360 getting another arcade stick!

[diskoboy]

Anybody? I hope it's true...I'd like to have a real eight-way joystick for my PC.

It reads as an 8-way on my PC... But I can't get the damn thing to work with MAME. And I can't find a config file for the stick.

[slip81]

Actually on second thought that stick isn't so bad. I keep forgetting that in reference to the 360 the word arcade is more litereral, and more classic.

That stick would suck for use in things like fighters and more modern arcade games, but it would be great for older arcade games, and right now there is a lot of that on the live arcade.

[rxdoga]

Yes, the EX2 is exactly the same as the DOA4 stick without the artwork. The DOA4 stick works perfectly in MAME. Thats whole reason I got one.

[cyberfluxor]

New joystick for the 360?!?

....oh wait, it's Madcatz. Nevermind.

Just what I was thinking. I hate Madcatz crap, I never pick up their stuff even for $3 for older systems.

EX2 FTW!

[googlefest1]

so far ive never had a problem with thier products

my favorite PS1 controler is from madcatz

i think the worst controlers they made were for the dreamcast though

[Ed Oscuro]

Yes, the EX2 is exactly the same as the DOA4 stick without the artwork. The DOA4 stick works perfectly in MAME. Thats whole reason I got one.

Awesome. Will look into getting an EX2, then!

[BillKunkel]

Having dealt with videogame controllers since 1971, it's funny that we started with Pong-style controllers, which were basically glorified volume dials. Hence, the dominance of the ball & paddle game.

Then we moved to the VCS configuration -- a joystick and a single action button. Each controller type dicated the type of games that were produced for that generation. It can be argued that the Intellivision was an also-ran system largely because of its uncomfortable and anti-ergonomic controllers (which were initially hard-wired into the system in an astonishly dumb move). With those mylar overlays, the game virtually demanded that you keep looking down at your controller instead of fixing your gaze on the screen. VCS games tended to be direction-oriented (moving a cursor of character in all directions as in, say, Missile Command) with a single action input. Keeping it simple produced the Golden Age of Gaming.

The Japnese joypads changed all that and led to the dominance of platform and, later, fighting games. Suddenly your right hand was dealing with buttons while the less-dominant left hand handled the simplified movement commands in a 2-D game universe.

I felt controllers reached their high noon with the N64 stick, offering the joypad config along with the single analog joystick and the trigger button in addition to top R & L command buttons.

Since then, controllers have tended to be overcomplicated. The XBox appears to be literally bristling with buttons and analog sticks, as if they had to cram an entire PC's keyboard worth of commands onto the controller. Dual joysticks on the Box and PS2 controllers turn players into camera operators on too many games, don't work well on certain game types and the multitude of buttons intimidates older and younger gamers while, in most cases, failing to offer appropriate compensation in Wow impact gameplay.

Nintendo and its Wii control streamlining looks smarter to me every day.

When you have to start buying special controllers to play specific game genres comfortably, the hardware developers aren't doing their job well and that's always been the case with the XBox models, IMHO.

[AMG]

I really like the EX2, very nice.

[Ed Oscuro]

Bill: It's interesting that you mention that. The standard movement joystick on the left causes interesting problems for lefties. I use computer mice with my left hand (at home; elsewhere they're set up on the right and I don't mind that) and have gotten used to that for FPS games. They say that left-handed people tend to be slightly smarter than right-handers, and I certainly have no problem adapting. Even so there's probably a tiny bit of reflex lag if I went to use it with my right hand simply because I've trained on my left so much. For my right hand, I don't simply use it for arrow keys; I use the other bunches of keys around the arrow bad (i.e. delete for reloading, end for use, page down for last weapon, home for a flashlight, my typical preferred FPS control scheme.

Taito's early dual joystick run 'n' gun games (Front Line, 11/'82, and The Tin Star, 12/'83) apparently had you control aiming with the left joystick. For whatever reason that caused me a bit of grief (playing it again now, it's probably just that you were supposed to mess around with two buttons in addition to the two joysticks).

Despite all this...I like the Xbox 360 joystick quite a bit, and in fact I use the (cheaper and slightly better) Mad Catz model for MAME. Its main shortcoming is that there's no differentiation between directions, and I would like a joystick that has two eight-ways...the EX2 seems to fit the bill well enough, anyway.

[BillKunkel]

Bill: It's interesting that you mention that. The standard movement joystick on the left causes interesting problems for lefties. I use computer mice with my left hand (at home; elsewhere they're set up on the right and I don't mind that) and have gotten used to that for FPS games. They say that left-handed people tend to be slightly smarter than right-handers, and I certainly have no problem adapting. Even so there's probably a tiny bit of reflex lag if I went to use it with my right hand simply because I've trained on my left so much. For my right hand, I don't simply use it for arrow keys; I use the other bunches of keys around the arrow bad (i.e. delete for reloading, end for use, page down for last weapon, home for a flashlight, my typical preferred FPS control scheme.

There have actually been damned few accomidations made for lefty gamers over the years. At least with the VCS stick, they could put duplicate buttons on the top left and top right of the joystick base. And super-elegant controllers such as Bally's pistol-grip style joystick for its Pro Arcade (later repackaged as the Astrocade) were left/right hand neutral since they could simply be held in the non-dominant hand.

Today, I guess you pretty much have to adapt. Unless Ned Flanders opens a videogame section over at the Leftorium. Or Joe S does...

[Ed Oscuro]

I actually had A nice person tell me that they hate people who use the arrow keys instead of WASD. Hmm? (Such a fun topic that was.)

[cyberfluxor]

I actually had A nice person tell me that they hate people who use the arrow keys instead of WASD. Hmm? (Such a fun topic that was.)

That topic gets a laugh.

[Bleetness]

...Is that ronald japanese?!

[diskoboy]

...Is that ronald japanese?!

Holy crap, I just noticed that too! Ronald McDonald is asian!

[cyberfluxor]

...Is that ronald japanese?!

Holy crap, I just noticed that too! Ronald McDonald is asian!

Holy bat crap robin, you're right!