Suggest an Arcade controller board for a MAME cabinet build.

Suggest an Arcade joystick for a MAME cabinet build.

1st post on this forum. Hooray!

Looking to build an arcade cabinet from Rec Room Masters and have read that the X-Arcade Tankstick isn't good. Among the complaints I read are that one needs to really press the joystick to the outer edge to register any movement, there's a the strange simultaneous 6-button limitation on the 2-player panel via USB, that not every motherboard or add-on card detects it even though it's PS/2-compatible, and that the manufacturer provides either terrible or non-existing customer support.

For those reasons, I'm looking into buying something else, unless all of these issues have been addressed since then.

What would you recommend?

Optimally, it would be really cool if it looked like the panel that Rec Room Masters has for pre-order (see below for pic) but nobody has any real experience with it. Any other suggestions, along those lines?



Otherwise, I could live with 2 separate joystick pads. I'd hope for something durable with quiet button operation (if possible) coming from a company that provides great support.

Thanks again to everybody and please remember that I'm a newbie in the whole arcade-building thing, so be gentle on me.

 

Maybe post in this part of the forum. You may get more replies.http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?27-Arcade-and-Supergun

 

Hey guys!

Looking to build an arcade cabinet from Rec Room Masters and have read that the X-Arcade Tankstick isn't good. Among the complaints I read are that one needs to really press the joystick to the outer edge to register any movement, there's a the strange simultaneous 6-button limitation on the 2-player panel via USB, that not every motherboard or add-on card detects it even though it's PS/2-compatible, and that the manufacturer provides either terrible or non-existing customer support.

For those reasons, I'm looking into buying something else, unless all of these issues have been addressed since then.

What would you recommend?

Optimally, it would be really cool if it looked like the panel that Rec Room Masters has for pre-order (see below for pic) but nobody has any real experience with it. Any other suggestions, along those lines?



Thanks again to everybody and please remember that I'm a newbie in the whole arcade-building thing, so be gentle on me.

 

The X Arcade Stick should do fine if you're an American. For about $130 for two players it's not that bad. If you're afraid of the stock joysticks you can always replace them with ILs. Some people want to recreate that pizzeria experience, and some people want to play like in a Japanese arcade. Find your style anyway.

Six buttons is enough for MAME games, since only Capcom games bother with six, everybody else uses two or three buttons. Neo Geo games just need 4.

 

Yeah, I have the X-Arcade, and it's not bad. I've never dealt with their support, and I am planning on replacing the joysticks, but I do like the buttons.

 

Don't waste your money on an X-Arcade, they look nice but are really on the lower end of the scale in terms of component quality. Best place to ask is Tech Talk on Shoryuken forums, it's probably one of the largest sources of knowledge for arcade hardware. There are various options for arcade sticks on PC, Xbox 360 controllers/sticks can be used on PC for starters, you can also get many others with PC support, the Qanba Q4RAF springs to mind. My advice would be to build your own, that way you can find a compatible controller/converter method of your choice and choose your own stick/buttons including silent ones, but unfortunately not everyone is in the position to do this. Ultimately however you should avoid the X-Arcade and similarly marketed sticks, the money is better put into something that is of higher quality and longer lasting.

http://forums.shoryuken.com/categories/tech-talk

 

Custom built control panel (plenty of places that will build you one to spec for a couple of hundred), real arcade sticks and buttons from someplace like Suzo-Happ and a PC connector like a jpac/ipac/whatever is currently out right now.

 

If you're building a cabinet, why would you need to buy this? Just put sticks and buttons in it, as per a regular arcade cabinet. Obviously, you'd need an interface (e.g. I-PAC) if you're putting a PC in it, but this will be a LOT cheaper than that extortionate price.

 

My two cents :

Both suggestions are good actually, it's just your personal preference. It is true that the X-Arcade is not that good compared to the best Arcade Sticks quality wise, but since it's a MAME cabinet, I would not assume it's gonna be used for tournaments or require perfect button combos and timings, then the X-Arcade will be fine.

But if you're planning to use it on execution heavy games like SF and Marvel VS Capcom and want reliability and Japanese style sticks then you will need something like Qanba arcade sticks.

 

For Japanese-style parts, you want Sanwa JLF sticks or Seimitsu LS-32s, and the corresponding buttons, Sanwa OBSF 30mm or Seimitsu PS-14-DN 30mm. For American parts, you want to switch to Japanese parts

The Sanwa are the standard arcade part which gets put in every top-end consumer arcade stick peripheral, and the Seimitsu are very similar, but generally slightly favoured by shoot-em-up fans.

My personal opinion of the Xarcade parts is that they are pretty much unusable.

btw I've been making and modding arcade sticks for myself since ~2001, and have tried a fairly large variety of parts.

 

I've merged the two threads. You're better off flagging the topic and requesting it be moved than starting a new thread the same. And don't bump posts sooner than a week - just have patience and someone will get round to answering, as you can see

As I mentioned before, if you're actually building a cabinet, you use joysticks in the same way any cabinet does. In fact, you're better off just getting a cheap generic cab and sticking a PC in it with the appropriate interface(s). You'd get a basic cab WAY cheaper than $350.

 

I just built a stick today and I would say custom is your best bet. I put a MC Cthulhu in it and it works on pretty much any system.

 

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

retro, thanks for merging the 2 threads together. Thing is that it was suggested to me to start a new thread elsewhere on the forum and I was merely following that advice. Won't happen again.

As far as building/assembling one on my own, that's out of the question. As I bothered to explain in the first post, I'm not a handy person nor will I have the patience to learn this new craft. Some people enjoy building things as they enjoy the journey towards their goal of completing it. I only get frustrated. I don't have much time off and can't be bothered to invest hours of learning how to do this, asking questions on forums, troubleshooting, wiring, etc. It's just not for me.

If any of you guys could direct me to places that would assemble me a nice-looking one, that would be greatly appreciated.

As for the cabinet itself, I'd like to have a 32" LCD and most cabs have little TVs. The max I've seen is 27" but I want something bigger (that won't cost 2-3k). Rec Room Masters has something affordable that allows me to have a nice big 32" screen in there.

 

If you don't want to bother building a stick, foehammer makes great custom sticks. foehammershop.com

 

Use proper arcade parts, not that X-Arcade junk. Grab yourself a J-PAC or U-HID, both are good.

EDIT: Oh and if you can, get a 4:3 LCD if you can find one. Not many games use a 16:9 aspect ratio!

 

There was one commercial arcade stick released not too long ago that could be connected to another one to make an instant arcade 2p panel. Can't remember what it was called right now, I'll have a think about it...

 

WAAAAAAAY out of my price range. About 750$ US for 2 joysticks. Yikes.

 

Yeah, I've given up on X-Arcade. Especially the part about the product not supporting more than 6 presses via USB and the poor support was enough to scare me off.

I'll be going with a 32" 16:9 TV. There are some games that I'd like to see as big as possible in that aspect ratio.

 

Yes, but you realise that 99% of the arcade games in MAME run at 4:3?

 

There are other emulators that I'll be using. Not just MAME.

But yes, I did know that. Nevertheless, thanks for posting that.

Wonder if it'd be possible to put a 16:9 monitor on its side to make another cabinet for vertical SHMUPs and other games that have that shape like Pac-Man. Also am wondering what kind of aspect ratio that is and whether it'd be as simple as tilting the display within Windows or MAME on its side to take advantage of the whole screen.