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Pollyanna

2672th Post

Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master

"Joystick advice" , posted Tue 19 May 20:54

I'm sure this topic has come up before, but here goes anyway!

With SFIV out and KOFXII and BlazBlue on the way, I think it might be time for a controller upgrade.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Personal stories? Joysticks they DON'T recommend?

For the record, I'm not a joystick enthusiast, and for me at least, a good joystick is not necessarily better than a good pad. But the PS3 and 360 pads are NOT good pads, so any decent joystick would be an improvement.

I think maybe the most of the most expensive ones would be wasted on me, but since I usually use pads, a cheap one might not be an improvement.

I'm mostly looking for one for PS3, but if there was one that also worked on 360, that might tip my opinion in its favor.

青春謳歌　弱肉強食

Replies:

EddyT

784th Post

Red Carpet Regular Member+

"Re(1):Joystick advice" , posted Tue 19 May 21:23

If you are going for versatile, I would go for a Hori stick like Real Arcade Pro 3 for PS3. Middle-road cost at around 100 bucks but built solid and can handle a beating.

If you are looking for the best around, Arcade in a Box (arcadeinabox.com) is hands down the best I have ever laid hands on. They also have a stick that is dual-system for both PS3 and 360. However, the price is steep (about 240 bones for dual system, 155 bones for a single PS3 stick) and there is a wait time of 8-10 weeks I believe.

I don't recommend getting the Madcatz SFIV Special Edition Stick (the cheaper version). I don't know if they fixed the problem, but this stick has a huge design flaw where the joystick rubs on the circuit board, rendering it useless after playing for a while. If you can get a Tournament Edition stick for it, it may be worth the 150 dollars spent if you can find it around. I liked playing on it but I still prefer AIAB as the best stick I have ever played on.

So, get a Real Arcade Pro 3 stick for PS3 if you can. They have a RAP stick for 360, but it's harder to find than the PS3 one AFAIK.

KTallguy

1103th Post

Red Carpet Premium Member+

"Re(2):Joystick advice" , posted Tue 19 May 22:22

The Virtua Stick High Grade is really great.
It's for PS3, but you can get it modded with a switch that you can trigger for use on 360 as well.

Unfortunately it costs about 175 dollars... without the mod. I got one for 100 when it came out, but I never realized how rare they would become...

Play to win.

Badoor
68th Post

Occasional Customer

"Re(3):Joystick advice" , posted Tue 19 May 23:18

I have both the hori real arcade pro 3 and the hori fighting stick 3 for my ps3. Strangly I prefer the cheaper one the fighting stick 3 because the joystick on it is less sensitive than the Real Arcade Pro and I find much better to use on your lap with very good precision( I like using it like that. It reminds me of the old Neo Geo days). The Real Arcade Pro does need to be set up on a table and it becomes the definite choice that way.

Speaking of Neo Geo, Exar is releasing a Neo Geo style stick and a 6 button stick with artwork alongside KOF XII. Both are similar to the ones they did for the wii. Anyone know if they are any good. I am more interested in the Neo Geo Stick though.

Oroch

1064th Post

Red Carpet Premium Member

"Re(4):Joystick advice" , posted Wed 20 May 03:00:

quote:
I have both the hori real arcade pro 3 and the hori fighting stick 3 for my ps3. Strangly I prefer the cheaper one the fighting stick 3 because the joystick on it is less sensitive than the Real Arcade Pro and I find much better to use on your lap with very good precision( I like using it like that. It reminds me of the old Neo Geo days). The Real Arcade Pro does need to be set up on a table and it becomes the definite choice that way.

Speaking of Neo Geo, Exar is releasing a Neo Geo style stick and a 6 button stick with artwork alongside KOF XII. Both are similar to the ones they did for the wii. Anyone know if they are any good. I am more interested in the Neo Geo Stick though.

i'd buy the neogeo stick

may have to import it :(

[this message was edited by Oroch on Wed 20 May 03:01]

Pollyanna

2673th Post

Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master

"Re(5):Joystick advice" , posted Wed 20 May 22:18

Thank you so much for the input~! For the record, I have a "little joystick table", so lap vs. table is a non-issue.

From looking around, I guess I would prefer the Real Arcade Pro, but the VF stick seems pretty much equally nice.

