SDE conterfeit maracas

[warci]

I'm a real sucker for 'do-stuff"-games and i've got samba de amigo lying around minus the maracas.
I've seen some fake marcas here and there, wich are WAY cheaper then the original item. my questions are: does anyone have any experience with those, where's the best place to get them (as in: cheapest) and what's the best type?
thanks.

[Madbury]

Well they're obviously not as good as the official product. Basically what you get in the box differs in that instead of a continuous bar which you place on the floor infront of you, you get a 3 part assembly, with a central portion which has a lead to plug into the cast and 2 drinking straw type affairs which plug into either side of that to do the sensing.

Obviously this isn't quite as rigid as the official sega jobbies, but provided you don't move around too much and tread on them they're fine.

As far as function goes I can't see much difference to be honest, although it is my mate who has a set and an official set, so I've not played on them extensively.

He brought his direct from the factory (in HK I think). He actually sent a cheque in the post and they delivered to his door. I think they were about 35USD delivered, which seems pretty reasonable. I might be able to get more details if you like.

[MartyG]

I've got a set of Sega maracas and two sets of the third party ones, and they are pretty hopeless tbh. They don't pick up the height changes or shakes anywhere near as well as the Sega units as they are a lot more fickle about where you're standing, so you end up missing quite a lot of beats as the action hots up.

If you can get hold of the official ones, even if they are twice the price, I'd go for them in preference everytime.

Regards
Marty

[Mr Ono]

I've got 2 sets of these third party maracas.

One works fine, the other is a dud. ft:

[Molloy]

They even released those for the Mega Drive along with a game called "Happy Macaras". It'd be interesting to try but most pirate games aren't worth tracking down.

[Halo]

I've got 2 sets of these third party maracas.

One works fine, the other is a dud. ft:

Quote from a post in uk.games.video.dreamcast:

Just incase this might be of interest to anyone else who had similar
problems with their maracas....

I came home from the US with a second hand set of cha cha amigo
maracas. Unfortunately one of them didn't work but I managed to
narrow it down to the ultrasonic sender in one of the units.

A quick search on the www.maplin.co.uk site threw up "HY12N Ultrasonic
Transducer" - sold only in pairs of transmitter and reciever.

The sender was a little bigger than the one it replaces but with
careful trimming away of the surrounding plastic it looks better than
the original job - and it works!

A friend then brought his (also) broken set round to my house when he
heard I knew how to fix them. Same fault. On the off chance I
thought I'd try the remaining reciever as a transmitter in his broken
maraca. It worked!

Result - two sets of maracas fixed for 5.99 ukp.

Hopefully this post might urge others to get those broken maracas out
from the back of the cupboard and get them a shakin' again!

[3rdnode]

Not trying to boast. Well yes I am! I got an official pair for 1000yen, (about a fiver) in a second hand games store. Quite chuffed. Cant wait to try them out at home and get shaking!

Volare laala....