a tad better for the Neo Geo set up than X-Arcade, but I know they helped w/the X-Arcade set up. You have both, no noticeable difference? Same parts?

Personally I find X-Arcade to be fine for fighting games (I play a lot of Street Fighter II, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike and Street Fighter Alpha 3 with it), but tournament level players (one of which I'm not) aren't going to settle for anything less than high-grade parts like Sanwa.

I don't doubt that for things like tournament play or frame-counting levels of performance that X-Arcade probably doesn't cut it, but I've never felt like it was sub-par in terms of working the way that you'd want it to. The buttons don't stick or fail to function, and it works fine for both 4 and 8 way games.

Furthermore, in MAME you can tweak the shit out of the sensitivity for digital controls, so you can easily make up for any perceived delay there as well.

[peter_gunz]

Personally I find X-Arcade to be fine for fighting games (I play a lot of Street Fighter II, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike and Street Fighter Alpha 3 with it), but tournament level players (one of which I'm not) aren't going to settle for anything less than high-grade parts like Sanwa.

I don't doubt that for things like tournament play or frame-counting levels of performance that X-Arcade probably doesn't cut it, but I've never felt like it was sub-par in terms of working the way that you'd want it to. The buttons don't stick or fail to function, and it works fine for both 4 and 8 way games.

Furthermore, in MAME you can tweak the shit out of the sensitivity for digital controls, so you can easily make up for any perceived delay there as well.

I played in a few tournaments (street fighter 2 and Alpha 2) years ago (I and do mean YEARS) and I for one never counted frames (I read a wiki on that page and to be honest it's ridiculous. I won 23 straight against some pretty high level players and never went that in depth into the game), so no I don't need that level of perception. I never liked Japanese parts either, they're too soft and small. I often duck when I want to back up among other problems.

Ah, another issue they didn't seem to figure out. If you can tweak the shit out of it in MAME then the so-called lag problem that some complain about on PC should be a non-issue. Well I guess that's the difference between a computer geek and a fighting geek. Who knew?

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!

[Tron 2.0]

It seems when I refer to those joysticks, the name happs come up, so maybe. I've heard about modding the sticks, but I am the worst at using my hands (ironic for the son of a carpenter). So I've ruled that option out.

I've heard of and looked at arcadeinabox, I just wish they had pics of the specs I'm looking for. Have you used their service before? How was it?

I'm sure I sound like such a noob, but if I knew this was possible before, I would have done it a LONG time ago (if I had the cash of course, which is also kinda recent).

Never used a joystick by arcadeinabox but i've heard there quality is good that's all.Still modding a joystick usely mean 'swapping the stick and buttons.I've yet to do it,myself years ago i got a tekken joystick for the PS2 by hori and i know i need to mod since it being stock it's not that good.