X-Arcade joystick questions

**LucasBarton** · February 23, 2008

I'm thinking about getting an X-Arcade joystick to use with my HTPC and I was wondering if anyone here has any experience using them. I like the look of them, other than the two extra buttons being below the standard six button lay-out, and I like the idea of having two joysticks together on one unit. It looks almost perfect for Street Fighter 2 tournaments. I'd like to know if anyone has had any problems getting them to work with any emulators, or if they've had problems getting each joystick to be recognized as seperate controllers. Also, are there any other good arcade style joysticks available for the PC like the X-Arcade? Any info would be great. Thanks

**Tempest** · February 23, 2008

I'm thinking about getting an X-Arcade joystick to use with my HTPC and I was wondering if anyone here has any experience using them. I like the look of them, other than the two extra buttons being below the standard six button lay-out, and I like the idea of having two joysticks together on one unit. It looks almost perfect for Street Fighter 2 tournaments. I'd like to know if anyone has had any problems getting them to work with any emulators, or if they've had problems getting each joystick to be recognized as seperate controllers. Also, are there any other good arcade style joysticks available for the PC like the X-Arcade? Any info would be great. Thanks

I've been using the Ultimarc Ultrastik 360. It is programmable to be 4way,2way up down,2way left right, analog, 8way, 4way diagonals, etc. If you use oqqalz's Plugin Ultrastik, the maps will be loaded automatically per game in Mame, and you can set a specific map on a per emulator basis. I like it, but my wife doesn't like the way it "feels". I know there are others here using them. The biggest downside is price. I was thinking of trying a "Leaf" Joystick next time to see if my wife would like it better.

Good Luck!

**Orclord** · February 23, 2008

Unless they have changed sthg, the X-Arcade requires a keyboard to be plugged into it when it's used with a PC.....

Which at the time of purchase I did not know............

Sooooooo it's still sitting in it's box......

I'll find a use one day.....

**Brian Hoffman** · February 23, 2008

I have a xarcade. It serves its purpose and you wont regret buying it.

I have the ps/2 style and it doesnt need to have a keyboard attached to it at all times.

**LucasBarton** · February 23, 2008

Tempest69, I'm looking for a stand-alone unit like the X-Arcade because I'm using an HTPC, not an arcade cabinet. I just wnat something I can set on the coffee table across from my big screen and play. I just came across the Hanaho HotRod and it looks really sweet, especially for the money.

Orclord, thanks for telling me about having to have the keyboard hooked up at all times. I may have to pass on the X-Arcade.

**gryhnd** · February 23, 2008

Got it (tankstick), love it. Works great with MAME, future pinball (with some help from autohotkey), etc.

Don't sweat the keyboard. Chances are you have a USB kbd anyway but if not it does have the PS/2 pass through. I use a wireless kbd in my cab.

**Orclord** · February 23, 2008

I have a xarcade. It serves its purpose and you wont regret buying it.
I have the ps/2 style and it doesnt need to have a keyboard attached to it at all times.

Maybe I am missing sthg then........

**fRequEnCy** · February 23, 2008

I also have an xarcade and it works fine. I recommend it for the price.

**LucasBarton** · February 24, 2008

Maybe I am missing sthg then........

Perhaps that means that if you want to use the PS/2 jack for your X-Arcade and want to have a PS/2 keyboard hooked up as well, you need to have the keyboard hooked up to the X-Arcade when you turn the computer on for it to work. I don't think it means you have to have the keyboard hooked up at all times for the X-Arcade to work. Guys, let me know if this is correct.

By the way, are all the buttons fully re-programmable? I think I read something about there being pre-set MAME settings built into it or something. Is this true?

**fRequEnCy** · February 24, 2008

Perhaps that means that if you want to use the PS/2 jack for your X-Arcade and want to have a PS/2 keyboard hooked up as well, you need to have the keyboard hooked up to the X-Arcade when you turn the computer on for it to work. I don't think it means you have to have the keyboard hooked up at all times for the X-Arcade to work. Guys, let me know if this is correct.
By the way, are all the buttons fully re-programmable? I think I read something about there being pre-set MAME settings built into it or something. Is this true?

Mine works without the keyboard hooked up. Just mapped my keys and unplugged the keyboard and all is working fine.

**Hunk_4TH** · February 24, 2008

I have the dual joystick version it works very well in Mame and GameEx I also recommend it for the price.

**dwight** · February 24, 2008

Me too. I have the tankstick, hooked up via USB it does NOT require a keyboard to be plugged in. You only need to plug a keyboard when you want to re-program buttons. In most emulators you will want to use the default setup anyway. Not sure about the dual stick, but the tankstick requires quite a bit of power, so I would recommend using USB witht his one and not the PS/2 ports.

I love my x-arcade, solid, quality build - but thats what you pay for.

**Tempest** · February 24, 2008

Tempest69, I'm looking for a stand-alone unit like the X-Arcade because I'm using an HTPC, not an arcade cabinet. I just wnat something I can set on the coffee table across from my big screen and play. I just came across the Hanaho HotRod and it looks really sweet, especially for the money.

Ok, I admit it I didn't notice the HTPC part in your original post. I didn't even know what HTPC was, so I Googled it.

You Have a HOME THEATRE PERSONAL COMPUTER. Why didn't you say so?

I am also willing to admit that was sarcasm.