BUT YOU CAN'T FIND EITHER OF THEM ANYWHERE!
(not for a reasonable price at least)

A lot of places are taking RAP preorders now, but at $130, by the time I pay for shipping that's going to be a bit pricy.

If anyone has any suggestions or knows something I don't know, feel free to tell me.

If the RAP was priced at $100 (as it was), then the cheaper model just seems like a poor buy, but with it at half the price, it's almost tempting. Still, I think the nuisance from knowing I have the inferior model when only a bit more money would've gotten me the good one would drive me crazy.

青春謳歌　弱肉強食

Zepy

1542th Post

Red Carpet V.I.P- Platinum Member

"Re(6):Joystick advice" , posted Thu 21 May 16:10

I love the RAP, the joystick and buttons are really easy to change just by opening the case and then plucking out some wires and all that.

You could easily change the parts to if you like seimitsu or sanwa, or at the very least be nicely assured that you would be able to easily replace anything that breaks on the joystick.

The cheaper Hori Fighting stick doesn't allow easy changing of the parts like the RAP and just plainly doesn't feel good to play with, but that's just me because I'm crazy about arcades.

Also this site might be useful in helping you decide.

Pollyanna

2675th Post

Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master

"Re(7):Joystick advice" , posted Thu 21 May 20:01

Wheeeee...."preordered" an RAP.

Work has been killing me lately, so it wasn't difficult to convince myself that I deserved it.

One less thing to worry about!

The converters for 360 aren't exactly cheap, but they're reasonable enough so that if I feel the absolute need in the future, it isn't an impossibility.

My only regret now is that I got a US PS3, so I can't use it on all my import PS2 games.

青春謳歌　弱肉強食

ktallguy

1106th Post

Red Carpet Premium Member+

"Re(8):Joystick advice" , posted Fri 22 May 11:59:

Congrats on your decision!

It is really a pain that I can't play JP PS2 fighters on my PS3 though... so happy that they killed region stuff, but it's not enough!

Edit: Man it's weird, I'm having Avatar issues...

Play to win.

[this message was edited by ktallguy on Fri 22 May 12:00]

Gojira

2529th Post

Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master

"Re(9):Joystick advice" , posted Sat 23 May 04:19:

Well, looks like you already settled. I'll enter my suggestion anyway though.

I second EddyT's recommendation for Arcade-in-a-Box. I know one guy that got the Arcade Slim one, and it's pretty slick, good quality and works with both PS3 and 360 (I haven't seen many sticks that can boast this feature). $240 + shipping is a bit steep for most but I'd say it's worth the trouble if you're getting it for the long run. Especially since PS3->360 converters are kind of crappy right now.

They're kind of swamped though, so anyone that orders from them right now should keep in mind that there's a wait.

BTW, those PS3/360 cord mods? Scary as shit to try yourself. Unless you have complete confidence in cutting up a USB cord yourself, I'd recommend leaving those mods to the pros.

Hyper edit:
Also, don't buy anything Madcatz makes. Not even those TE sticks. You'll regret it.

~~shipoopi~~

[this message was edited by Gojira on Sat 23 May 04:28]

hikarutilmitt

492th Post

Gold Customer

"Re(8):Joystick advice" , posted Sat 23 May 07:37

quote:
Wheeeee...."preordered" an RAP.

Work has been killing me lately, so it wasn't difficult to convince myself that I deserved it.

One less thing to worry about!

The converters for 360 aren't exactly cheap, but they're reasonable enough so that if I feel the absolute need in the future, it isn't an impossibility.

My only regret now is that I got a US PS3, so I can't use it on all my import PS2 games.

Sadly, cost-effective and good don't necessarily go hand in hand when it comes to arcade sticks. One easy way to go is to see about getting a Mad Catz SE stick for whichever system (I'd recommend 360, as I'll explain below) and then swapping out the stock parts with Sanwa/Seimitsu buttons and a Sanwa JLF. This will still make it cheaper than a TE, the same parts and swapping these parts out is painfully easy.

If you mainly want it on PS3 get a PS3 version, but if you get a 360 one you can get a Cthulhu board and an imp board from Toodles over at SRK and get someone to install them for you. The best part is that this makes it an eventual purchase instead of having to thrown down $150 or so all at once.