Arcade joysticks/buttons/encoder Reccomendations

Damien King

Hi all, Im looking at building my first arcade project, possibly a vewlix clone as I have decent enough woodworking skills and have been looking online at different bits and pieces, Or I might just do a pair of joysticks I havnt really decided yet.. has anyone had experience with the button/joystick/encoder kits?

I was thinking of something along these lines:

http://www.ultracabs.co.uk/usb-interface--standard-joystick-set-109-p.asp

Or are they just cheap rubbish?

Any thoughts/suggestions/experiences/horror stories?

CathalDublin

Most that generic stuff is crap to be honest
I'd personally use an iPac for the encoder and Seimitsu or Sanwa for the sticks

http://www.arcadeworlduk.com/

The Last Bandit

The only thing crap about that USB interface is that it a cheap rip off on an open sourced design

Functionally they work perfect as a USB joystick interface. This means you've to setup all your emulators/frontend to work with a joystick, not a huge deal but can be messy if you're unfamiliar with configuring them from scratch.

The IPac is a far superior product no doubt and has lots of really nice extra features and probably easier to initially setup as its configured to emulate the Mame keyboard by default. But you pay a lot extra for all these features

I've a homemade version (on crappy veroboard) of the open source design running in my bartop and never had any problems with it once its setup.

Damien King

Thanks CathalDublin you have confirmed what I was already thinking, I take it you tried a set and was dissapointed with the results...Is it just the joysticks that are total poop or is it the buttons also?

Thanks also Bandit, I had a look at your slideshow there and theres some really nice projects there, just out of interest do you have more details/links of how you went about making your own encoder? As for configuring things myself im not too bad and any lack of knowledge is subsitiuted with great patience so I usually get there in the end. I have configured emus before to run with sticks and pads, most recent was an xbox 360 fighting stick that first needed to be set up properly with xpadder and then with mame and others, I pretty much had it doing everything I needed from the joystick without having to touch the pc.

Slightly off topic but another of my passions is dj'ing, I use a combination of turntables, vinyl and timedcode vinyl, asio souncards and midi controllers, and that stuff can take a lot of setting up to get it all to play nice together, So I wouldnt exactly be new to head scratching and troubleshooting...

The Last Bandit

The usb encoder is based on this guys work.

http://www.raphnet-tech.com/products/usb_game16/index.php

It's the same basic USB core that lets you connect any controller to usb.

CathalDublin

The only buttons I've ever used are happs so I couldn't comment, but I've gone through pretty much every joystick out there.
I think all the fighter/shmup fans usually recommend Seimitsu sticks.
I personally like the Sanwa with the Octagonal restrictors as they are a good all rounder and even work pretty well with 4way games.
I like the iPac because its setup for MAME by default and all the most used shift keys are even setup. I has a bad experience with the gewizz encoder though so I've always just stuck the ipac after that. I've tried all the ultimarc sticks and didn't really fancy any of them.

Sorry for the late post, just found this forum, didn't realise A&R had set up a cab building section.:D

In case you haven't already forked out for something, steer clear of the generic stick and button packs. I've built a few cabs now and there's no comparison between them and more reputable brands. You really do get what you pay for, and the cheaper stuff will annoy you after a while, meaning a re-fit job to swop it out for new stuff. The joysticks are poor enough quality, you'll miss inputs on them occasionally, and they're a pain to adjust switches on etc, and the buttons are noisy, hollow and cheap.

The cheaper sticks use different switching systems to the better stuff, and the cheaper buttons use cheaper springs and much cheaper switches that are noisy and not rated for as many thousands of presses as the better stuff, so will fail earlier, meaning more maintenance work.

Sanwa or semitsu sticks are some of the best choices. Most fighting game fans use sanwa JLF sticks, which have built in PCB's and just plug in by means of a connector and work. Normally fighting games require very accurate and reliable hardware, so what works for them works well for most other kinds of game too. The JLF sticks are quite light, not a very heavy spring in them, so depending on your preference you can mod them or maybe go for a semitsu with a heavier spring, but really that's just personal preference.

Restrictor gates are an important consideration too. A restrictor is a piece of plastic that either snaps on or is in-built into the stick, and governs whether it's restricted to a circular, octagonal, or square pattern when you rotate it 360 degrees, whether you feel corners etc, and how heavy the corners are. Different people like different gates, but as a rule of thumb, most people in europe apart from high end fight game players are used to circular or sometimes octagonal restrictors. Most of the cabs you've ever played in an arcade will have American style circle gates on them.

Buttons wise, my personal preference would be happ ultimates, they are fairly light concave buttons that last a long time. A lot of players, particularly fighting game players again, like sanwa OBSF or OBSN or happ competition pushbuttons. These are very light touch, fast response buttons, with a very shallow deadzone, so as soon as you touch them you activate the switch. They're also convex, meaning that they are a "bubble" shape under your finger, rather than the usual concave type which is a little dip that your finger sits into. Again, it's personal preference, but the sanwas are better for games where you'll need a lot of rapid response accurately timed button presses, because they are light, and fast. Concave buttons are probably better for all rounder play.

My current machine, which is a bartop all rounder with a mix of different games on it, has sanwa JLF sticks with octagonal restrictors, with added extra springs to make them a little tougher and harder wearing, and happ ultimate concave pushbuttons as they are nice all-rounders. I use a sanwa JLF with a square gate, and sanwa OBSN buttons in another stick which i use specifically for fighting games on consoles.

Personally i'd go with the ultimarc encoders too. They are more expensive but much better and simpler than anything on the market. I've used lots of them over maybe 10 years, and i've never had a single problem with any of them. An ultimarc ipac or minipac is a good starting point.

On sticks and buttons, the best thing to do is try as many out as you can to get a feel for what you like. Once you stay away from the cheap lower end stuff, above a certain quality level it's all down to personal preference and what you like the feel of.