Retro Arcade Sticks you've tried and your comments.

[Molloy]

I also got my Namco stick for just ?8. Lovely button layout.

Used to have a quickshot stick back on the Mega Drive that wasn't bad. Only had 3 buttons though.

My favourite ever pad was a 6-button Quickshot one. It was even better than the Jap Saturn pad. Wish I hadn't gotten rid of it when I sold my MD.

[anephric]

Continuing the Cash Converters love-in, I got two boxed DC arcade sticks from them (one for ?6, one for ?8 ): the second one was a bit knackered, but a bit of tinkering got it back to near minty new glory

[kyo_244]

Continuing the Cash Converters love-in, I got two boxed DC arcade sticks from them (one for ?6, one for ?8 ): the second one was a bit knackered, but a bit of tinkering got it back to near minty new glory

So are the official DC sticks any good when compared to the PS2 hori pro?

[Tychom]

The Pro has better sticks & buttons but it's super huge and expensive. With some tinkering you can mod the DC stick to put all proper arcade parts in, then it's unbeatable IMO (unless 8 buttons is your thing).

[Destrukticor]

you may well see the astro stick (HSS 0130) in the for sale folder soon....

[Eps]

I've tried a few. Modded DC sticks are very nice -- I love the Hori RAP too though, the fact that it's so massive is precisely what I like about it. I play a lot of shoot-em-ups, but am without stick for my PC ones at the moment (see my topic in the Wanted forum if you've got one for sale, btw) -- this is a real shame as there are two genres that really get the best out of a good arcade stick: shoot-em-ups and 2D fighting games. Playing my shoot-em-ups with the keyboard is markedly inferior.

[saturn-gamer]

I've got these:

The official DC arcade stick: It plays great with 3D games like VF3, SC, Zombie Revenge, Virtua Striker etc. But its mediocre with 2d titles, as the 8 way plate is not designed for it.

Official Namco PS1 stick (the same some of you guys mean, yellow buttons?): Its stick and buttons are the same as the DC stick. Therefore it rocks with VF4 and the SC series, and kind of sucks with SF3 (and its not that good with Tekken too.. possibly because Tekken is very 2d ish).

Fighter Stick X Acii Saturn: The stick itself is great for 2D games, I can pull of every special, but the buttons kind of suck, not just themselves but also the placing of the extra 2. I ripped out the L and R because they were badly placed. I just want my arcadestick to have 2 rows of 3 buttons, it that so hard?

[Kubrick]

I have experience of these, either because I have them, or did have at one point:

SEGA HKT-7300 Arcade Stick [Dreamcast]. Pretty decent, but like Tychom says, the buttons aren't the greatest and the stick has a habit of getting stuck in the diagonal positions.

SEGA HSS-0136 Virtua Stick [Saturn]. One of the best in terms of build quality, performance and looks. Extra buttons are handy for 4-button games (ie: NeoGeo). Japan-only.

SEGA CS2-0007 Virtua Stick [PC]. Exact replica of the SS version mentioned above, except it lacks the novelty autofire function. Japan-only.

SEGA MK-80302 Joystick [Saturn]. The official stick sold in Western markets, but a grey version was also sold in Japan. Horrible in every department, so avoid like the plague.

Namco SLEH-0004 Arcade Stick [PlayStation] Officially-licensed with HORI internals and one of my favourites. Smaller than most, and wedge-shaped, which I find more comfortable for long periods.

HORI SoulCalibur II Stick [PS2/NGC]. Another excellent stick, similar performance to the Namco. Available for PS2 (Black) or GameCube (Purple). Japan-only.

HORI Tekken 5 Anniversary Joystick [PS2]. Included with Tekken 5 "Ultimate Collector's Edition" and similar to the Japanese HORI "Real Arcade Pro". Nice stick in all departments, but too bulky for my liking.

NEOGEO Stick2 [PS2]. Officially-licensed replica of the NeoGeo AES joystick. Save for the extra L/R buttons, it's identical in every way and my weapon of choice for SNK ports. Japan-only.