The Arcade Stick Transitioning Thread

[CrotchMonkey]

theres been a pretty large increase of threads asking for advice from the pad to stick transition so i was wondering what you guys think about making this thread a sticky full of tips and advice? Instead of repeating it over and over each thread, we can just put all the advice, photos and videos here and be done with it.

What do you guys think?

[locoghoul]

even when i play both, i feel comfortable with the pad although i gotta admit that with the stick you can pull off easily the fast stuff (links, karas, etc.). another thing im still gettin used is to play as good in the 1p side as i do on the 2p (on the arcade sticks).

[DanSC]

when i first used stick i hated it..it just doesnt feel right..but now im used to it..ill probably never go back to controller again..as for tips and tricks..i dont know any..i just play it day after day till i get used to it..

[CrotchMonkey]

i do have a daigo video grabbed from one of the threads on srk showing daigo's hand position, which i can post in a sec. obot also has a video of daigo over at his site www.obot64.com

i mean if theres enough interest for a thread like this i can easily scour the rest of the threads and consolidate all the good posts here.

[Jaymzaddiction]

I can see people hating crappy console arcade sticks, but once you get your hands on a HotRodSE or a SuperNova you just cant go back to a console controller, if you plan on getting an arcade stick make sure it's made with genuine Happ arcade parts.

[x_tremer]

or even better, sanwa.

[Tritone]

The only thing that will help you adapt to a stick is practice, practice, practice.

I bought my first stick less than a month ago. It felt very strange at first. With a pad, I felt much "closer" to my character. With a stick, I felt like I was controlling it less precisely. But now my moves come out much more consistently than on a D-Pad, and it feels just as natural as a pad did. I'll never go back.

[Jaymzaddiction]

The only thing that will help you adapt to a stick is practice, practice, practice.

I bought my first stick less than a month ago. It felt very strange at first. With a pad, I felt much "closer" to my character. With a stick, I felt like I was controlling it less precisely. But now my moves come out much more consistently than on a D-Pad, and it feels just as natural as a pad did. I'll never go back.

For god sake, this games were born in acades with Joysticks and BIG buttons not the other way arround, when I played the first console KOF and SF it felt like shit, this is what happens when people dont spend time in arcades, and its perfectly natural when we have ALMOST perfect conversions in the home, I mean almost, cause fighting games simply are not designed to be played with a gamepad and say this with very much respect to the gamers that did not have the chance to experience the fun of playing in an arcade, waiting for your turn to take the control and keeping your place by beating other players, whoa! XBOX Live my ass, that was competitive sweaty gaming!!!

[Taichi]

I'm soon to be making the transition myself, but I think it'll be a smooth go of it, since I have an arcade-configured pad.....basically all I'll be doing is using larger buttons, and a stick instead of the directional......

no biggie, methinks, I'll letcha know as soon as I have a stick! :D

[lith]

Actually the difference is huge, especially if you are using a stick made with genuine arcade parts. If you've never used a stick (which means you've never played in an arcade, shame on you!!!!) then those buttons are going to feel fucking massive at first, and feel like they are miles apart from each other. It will in all likelyhood be very akward at first. But don't give up, the stick is the only way to play fighters. You'll probably get to the point where you'll refuse to play a fighter with a pad.

[True_Tech]

the transition isn't that big i got comfortable with my normal combos in about 3 weeks

[CrotchMonkey]

this is probably the latest thread on the subject:
http://www.shoryuken.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85094

http://www.shoryuken.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84886

[Sexperienced.]

do you guys prefer 360 or 8 way sticks?

[phat_toi]

360's all the way. The transition from pad to stick is not to difficult, you just gotta get use to it. What was a big transition for me was playing mvc2 on jap sticks, instead of regular ones. Took me a while to get use to, but now i prfer jap stix over american sticks. In the end i still rather play on pad for mvc2 haha

[DooM]

jap sticks own all =) american are pretty good too, but I just had japanese ones before I had american

it aint too hard to switch between them though, just my parrying gets fucked in the ebginning =(

[True_Tech]

marvel players seem to perfer p360s i personally can't play 3s on one of those

[EX-Sucker Punch]

I can play both. But there's this one huge stick from Red Octane I had that was a 360, but the stick was WIDE! I couldn't play Capcom games on it (especially MvC2, doing tri jumps with Magneto and Storm is impossible.), but the good side about it, apparently that stick was built for Guilty Gear.

