X-Arcade Joystick Replacement - IL Eurostick

[ExedExes]

I've had my X-Arcade Solo stick since 2007. It has performed admirably here at GameEx and in the multi-site tournaments I've been a part of, but then I caught wind of people replacing the stock joystick with newer, more arcade-grade components. Names like HAPP, Sanwa, Ultimarc kept coming up in searches I typed in. But there was one that seemed to win the praises of gamers everywhere, the IL Eurostick.

IL (Industrias Lorenzo) is a company from Spain that's been making parts for arcade games for a very long time. They manufactured HAPP Competition sticks before HAPP outsourced to China, making them lower quality. So I ordered a black colored IL Eurostick from Paradise Arcade Shop (good site for arcade-grade parts) and it came in this week, so I got to work.

This is the underside of the Eurostick. The actuator is nylon, not rubber or plastic, which will stand up to much more use. They also use Cherry microswitches. The square shape is nice for direct contact.

Compared to the stock X-Arcade stick, with no actuator to speak of, instead using metal clips to make contact with the microswitches, which can be bent and affected by changes in temperature.

So after opening up the bottom of the stick, there was a bit of effort needed to remove the nuts from the base of the stock stick. I needed to unscrew the microswitches to be able to get to those nuts. Removed the old stick, and put the new one in. One problem, the well where the old stock stick sat was a *little* short compared to the new plastic base of the Eurostick. Fortunately, the MDF-style wooden construction of the X-Arcade was easy to work with. I ended up carving out the top and right of the old joystick well (including the corner) with a utility knife, and then the plastic Eurostick base fit in, and then I torqued the nuts by hand so that they wouldn't be so tight in the future.

The Eurostick is now installed. The C-clip was a little bit of a pain to put back in. Now to the wiring. It wasn't difficult as I took a picture beforehand, as well as downloading the wiring schematic PDF from the X-Arcade site.

Fully wired again. Before I put the bottom panel back on, I tested it in MAME, and the performance difference is substantial. Less clicking noise from the microswitches, much smoother circular movements, and faster directional response times.

The X-Arcade is a good entry level stick, but for all the cheap parts (as well as the wood) they used, it's not a bad idea to at least change out the joystick. I know it will serve me much better in the future. I don't mod much, but this was a big successful project for me.

[Draco1962]

Nice info! Did you have to buy any adapter plates or just carved the exiting hole out a little to get it to fit? Also, what color and style top did you get and are they replaceable without having to remove the entire stick assembly?

[ExedExes]

The only thing I had to do to get it to fit was to cut out a small portion of the well that the old joystick sat in, it was just about a quarter inch (or less) too big.

I got the black colored stick with the bat top because the X-Arcade stick was also black and a bat top. You probably could just unscrew the old assembly and put the new joystick in, but they're sold as a complete unit with a new base.

[Draco1962]

Good to know. I prefer the bat to the ball tops. Eventually I want to mod my Tankstick to include a spinner and would also like to eventually change out the buttons and sticks and skin the panel possibly based off of one of the skins I created in this thread.

[stigzler]

Nice work + damn - worried might have to replace my Seimitsu's now!! How do these work with schmups? Nice smooth circular??

And finally.... a European part to be proud of in terms of arcade parts...

[ExedExes]

Nice work + damn - worried might have to replace my Seimitsu's now!! How do these work with schmups? Nice smooth circular??

Absolutely! Controls on shmups are far better! Diagonal movements are MUCH easier to do now. It's also much better for fighting games and their circular motions, because of the direct contact the large actuator makes with the switches, as opposed to the actuator on the X-Arcade stick hitting a metal clip that can wear out and THEN hits the switch. That adds a little bit of delay, if you think about it! This was a long time coming, and I'm loving it.