Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm in the hunt for an Arcade Stick, mostly for MAMEing. I was looking to order an awesome lookin Qanba Q3 from Play-Asia, until i realized the prohibitive costs of shipping it. Even some UK shops like ArcadeWorldUK have shipping costs which are way too high. That leaves me with Amazon only. There aren't Qanba sticks at Amazon, and while many people vouch for Madcatz sticks, they look like they were designed by 15 year olds. There's no way i'm going to have one of those horrible things in my living room.

Apparently the Mayflash and the Datel cheap sticks are crap, but i don't know if that opinion is a consequence of overly demanding gamers.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=arcade+stick&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aarcade+stick

Hori sticks are mostly for consoles. I'm sure some of them may work on PC's, but i'm not sure. Besides, i think most of them don't have real arcade parts, which makes them quit expensive for what they are.

Are there any limits on what you do and dont want from the stick ?

I had a 2 player X-Arcade which i sold and bought a single player one - Its USB so connects to the PC without any problems and I have a weird 360 connection for it which lets me use it on the 360 as well (its actually a set of cables to connect it to a PS2 and then a PS2 to 360 connector but it does all work)

Random Ebay link but i'm sure there will be other places and locations to pick one up

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/X-Arcade-Solo ... 485c8e7d03

The big advantage of it for me is the compatibility with lots of systems - the fact that it is really solid (i've had other arcade style sticks which felt flimsy and as if they would break or snap) and that its all 'real' arcade parts which can be swapped around if you decide to change things.

** edit

Other sticks I've had

Tekken 6 360 wireless stick



This was 'okay' - a little bit of lag and although the actual stick was okay i found the buttons were not the most responsive (convex when i prefer concave) and not a lot of travel in them it was also very light which was great for passing it around to play but it ment that you had to hold it a lot tighter.

There are lots of varients of this stick with different skins on the top but they all seem to be the same basic parts

I also used to have one of these Blaze type sticks (mine was silver and different coloured buttons for P1 / P2 but was essentially the same as this)



This was *really* flimsy and felt like it would snap if you moved the sticks to hard - it also creaked quite a bit :-)

Ahh - this looks more like mine



Avoid them if you can :-)

The 360 uses USB for it's wired pad connection doesn't it? I've got an official wired 360 pad that I bought for using on the PC so it's just standard USB connection but I've also used it in the 360 in the past as well.

Its not 'straight' USB - my X-arcade usb connection is not recognized on the 360 however once i go through the cables it is (the cables for example add a 'xbox' button and a mike out port)

May I just say that I'd love to nail those Blaze sticks to a telly and play SF2 forever.

Mind you, if I'm dreaming, can I just have a SF2 cabinet.

Oh and the original SF cabinet with the spongy pads you thump.

And some gold bars.

3 of them.

I have some reservations concerning the X-Arcade sticks:

-While it's not as tacky as many other sticks, it's quite ugly

- I don't like its buttons disposition. It looks weird. I prefer a normal 2x4 disposition.

-It looks too big. I don't even know if i can fit it on my desk and it doesn't look comfortable to use on lap

-It comes from the US, which means huge shipping costs and troubles at customs.

Have you considered going down the buying parts & making your own casing route?

No, I'm shit at that. But I want a stick that is easy to replace parts in case something breaks.

Ugly is really up to you

The button set is basically a 2 x 3 row (which most arcades still have) with a 1P button at the top and two additional ones at the bottom and then 1 on each side for 'pinball' type games.

I'm not sure of many arcade games which use more than 6 buttons ?

The solo *is* quite big and extended lap use can be a problem but if your putting it on a desk it'll be fine.

I bought mine from the UK (the first one i bought from TK max about 4 or 5 years ago) - they often come up on Ebay in the UK or you can buy from places like this : http://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/X ... stick.html

If you keep an eye out on ebay you will often find people who have built their own and are then selling it on (one of the first sticks I had was like that and it had a passthrough for a PS2 keyboard) which might be a better option if your not sure of what you want.

Yes, maybe ugly is a bit harsh. "Dull" would be a better word, at least when compared to this:



I see what you mean about the buttons, but for me it would make more sense if the extra buttons were above all the others and not under.

The 360 is straight usb but the 360 does something on top so only things with the licensed bit work.

MAdcatz stick is on special today from dabs if your still looking (£70 instead of £130)

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/madcatz ... bs-1781043

Sounds like a good deal, but unfortunately they don't ship abroad, or even accept non-UK credit cards.