Buying a good arcade stick

Thread in 'Hardware' started by 8BitMissingno, 8 Jan 2015.

  1. I was inspired to get into TGM by seeing the wonderful crew do their thing at AGDQ 2015. I have always loved Tetris, but I never knew how to improve myself, as Tetris DS and the other Tetris games that I owned never pushed me to get better. I want to buy a good arcade stick so that I can play TGM2+ on a MAME emulator, but the market is large and I don't know what I'm looking at. Anybody have some advice for me?
     
  2. Muf

    Muf

    It doesn't really matter much, but things to look out for are:

    - Sanwa stick (JLF-TP-8Y)
    - Sanwa buttons (OBSF-30)
    - Compatibility with your USB chipset (OHCI/EHCI)
    - Carriage bolts that sit in the way of where you put your wrist
    - Price
     
  3. For clarity, the first three you want. The fourth one not so much.

    If you can get hold of one, the Fightstick Tournament Edition (and the new Version 2) is a very good stick despite being made by MadCatz, though they tend to be pretty expensive these days.
     
  4. Hey I was wondering if I could get some technical assistance. I have a Mad Catz Street Fighter IV Arcade Fightstick Xbox Edition that doesn't seem to work with games like Nullpomino or Cultris, however works perfectly fine with USF4 PC and other PC Games. Does anyone have any experience with this fight stick? I have only replaced the buttons because they were getting old.

    Any help would be super appreciated as I have tried all of my USB slots as well as another computer.
     
  5. First its an arcade stick, next thing you know you have an arcade cabinet.

    I think the cheapest option is to go for the fightstick pro by madcatz, they go on sale all the time and right before evo. Its what i use and works great for fighters and tetris
     
  6. Just spitballing a bit here, but it might be because the way Xbox 360 controllers are recognised within Windows (I'm assuming you're on Windows). I know from trying to get PS4 controllers to work on PC that Windows has a kind of basic controller format, which is what it will recognise by default, but which is kind of shitty. Xbox 360 controllers are recognised differently by Windows as another type of gaming controller, and they use different drivers which offer more features for the controller than the basic one, meaning that for a PS4 controller you're actually better off convincing WIndows it's an Xbox one because it then uses the better drivers and you get more features.

    What I suspect might be happening is that your Xbox FSTE is being recognised as an Xbox 360 controller (which is correct), but that games like Nullpomino and Cultris which aren't professionally developed don't have support for recognising Xbox 360 stuff, just the crappy standard Windows game controller one. On the other hand games like SF4 will be developed with 360 controller support in mind because they're a very common gamepad to use on PCs.

    Unfortunately I have no idea how to effectively downgrade how Windows recognises your controller (except for uninstalling or otherwise disabling the Xbox 360 drivers), but maybe my theory might help you figure out where to look :\
     
  7. I have this stick: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0095C6JRW/ref=pe_385721_37038051_TE_dp_1
    and I really love it, and was affordable at £84 new in box. when I bought it last April. The "SA" part of the product name means it uses authentic sanwa arcade parts if I remember correctly.

    For playing Tetris, you want a stick that you can easily switch from 8-way to 4-way. And with this particular model at least. It's as easy as unscrewing the bottom plate and rotate the ring around the stick and there you go.

    Though the PS3 version is unfortunately not available anymore. The X360 one is, but it's much more expensive...
     
    Last edited: 8 Jan 2015
  8. Yeah I have noticed that while playing PC Games at a buddy's house. Yeah It looks like I may have to save up for a normal Fight Stick. This is one of my friends' old fightsticks when he was getting into competitive SF. Thanks for the quick response, I have looked online however I can't seem to find any "older versions" or versions that have spoofed a downgrade. Good idea though. Thanks again!


    To actually help with the thread, I highly recommend Sanwa as they are the awesome brand behind a lot of good sticks.
     
  9. I was thinking about a Hori Real Arcade series stick. I'll definitely get one of those when I have the money! Thanks to everyone who had input (pun intended) I was also wondering if the restriction plate matters at all when playing TGM.
     
    Last edited: 9 Jan 2015
  10. I think this will let you use your XInput device with DirectInput software, like Nullpomino or Cultris: https://code.google.com/p/x360ce/
     
  11. And there's always Joy2Key that let you map joystick movement to keyboard input.
     
  12. Most people prefer to set it to 4-way.
     
  13. I'd say it's a bit more than preference. Having the stick set to 4-way ("diamond" shaped) is pretty critical, as the game doesn't respond to diagonal movement. You want the stick to snap cleanly to the four cardinal directions.

    If you're using a Sanwa JLF, it's handy to have an extra gate if you plan to use it for other games. They seem to break easily when switching between 4/8-way; I guess they were designed with the expectation that they'd be set once and left alone. Right now I have some set to 4-way and some set to 8-way so I don't have to risk snapping them when switching to play shmups or something.
     
  14. Does anyone have suggestions for something Mac compatible? In theory anything that registers as a generic HID controller should work, but I've had mixed success before so if anyone has experience with them it would be useful. I also just tried using a joystick mapper with a generic gamepad and NullPomino didn't like that at all (started with corrupted graphics)...anyone know if that's a known issue, or something special I ran into?
     
  15. I use a HRAP3 PS3 version with my Mac. I got it because I heard that X360 controllers don't work too well, but I've never actually tried one to see for myself.
     
  16. I really like my Seimitsu LS-32 for TGM, or any Tetris i guess. Bought it originally for shoot'em ups, cause my Sanwas weren't really cutting it (switching to Seimitsu instantly improved my scores, no kidding), but the higher sensitivity is great for those quick reactions, and set to 4-way it controls perfectly. Don't even consider 8-way unless you hate yourself XD

    Sanwa JLF sticks are still great for any game that wants you to persom shoryuken moves though.
     
  17. Muf

    Muf

  18. There's a huge difference :p A shoryuken move requires you to both input a diagonal, and switch fast between sideways and down without accidentally hitting the diagonal inbetween. :) A Tetris Zangi doesn't actually use the diagonals.
     
  19. Muf

    Muf

    I'd still like to see you pull it off on a Seimitsu :p
     
  20. It's just up-sideways-down, why do you think it's a problem? :)
     

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