trying to replace xarcade joysticks with beter ones

[mariozeferino]

did somebody knows where can i buy in europe beter joysticks that fit in an xarcade without making aditional holes? thanks in advance

[Tempest]

The Magstick Plus is nice because it can be switched 4/8 way by rotating the stick.

http://www.ultimarc.com/controls.html

The U360 is able to be 4/8 way, analog, diagonal 4-way (Qbert, Congo Bongo), Mouse, etc. and can be setup to switch automatically depending on what game you are playing through GameEx.

http://www.ultimarc....astik_info.html

Ultimarc has other choices as well. I'm not sure of the mounting holes, but they have specs on their site.

[chriss]

man, what a coincidence, i had the same question in mind for a couple of days now. playing donkey kong with the x-arcade joysticks is really not working so well!

I'd also like to get a trackball for games like marble madness... is there a vendor who just produces arcade trackballs?

update: i just saw the trackball further down on the site

a quick google search revealed this site where the guy actually changed the joystick and buttons

it's a petty the pictures got deleted, everyones raving about the great mod...

[Tempest]

Groovy Game Gear comes highly recommended as well. I only mentioned Ultimarc before, because the user wanted something on your side of the pond.

I use the lighted trackball from GGG, but Ultimarc ones are fine too. Both companys' are reputable.

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/

[mariozeferino]

thanks man, nice sugestion but i dont think any of those sites are in europe, it means i have to pay a lot more.

back to joysticks, if i knew the existance of a an arcade joystick that i can conect directly in my pc without any interface, i didn't by an xarcade

[bkenobi]

Ultimarc is from the UK.

[HumanMan42]

I have an x-arcade tankstick. I think it works great. Well, it does not that I fixed the joysticks. If the problem you are having is that the amount of action required to make the direction active, or there is to little action required and sometimes it gets stuck, you can easily fix that. There is a guide on xarcades website to fix that.

You never said what the problem was, just hoping this helps.

casey

[celly]

I haven't replaced the joystick yet but, I'm in the process of taking the controls out and putting them into a better looking CP. If you do decide to exchange the joystick(s), here is a useful pdf that I found on reconnecting the buttons/controllers back.

X-Arcade.pdf

[mariozeferino]

i realy have to replace one of them, it makes noise and turn into imself while playing, of course i am going to get one for free for my vendor, but i am considering replacing them to beter ones

[mariozeferino]

anyway, this is a great forum and gameex is an very good frontend, hope to make a donation soon

[chriss]

does anyone else of you have the problem with fast changing right->up or left->up movements?

i really have problems climbing up the ladders in donkey kong and i think it's because of the joysticks. it seems to get stuck from time to time and is not correctly recognizing the up movement.

i gotta admit i never played dk on a real cabinet so i can't compare it...

[Tempest]

The original game used 4-way joysticks, so If you are trying to play with an 8way stick, it can be difficult. You may think that you are pusing straight up, but still have the stick enough to the left/right to keep that switched closed.

That's why the Magstick plus is nice, because it switches from 4/8way from the top of the panel. The U360 can emulate 4/8way (and other modes), and configures itself on the fly using HKs' Plugin for the U360.

[chriss]

can the x-arcade emulate 4 way? isn't there like a hardware switch to change this?

[Tempest]

I don't know anything about the xarcades. Some joyticks allow you to install restrictor plates which makes it impossible to have more than one switch at a time closed.

[chriss]

thanks for the reply tempest

i just opened the x-arcade and changed it to 4-way by flipping a plastic piece

http://www.athomedownunder.com/service/open.shtml

it doesnt work great, up/left/right are fine but pushing down it needs a lot of force and you got to pull it all the way down or it doesnt make contact..

well, back to 8-way

unfortunately the ultramarc doesn't fit without drilling the wooden holes bigger :/

any other joysticks who allow for easily changing between 4/8-way?

[Tempest]

My guess is that the smaller portion of the 4/8 way adapter is just a tad to small. A couple of things that might help:

1. Try wrapping some tape around the adapter to make it bigger.

2. If possible, shim the 'Down' switch (which is actually at the top of the joystick) so that it is closer to the adapter.

