Recommend me an Arcade stick

[HeXen]

Somthing not too pricey, $50 range. Mostly for Mame games.
Something with a good old school arcade feel to it with solid feel buttons, not the generic loose buttons that tend to make noise when you hit it.

 

[smackababy]

For $50 you're not going to get a quality arcade stick. And buttons making noise? I have Sanwa buttons on my arcade stick and they make noise. You can't get any better buttons imo.

Hori has some cheaper arcade sticks that are decent if you're just looking for mess around. I believe you can swap the buttons for japanese arcade buttons (Sanwa or Seimetsu) for like $3 a button plus shipping.

If you wanted something "professional", the Madcatz TE sticks and the Hori HRAP VLX are the best that can be purchased. And from what I've been told, the Xbox 360 versions are the best for PC due to the Windows drivers or something.

 

[HeXen]

How is the street fighter one? i don't need a pro stick of course. this is for mame games mostly, i just don't want a junk one with funky buttons or non responsive feel.

 

[pwnagesarus]

I've recently been doing research on an arcade stick as well.

From what I've read, the Street Fighter 4 Tournament Edition arcade sticks do use Sanwa parts and are supposed to be fantastic. However, they are difficult to find now and start at $100 but can easily go up to $300. Here is a short list of the Tournament Edition sticks that I know of:

-Street Fighter 4 Fightstick Tournament Edition (the original)
-Street Fighter 4 Fightstick Tournament Edition Round 2 (for the most part, only cosmetic differences to the original)
-Super Street Fighter 4 Fightstick Tournament Edition S (Smaller than the original)
-BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Fightstick Tournament Limited Edition (Identical to SSF4 Fight Stick TE-S)

A more cost effective option would be to purchase the regular SF4 stick, which can be had for under $100. The quality isn't as good but it's fairly simple modify it with Sanwa parts to create a "quality" stick. Supposedly, some of the Hori sticks are difficult to mod.

In any case, if you do decide to purchase a SF4 stick, like Smackbaby mentioned, please get the Xbox360 stick. The 360 sticks are essentially plug and play while the PS3 sticks run into driver issues with USB. With the PS3 sticks, your motherboard needs to be using a UHC 1.1 USB controller (Intel proprietary) or you'll need to purchase a PCI USB Controller with the Via VT6212 chipset.

 

[HeXen]

Well i came across this on deals extreme for under $60 shipped. uses Sanwa joystick i guess, anyway it got excellent reviews, looks very nice, kinda has that retro arcade sorta shape to it.
So i think i may go with it..what do yall think?

http://www.qanba.com/product_view.asp?n_id=65

 

[pwnagesarus]

That particular one doesn't appear to be Sanwa; the more expensive Qanba sticks do use Sanwa parts and receive very positive reviews.

However, if that doesn't matter to you, the price definitely looks right.

 

[Sureshot324]

Are you you playing any fighting games? If so definitely spend the money to get one with Sanwa parts.

 

[Mandres]

If you have access to basic woodworking tools you can buy the components straight from Sanwa/Happ's distributors and make your own case to put them in. Check out http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/http://www.byoac.com

 

[GundamW]

A few months ago, I was considering getting a MadCatz 360 SE and mod it with Sanwa parts. There are youtube videos that show you how to mod them. Doesn't look that hard.
(Then got lazy and bought the 360 TE from ebay instead. Works pretty well on the PC: Steam, SF4.)

An article on modding the MadCatz SE/TE stick:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/revie...ighter-iv-sticks-ars-mods-reviews-loves.ars/1

You can find the parts from LizardLick (make sure you double check the part numbers.)
Joysticks : Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT-SK ~$25, Sanwa LB-30-N Joystick Bat Top ~$5
http://www.lizardlick.com/Sanwa-JLF-TP-8YT-SK-Joystick_p_260.html

Pushbuttons: Sanwa OBSF-30 ~$3
http://www.lizardlick.com/Sanwa-30mm-Snap-In-Buttons_c_176.html

Thread about Hori sticks:
http://www.narutoforums.com/showthread.php?t=279856&page=131

 

[HeXen]

That particular one doesn't appear to be Sanwa; the more expensive Qanba sticks do use Sanwa parts and receive very positive reviews.

However, if that doesn't matter to you, the price definitely looks right.

If you go to the site, it says its original japanese Sanwa rocker. But i could replace the other parts wieth whatever i'm sure. assuming the buttons are the same size.