Sega Saturn/Mega Drive -> PS2 Adapter

[Balou]

Is there a good adapter (without "lag") available that allows Sega Saturn or Sega Mega Drive controllers to be used on the PS2?

I ask because on eBay Germany there are many cheap arcade sticks for these two consoles on offer at the moment.
Comments on these two sticks (A & B) are appreciated as well.

[Yoshimoto]

Never used that Saturn stick but those Mega Drive ones are awful from what i remember.

IMO its false economy buying anything other than the Hori VF4e / SC2 sticks for the PS2. I've got a couple of the VF4e sticks that i use for Virtua Fighter and shooters and they are absolutely fantastic. Well worth the money...especially since i paid less than ?10 each for them brandnew.

[randombs]

i've used that saturn stick and i think it is nasty. the stick bit is really loose, and the buttons are awkward for comboing and whatnot. the stick doesn't click, so i'm assuming it just presses directional buttons on the board (like the actual buttons) rather than using microswitches like other sticks do (eg. the dc stick)

there is an almost identical-looking japanese version (same shape, buttons, etc except it's grey with a blue stick) that does have a microswitched stick and is extremely nice to use (although the buttons are the same, so it's down to personal preference i guess). actually, i reckon the stick feels the same as the original neo geo joysticks.

lik sang sells it for ?7:

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=178&products_id=3060&

personally, i have a saturn 'astro city' stick which is similar to the dc stick, but quite large, and has 8 buttons with autofire settings. the stick bit itself isn't that nice compared with the dc stick and the soul calibur 2 stick/vf4e stick, but i found it felt better after a bit of silicone greasing. i don't use it anymore though (it was modded for my xbox but now i use a saturn pad for streetfighter)

[Balou]

Thank you two for your honest anwers.
I don?t think I will be getting one of these old SEGA sticks then, so an adapter is not needed any longer either.

I already have the SC2 and the PSOne "Fighting Stick", however the latter one is not really in a playable condition and I need to replace it by another stick.
I would really like to get that Hori Real Arcade Pro stick, but at the moment I don?t want to spend 100 EUR (~?70) just for that.
Also, I?m a little hesitant about importing large electronic hardware, since it might get damaged and I won?t get a replacement or my money back any time soon. (that?s why I?m looking on eBay for sticks)

A VF4e stick for just 15 EUR would be nice though -- where did you manage to get yours so cheap?

Edit:
Added a picture of the PS Fighting Stick.

[Yoshimoto]

A VF4e stick for just 15 EUR would be nice though -- where did you manage to get yours so cheap?

Bic Camera in Ikebukro. They must have had easily a couple of hundred in a big pile.

[Balou]

That?s in Japan, right?
Unfortunately, I won?t be able to get there any time soon. (although I would like to visit Japan some day - not just for video games)

Anyway, I found this two player stick on eBay: Blaze 2 Player Board.
I know, it?s Blaze but .. who knows, maybe there was an accident and it turned out to be good?!
Any comments on this stick?

[Balou]

@ Balou:
That Blaze board isn?t supposed to very good according to what I have read in the shoryuken.com forum. (weak durability)

Balou Answer: Oh thanks! I?m glad I didn?t buy it then.


Anyway, I got a new (official) Dreamcast arcade stick today.
When I first tried to move the stick it felt very spongy and it wasn?t really possible to hit the restrictor plate with the stick (or only with a lot of force).
I then opened and dismantled the stick to see what?s causing this.
(since I have never used the DC stick before I couldn?t tell whether that?s normal or not)
I stretched the spring a bit and put everything back together without changing anything else.
Now the "sponginess" is completely gone and the stick feels similar to the SC2 Hori stick, just a little more smooth running and with longer travel.
I don?t know what happened but I like it the way it is now much better.
Anyone know how the stick is really supposed to "feel" like?

By the way, I?m going to try to "mod" this stick for use with the PS2.
I hope it works out fine and I will be able to post here again with a working PS2 stick

[HHarm]

I'm not certain we speak of the same thing but I find the Dreamcast stick too stiff. I find playing fighters hard with it. Maybe I should try to do what you did.

I don't agree with billy_dimashq about the 'Astro City' Virtua Stick. I think the stick is very good and quite close to the Hori Sticks. It's one of my favourite sticks. Question of opinion of course but maybe you should give it a try if you can.

[Balou]

Added a picture of the stick.

From my experience with arcade sticks I feel that this one is very loose.
The deadzone is also quite large and there is very few resistance when moving the stick.

[randombs]

well maybe mine is a bit duffed up? i dunno, i read some posts on here after i bought it that the stick wasn't nice, and i have compared it side-by-side with a dc stick...

mind you i'm sick of sticks nowadays thanks to the saturn pad, and i can't really play sf that well with the sanwa-styled sticks anyway. i prefer ones with a circular base - these ones are square-based so i end up getting hte stick caught up in the corners in the heat of a fight

[Balou]

Just finished my Dreamcast stick conversion project.
As this is the first time I have done such thing I?m quite happy with the results.
The inside surely doesn?t look as pretty and cleaned up as before, but who cares...

However, I?m not quite as happy with the handling of the stick in VF4.
I have the impression that the stick requires much more precise input than the SC2 Hori stick. Sometimes I also feel a little lost when moving the stick, since there is so much space until you hit the restrictor plate.
The motion cannot be inputted as smoothly as with the SC2 stick. Often I need to wait a short time until the stick returns to the center and then go for the next direction (e.g. with dragon punch after -> or <-, then wait and input |\ or |/ in one motion instead of doing everything in just a single "triangle" motion).
Maybe I still need to learn how the stick "wants" to be directed, but in particular crouching dashes are a little hard to pull off at the moment (and I was hoping the opposite would be the case).

Anyway, I will be getting that Japanese Saturn stick soon and try to convert it as well.
In the meantime, does anyone know if Hori replacement parts are available somewhere?
I?m looking for the small plastic thing in the SC2 Hori stick that sits right under the snap ring. That little thing broke a few weeks earlier but I don?t want to abandon the whole stick just for that tiny part.

Edit:
I was able to reproduce the broken part out of wood, and it works surprisingly well too. Probably it won?t last very long though, but for now my SC2 stick is back for duty.

[Balou]

Does anyone know the differences between the Japanese and European (US?) version of the Dreamcast stick (->see picture in earlier post)?