3. Bend the little lever on the 'Down' switch so that it is a little bit closer to the adapter.

(Or you could wrap it with tape, or put a small amount of hotglue on it, or anything to bring it a little closer to the adapter)

I don't know if bending the lever will help, while it will contact the adapter sooner, it will have a longer throw to get to the switch...

[chriss]

very good suggestions mate! bending the lever helped a bit! tomorrow i'll wrap some tape around them!

I just tried Donkey Kong and I still suck at it

can't get past 38000 points...

[Drakendoder]

*BUMP*

i found this thread through google, and by now i have the magstick plus installed in my x-arcade (if interested i'll upload a picture)

things that are mandatory:

the plates that are delivered to mount the sticks don't fit(holes don't overlap). I had a metalweldingthingy-shop (dunno english word) make 2 new ones for me based on a sketch that was drawn by a simple measurement of the available room for the plate and the original holes. This cost me about $25 but it works like a charm. No other modifications are necessary

about the stick however:

i like the throw, yet i hated the microswitches used in the magstick. Too much power is needed to throw the stick around, and the click-sound never grew on me. i stumbled on this (no spam intended) thread on another forum and i used the info to adapt the original x-arcade-microswitches to the magstick. This already is 100 times better, and in combination with the short throw i'm actually getting close to the joystick i wanted. Best microswitches would be somewhere in between though, not too light not too hard, perhaps something for the future.

The balltops have proven for me to be a waste of money. Even the XL-version that supposedly are developed for bottommounted panels seem to be way too short for my taste. That sucks, because they look beautiful. But in the end for me functionality prevails so i went back to the standard option. This works well.

The 4-way to 8-way feature is of course nice about the stick, although it isn't what i hoped it to be. Its much better than the alternative for sure, but i can imagine a cross-like profile in the end works 50 times better.

Because of the short throw the direction-inputs are pretty close together and it takes a bit more practice to hit the directions you want 100%. The short throw increases the responsetime immensely when set against the x-arcade original sticks. If you like shoot-em-ups like i do, you know how vital this is.

All in all, they are an improvement. Based on the price however (about 5-6 times the cost (incl. shipping) for 2 x-arcade sticks) i would seriously suggest to look around for all of your options and consumerreviews. I can't imagine there aren't better options out there. I don't have the experience to tell for sure though.

of course you can ask any question you may have that i didn't answer already

[chriss]

thanks for your intensive testing and your honest opinion. i guess i'll stick with the original joysticks for now...

*BUMP*

i found this thread through google, and by now i have the magstick plus installed in my x-arcade (if interested i'll upload a picture)

things that are mandatory:

the plates that are delivered to mount the sticks don't fit(holes don't overlap). I had a metalweldingthingy-shop (dunno english word) make 2 new ones for me based on a sketch that was drawn by a simple measurement of the available room for the plate and the original holes. This cost me about $25 but it works like a charm. No other modifications are necessary

about the stick however:

i like the throw, yet i hated the microswitches used in the magstick. Too much power is needed to throw the stick around, and the click-sound never grew on me. i stumbled on this (no spam intended) thread on another forum and i used the info to adapt the original x-arcade-microswitches to the magstick. This already is 100 times better, and in combination with the short throw i'm actually getting close to the joystick i wanted. Best microswitches would be somewhere in between though, not too light not too hard, perhaps something for the future.

The balltops have proven for me to be a waste of money. Even the XL-version that supposedly are developed for bottommounted panels seem to be way too short for my taste. That sucks, because they look beautiful. But in the end for me functionality prevails so i went back to the standard option. This works well.

The 4-way to 8-way feature is of course nice about the stick, although it isn't what i hoped it to be. Its much better than the alternative for sure, but i can imagine a cross-like profile in the end works 50 times better.

Because of the short throw the direction-inputs are pretty close together and it takes a bit more practice to hit the directions you want 100%. The short throw increases the responsetime immensely when set against the x-arcade original sticks. If you like shoot-em-ups like i do, you know how vital this is.

All in all, they are an improvement. Based on the price however (about 5-6 times the cost (incl. shipping) for 2 x-arcade sticks) i would seriously suggest to look around for all of your options and consumerreviews. I can't imagine there aren't better options out there. I don't have the experience to tell for sure though.

of course you can ask any question you may have that i didn't answer already