Maybe I'm missing something, if I am, please let me know, because I do like to learn new things. That's what this is all about. (No Sarcasm)

My joystick,trackball,and keyboard encoder are all usb. I'm thinking (like a carpenter) that it would be pretty easy to build your own box with whatever controls you wanted.

Seriously, is there more to this HTPC stuff than I realize?

If I hooked my cabinet (PC) to my Home Theatre (HT) wouldn't I have a HTPC too?

**LucasBarton** · February 24, 2008

There are different kinds of HTPCs I guess. Some use them as DVRs or to control everything in their houses, from their home security systems to their TVs, stereos, etc. I have this case: http://www.nmediapc.com/htpc500a.htm . I have it in my entertainment center so it blends in with my cable DVR, HD DVD player , and stereo. I just use it as my ultimate game machine, thanks to GameEX. I love the look of amazement on my friend's faces when they see every game they grew up with playing on my 51" big screen, all at the touch of a button.

**Tempest** · February 24, 2008

There are different kinds of HTPCs I guess. Some use them as DVRs or to control everything in their houses, from their home security systems to their TVs, stereos, etc. I have this case: http://www.nmediapc.com/htpc500a.htm . I have it in my entertainment center so it blends in with my cable DVR, HD DVD player , and stereo. I just use it as my ultimate game machine, thanks to GameEX. I love the look of amazement on my friend's faces when they see every game they grew up with playing on my 51" big screen, all at the touch of a button.

That's cool looking! So does it have a huge HDD so you can rip movies to it and select them from the Gameex menu?

So much to learn.....

**LucasBarton** · February 25, 2008

That's cool looking! So does it have a huge HDD so you can rip movies to it and select them from the Gameex menu?
So much to learn.....

Right now I have is one HDD, a 320 gig, but it holds up to three of them. I haven't quite filled the first one yet, though I could if I wanted to. I actually don't have any DVD rips on it, but I do have about 120 gigs of TV shows, documentaries, and movies in avi/mpeg format. The quality isn't as good as DVD, but I did so to save space.

**Tempest** · February 25, 2008

Right now I have is one HDD, a 320 gig, but it holds up to three of them. I haven't quite filled the first one yet, though I could if I wanted to. I actually don't have any DVD rips on it, but I do have about 120 gigs of TV shows, documentaries, and movies in avi/mpeg format. The quality isn't as good as DVD, but I did so to save space.

That' sweet, I wonder if you'd be willing to trade it for some of my wife's shoes? :lol:

**LucasBarton** · February 25, 2008

That' sweet, I wonder if you'd be willing to trade it for some of my wife's shoes?

If she's like most women, you could've bought an HTPC for the amount she's spent on shoes. :lol: Altogether I've probably put a thousand bucks into it all, with the case, ATI Radeon 1600XT HDMI video card, 1G of ram, etc. Right now I'm using a PS2 controller to play my emulators, which is great since it has so many buttons. Still, I'd love to get something like the X-Arcade to replicate the real arcade feel on games like Street Fighter 2, 3, Mortal Kombat, etc.

**JohnnyG** · February 25, 2008

That' sweet, I wonder if you'd be willing to trade it for some of my wife's shoes?

Wow, that's a brave man who'd even consider trading his wifes shoes....

I'd be looking for my meat and two veg if I tried that. "oh there they are, in your pocket, dear!"

:lol:

Johnny

**Tempest** · February 25, 2008

Wow, that's a brave man who'd even consider trading his wifes shoes....
I'd be looking for my meat and two veg if I tried that. "oh there they are, in your pocket, dear!"

Johnny

LMAO

There's a fine line between bravery, and stupidity!

**KriSX** · June 12, 2008

i've got a bit of an issue with my tankstick, hopefully someone here can help me.

in newer versions of mame (.123,124 and 125) i cannot get things working correctly. what happens is when i press up on the player 1 joystick its like it does 2 things at once. so like in a top down shooter game it will move the ship up and shoot at the same time... which is very very annoying... has anyone else had this? i've tried downloading a number of different config files and get no joy.

the only time i've had it fully working in mame is with the prepackaged 0.120 version on the x-arcade website... it works perfectly... but i hear the controller config file changed from that version so it won't work in the newer ones??

any help would be appreciated!

**chriss** · June 12, 2008

i use an x-arcade with mame 0.125 without any issues. i had to reprogram two keys though, somehow the got mixed up while i was testing things, two buttons were mapped to key z.

if you open up notepad and press some keys, do the keys correspond to the default keys?

check the default keys over here:

http://www.xgaming.com/service/programming.shtml

**KriSX** · June 12, 2008

i'll check it out... i'm pretty sure the key mapping was fine... as like i said it works fine in the 0.120 package off the x-arcade website.... just not with 0.125 (or any other new releases)...

thanks for the reply

**chriss** · June 13, 2008

if you have the interface showing inside mame under input (general) is your fire button only assigned to one key and does this key appear twice in the list.

you could also setup a fresh install of mame 0.125, assign your keys in there and try out if it works. if the programming of the keys is right then it most likely is an error in your mame configuration. or maybe you have an ahk script running...

X-Arcade joystick questions

Recommended Posts

LucasBarton

Tempest

Orclord

Brian Hoffman

LucasBarton

gryhnd

Orclord

fRequEnCy

LucasBarton

fRequEnCy

Hunk_4TH

dwight

Tempest

LucasBarton

Tempest

LucasBarton

Tempest

LucasBarton

JohnnyG

Tempest

KriSX

chriss

KriSX

chriss

Donate

Browse

Products

Downloads

Activity

More