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Topic: Arcade Stick Thread

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Kannibal
rank 11
Posted:
Wed May 20, 2015 1:16 pm
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Posts: 154
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Hey guys, so I thought I would open up an Arcade Stick thread since I could not find one.

  • What arcade stick/s do you use for Dreamcast?
  • What do you like about the arcade stick/s?
  • What games do you play the most with the arcade stick/s?
  • Which arcade stick/s do you wish you had?


Currently, I use an X-Arcade Dual Joystick that came with an adapter which is basically a jumble of plugs for Dreamcast, PlayStation 1 & 2 and GameCube & Wii. One of the selling points for this thing is that it works with as many platforms as possible. The other selling point is that it is supposed to give you a genuine arcade experience thus you get the western bat style stick and concave buttons. It's button layout is supposed to make it versatile with every single type of arcade game there is, which actually works; Unfortunately, Dreamcast only recognizes the main 6 buttons so you can't set up for a comfortable 'L' shape 4 button setup like at the arcades. My favorite part about the stick is that it has taken so much abuse in the past year; nearly two, and still works perfectly fine.

I also have a pair of TopMax Enforcer sticks that I bought meanwhile I researched for better sticks which eventually led me to the X-Arcade Dual Joystick. I do not know if the sticks are supposed to be this loose but the built in vibration feature was nice for games that use it. The flat buttons were really nice in contrast to convex buttons. Be careful when sticking a VMU in these though, both sticks would not let go of my VMUs until I wiggled them out of there little by little in the course of three days.

These days, I mostly fire up my Dreamcast for split-screen games but I also pull out Street Fighter 3rd Strike and Marvel vs Capcom (1) and plug in my stick for those. [since my model plays backups, I also get to play the games I cannot find or are too expensive to buy for regular use].

Pretty sure the Agetec arcade stick is on a lot of people's wishlist as it is in mine. It's become quite pricy to the point that it becomes a conversation piece rather than your main peripheral for games Mr. Green
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lordnikon
rank 87
Posted:
Thu May 21, 2015 11:04 pm
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Posts: 5902
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What arcade stick/s do you use for Dreamcast?

HRAP2 (Hori Real Arcade Pro 2 for the Playstation 2) with a "Total Control Plus" PS2 to Dreamcast adapter.

What do you like about the arcade stick/s?

The buttons and the stick both have quick disconnects. The HRAP2 in this regard is unique among sticks because I can easily replace the buttons AND the stick without having to mod the unit. Its easily moddable without having to do any solder or modifications to the mounting plate.

Its sort of partially complete right now as I popped in 6 spare sanwa buttons that I had laying around (so its 6 sanwa, 2 stock). I really need to properly fill out the button set, but I have been playing mostly shooters so it hasn't been an issue.

What games do you play the most with the arcade stick/s?

Any arcade game. But mostly shmups. I do play fighters, and puzzle games as well, but more-so shooters. Top games include Border Down, Ikaruga, and King of Fighters 2002

Which arcade stick/s do you wish you had?

I just wish my VEWLIX PS3 stick would work on the Dreamcast (Its USB, and only works on PS3/PC).
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Kannibal
rank 11
Posted:
Fri May 22, 2015 3:15 pm
quote : #3
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Posts: 154
Type: NTSC-U/C
lordnikon wrote:
What arcade stick/s do you use for Dreamcast?

HRAP2 (Hori Real Arcade Pro 2 for the Playstation 2) with a "Total Control Plus" PS2 to Dreamcast adapter.

What do you like about the arcade stick/s?

The buttons and the stick both have quick disconnects. The HRAP2 in this regard is unique among sticks because I can easily replace the buttons AND the stick without having to mod the unit. Its easily moddable without having to do any solder or modifications to the mounting plate.

Its sort of partially complete right now as I popped in 6 spare sanwa buttons that I had laying around (so its 6 sanwa, 2 stock). I really need to properly fill out the button set, but I have been playing mostly shooters so it hasn't been an issue.

What games do you play the most with the arcade stick/s?

Any arcade game. But mostly shmups. I do play fighters, and puzzle games as well, but more-so shooters. Top games include Border Down, Ikaruga, and King of Fighters 2002

Which arcade stick/s do you wish you had?

I just wish my VEWLIX PS3 stick would work on the Dreamcast (Its USB, and only works on PS3/PC).


I somewhat regret getting the X-Arcade stick since my options for quality parts is very limited to IL and HAPP. This past February I was getting ready to order Industrias Lorenzo convex buttons to match the Dreamcast button colors with a red stick for the left side and a black stick for the right. Instead I'll leave it as is. How reliable is the Total Control Plus in terms of input delay and build quality? One of my local mom & pop video game shops has a few PS2 stick for sale and I might just move on to this method for playing on PS2 and Dreamcast.
  _________________
"Dog is man's best friend, Cat is man's adorable little serial killer."
lordnikon
rank 87
Posted:
Sun May 24, 2015 3:20 am
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Well, I have one working Total Control Plus that works great, and another that is not so hot. The internal wires are a bit finicky and its unusable without some repair. I think these converters are more or less fine. I probobly just got a dud. As far as the input delay, I am not sure what the degree of delay is. If you know of a way to test this, let me know.

For your X-Arcade are you using the default sticks? or did you replace them? The originals if I recall correctly are super beefy.
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I'm already numero uno on Dark Helmet's hit list...
Kannibal
rank 11
Posted:
Mon May 25, 2015 5:16 am
quote : #5
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Posts: 154
Type: NTSC-U/C
Actually, I just remembered I was on the fence about a Total Control adapter but the model I was looking at during that time did not support a side-loaded VMU so never went for one. Turns out they sold out of those PS2 sticks I mentioned months ago haha so it looks like I'll be on the X-Arcade stick until further notice.

The parts are all default at the moment. In case you want to know, everything works pretty great but the springs inside the buttons lost that little vibration feedback when tapping them. The sticks still work the way they are supposed to, although there are times during fighting games that I find myself having to grind the stick directly on the cage to perform moves which is something I never have to do on my old mad catz fightstick for PS3/PC. I might have read somewhere that I can actually recalibrate the deadzone on this particular stick but never looked further into it.
  _________________
"Dog is man's best friend, Cat is man's adorable little serial killer."
lordnikon
rank 87
Posted:
Sun Jun 14, 2015 3:11 am
quote : #6
profile : pm
Posts: 5902
Type: NTSC-U/C
I was looking at my image gallery on my PC, and there are actually quite a few Dreamcast arcade sticks.

The Best:

  • Official Dreamcast Arcade Stick by Agetec
  • ASCII Arcade Stick (3 known color schemes)
  • Blaze "DC Mini" Twin Arcade Stick


Strange:

  • Gamemate Fighting Stick (Saturn Virtua Stick hardware was harvested to make these sticks: link at segaretro)


Super Cheap Arcade Sticks:

  • Innovation Arcade Stick (Cheap NeoGeo AES Knockoff)
  • Topmax Enforcer
  • Interact Arcade Stick (Metal Alloy Design)
  _________________
I'm already numero uno on Dark Helmet's hit list...
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