Xbox Arcade Stick Recommendations?

[Square]

Yes.


Oh yes.

[Plow King]

What is so bad about the US style sticks like the ones from Happ? Are they too stiff compared to Jap sticks? I had a DC arcade stick and it was great except I wanted a much stiffer stick. Less travel on the stick is better for me as the moves can be done quicker and more precisely. If I could get a Happ competition stick into a DC or HORI stick that would be perfect. Anyone know if this is possible?

[Saurian]

What is so bad about the US style sticks like the ones from Happ? Are they too stiff compared to Jap sticks? I had a DC arcade stick and it was great except I wanted a much stiffer stick. Less travel on the stick is better for me as the moves can be done quicker and more precisely. If I could get a Happ competition stick into a DC or HORI stick that would be perfect. Anyone know if this is possible?

The difference is the stiffness, travel, pressure needed to activate buttons and the positioning of the joystick and buttons.

Japanese sticks have very little travel and are very loose - this is perfect for shoot em ups and beat em ups, in fact they are great on everything. The problem with UK and US style sticks are:

Buttons: The buttons are always FAR too heavy and require too much pressure to contact the switch, in beat em ups you need very light buttons in your getting into deep tech like frame cancels, combos into juggles into supermoves etc etc.

Joysticks: US/UK joysticks are always too big and clumsy, have FAR too much travel and are too stiff - it's like playing on a gearstick FFS! You need a stick that will respond perfectly to very light fast moves of which you dont need to use the full motion range to activate and VERY little pressure is needed to move the stick.

Positioning: you will notice that all decent Japanese sticks follow the exact same template for button positioning. This is the same template used in the arcades too. People making sticks like that X Arcade crap havent realised that peoples' middle 2 fingers stick out further than the index and little finger. Having all the buttons in a straight line as in nearly ALL UK/US sticks is totally wrong and uncomfortable. The joysticks are always spaced too far from the buttons too.

[Plow King]

Thanks Saur. I still found the travel too much on the DC stick. Is there any way to make it shorter i.e making the bottom bulb bit of the stick bigger or can you buy thicker ones?

[Saurian]

Yeah man ^^

I got a DC stick which I dont let anyone even touch! I have shortened the spring in the joystick to make it looser and superglued an elastic band around the bulb to reduce travel.

I dont use the full travel range when I play - that's why I NEED a stick thats very loose!

[Plow King]

Lol great minds think alike. I'm sure I saw a Jap arcade parts website somewhere. I'll see if I can find it and see if you can get thicker joystick bottoms as spare parts.

Good idea on the rubberband though

[Plow King]

http://www.hardmvs.com/html/SanwaJoy.htm

Found that on Shoryuken forums. Wonder if that could be retro fittable to a DC or Hori stick?

[Saurian]

http://www.hardmvs.com/html/SanwaJoy.htm

Found that on Shoryuken forums. Wonder if that could be retro fittable to a DC or Hori stick?

Yes bruv

Sanwa manufactured the sticks that we used on all our cabinets at work. They're excellent and can easily be adjusted.

[Plow King]

Cool. Adjusted how though? Travel adjustment? Whats the make of sticks on the DC and Hori ones?

[Saurian]

The ones on the DC are exactly the same as what you would use on an arcade cabinet. You can alter the length of the spring to adjust the stiffness. These sticks are made to a standard - they all have screwholes etc in the same places.

[Plow King]

Hmm, would extra stiffness compensate for the long travel then? If it sounds like a stupid question I have no idea as there are no decent arcades here in Perth. The latest game is killer instinct. It's a joke tbh.

[Saurian]

Hmm, would extra stiffness compensate for the long travel then? If it sounds like a stupid question I have no idea as there are no decent arcades here in Perth. The latest game is killer instinct. It's a joke tbh.

Bruv

If I could bop down the local arcade and play Killer Instinct I'd be in heaven!

We get some ne stuff here but they are always housed in REALLY bad cabinets with the worst joysticks and buttons imaginable! The sticks on our VF4 EVO machine are like gear levers. And they wonder why they dont make any money...

[Tokuda]

Hmm, would extra stiffness compensate for the long travel then? If it sounds like a stupid question I have no idea as there are no decent arcades here in Perth. The latest game is killer instinct. It's a joke tbh.

Plow- not meaning to be funny, but the best thing to do mate, would be simply to get used to the sensitivity and travel of Japanese sticks, which are perfectly fine tuned for the games that are used with them. Japanese games makers always make the games with this kind of standard stick in mind, so if you were to make the stick stiffer, it would probably be detrimental to how effectively you can play certain games.

[Saurian]

For real - Guilty Gear XX illustrates Tokuda's point precisely

The cancels in that game are so fast you couldnt possibly perform them on a stick with too much travel, it'll be too slow. On games like this the commands are performed so quickly during cancel combos you find you only use the centre of the travel range.

[Plow King]

I guess I'm just too used to the instant respone of pads for past fighting games. I did try to use the DC stick Tokuda but it was too much travel for me to pull out the moves quick enough. Thats why I wanted a shorter travel version.