Um....in a week or two, i plan on treating myself to a Joystick of some sort, and i figured i should ask you guys whats up in this department before i went out and got one. is there an AWEOSME one you recommend? is there a most popular one i should get? is there one to NOT buy cause it's cheap and breaks? blah blah blah blah blah blah blah? any input would by much appreicated. oh and um ...i plan on hooking it up to my computer if it makes any diffrence. EDIT: i really like amesia's setup and wanted to know what kinda joystick that was.
Hori Real Arcade Pro 3 seems to be the most popular one. Along with the Virtua Stick High Grade, but they're pretty rare nowadays. Probably new models coming out reasonably soon, but they're the main two to look at if you're splashing out.
Don't get any Hori "Fighting Stick" controllers. The parts suck and it can't go 4-way and it'll break before you even get to use it (well mine did ). Just go all the way and get a proper stick or none at all. Rosti had good suggestions, and there are good SF4 sticks coming soon as well.
I second that. And make sure the stick is able to be placed into 4-way mode -- most Sanwa and Seimitsus are able. Happ (american) sticks generally cannot. Some people build and SELL custom stick boxes (constructed wood box + joystick + buttons + game interface) at http://www.shoryuken.com/forums
Is it also available with USB? I only found a Playstation 2 specific one but would ideally like to use it on PS2 as well as on PC.
Hori Real Arcade Pro. 3 is for Playstation 3, which uses USB and hence it works on PC out of the box - no extra drivers needed or anything. The one you saw was probably Hori Real Arcade Pro. 2 which is for Playstation 2. Now, there are converters that'll make Playstation 2 controllers compatible with computers - the problem is that none (or very few) of these converters poll the input every frame, so you will get input lag.
I thought he meant he was trying to use a HRAP3 for a PS2, which wouldn't be possible as it's not compatible (as far as I'm aware?).
You can mod your hrap 3 (or you vshg) with a double pcb (adding one ps1 pad pcb in it). That's what I did (well, a friend of mine did for me lol), works great !
I just upgraded from a Fighting Stick 3 to a Real Arcade Pro, and the difference is amazing. The fighting stick feels really cheap and clumsy compared to the RAP, which is rock solid. I also added Seimitsu buttons and a matching ball top with all the air bubbles in it so it looks as good as it feels. Bottom line, don't go cheap because you'll eventually have to upgrade to the real thing anyway. Save yourself time and money and get the best.
I agree with that line too, and it's a sentiment expressed by many joystick users here. When buying a stick, either go pro or not at all, even if you're just "trying it out". For real, it's worth it.
thanks for the suggestions everybody. i was reading this thread again today while looking for a PS2 stick, and i might be getting a HRAP 2. it's going to be that or nothing at all. no crappy fighting stick or bat stick! (although maybe a bat stick would be appropriate for playing Lockjaw, hmm?)
Well, I just bought a HRAP3 and I can say that it is a very very nice stick. Already, I am beating my Ti-ARS Doom records!
I have a question about the stick. A lot of people talk about switching the parts out for Sanwa or Seimitsu. Is this just a preference thing? I figure these parts are better than the original parts since it wouldn't make much sense to trade off to worse parts, but I was wondering if this is just for a slight improvement or if this is needed to make it a good stick?
I never even tried the Hori buttons in my HRAP3 (the stick is already a real arcade standard Sanwa stick), I added around 10 euro to get 100% IRL arcade parts (8 sanwa buttons, haha, only 3-4 of them are used in Tetris ). I don't really believe that the Hori buttons are bad (especially not for just some tetris ;P), it's just that it didn't cost so much to get the real deal and know you have the best stuff.