[b1gazn]

I'll never play pad unless I have to. Sticks are the best, but I'd perfer Jap sticks over American.

[Black Deniro]

What's the difference between a Jap Stick and an American Stick??
Obviously I still use the pad.

[EX-Sucker Punch]

American sticks: Looks like baseball bats

Japanese sticks: Looks like lollipops and is slightly smaller.

[phat_toi]

The buttons are also positioned diffrently

[b1gazn]

The buttons are also positioned diffrently

The Jap sticks are positioned the way they are because it was made for those with smaller hands to hit the buttons faster. But it is the opposite for me because my hands are big and sometimes I hit two buttons instead of hitting one.

[Rage02fire]

Some fool told in order to get better in cvs2 or that type of style when you have no one to play with at all is to use a stick I guess for home. Now though I need to find some one who can make a good stick and also for a cheap price. Sticks are like in the 100's or 200s alot anyone got any hook ups or any fools who make sticks up in cali at all.

I'd appriciate it if any one knew where I could find a stick maker in my state cali.

[CrotchMonkey]

why dont you check out the fools in the hardware forum

[Sexperienced.]

I prefer 360's but its hard to find a 360 stick/arcade in London... its generally the 8 way sticks with wide holes, its near impossible to pull off a 360 with those sticks.

I've heard that the japs prefer their buttons hard horizontal is that true?? thats how I like it.

[K2Grey]

You could always buy a Hori SC2/TK4 which is fine (Japanese style) and costs $40. Dreaded Fist makes Happs for $100 with shipping. You don't need to pay $250 or whatever for a stick :P

[Rage02fire]

:wow: you got a link for this stick K2Grey

[K2Grey]

Dreaded Fist's is on Hardware Technical Support Forum.

Lik-sang has SC2 but its "temporarily not available". It will also probably cost you like $65 w/ shipping :P

The Hori Tekken 5 stick is, from what I've heard, basically a Hori SC2 in a bigger case and is good. You can find it on Ebay (price varies), or look around Hardware Support because I think some guy was trying to sell some for like $50.

[CrotchMonkey]

I've heard that the japs prefer their buttons hard horizontal is that true?? thats how I like it.
no i think theirs has a different setup, apparently its more ergonomic. ive seen some that are slanted and a layout with the medium punch and kick buttons higher up.

[MKKID]

It is easier by far to do precise movements on the stick. Although if you are just doing fireball motions then it really doesn't matter. I have been playing Tekken 5 lately and if you play on pad some of the motions when you have to hit 3 or 4 buttons at the same time like during a multipart are hard on a pad since they are close together. I used to switch between the two in the arcade but now I just use the stick. But I will bring a controller in my car just in case the machine is broken. Fuck lugging around a stick somewhere especially during a tournament in an arcade. Too many theives, things are heavy, expensive, and there are always fools looking to borrow your shit. Fuck that. I won't let anyone besides close friends touch my 180 dollars MAS Stick. Besides that if they fuck shit up you are fucked in a tourney since they don't sell joysticks, controllers there.

[ennvi]

i'm currently transitioning from pad to stick and have hit a few snags. mostly having trouble doing dragons and quarter circles x2. i pull them off easier on the 2p side but on the 1p side its almost never. is it easier to pull these commands off with a sanwa stick? i know all i need is practice but im still interested in a sanwa stick if there is a noticeable difference in difficulty of inputs.

[Jaymzaddiction]

i'm currently transitioning from pad to stick and have hit a few snags. mostly having trouble doing dragons and quarter circles x2. i pull them off easier on the 2p side but on the 1p side its almost never. is it easier to pull these commands off with a sanwa stick? i know all i need is practice but im still interested in a sanwa stick if there is a noticeable difference in difficulty of inputs.

Depends on what kind of stick you use, say you use one with Happ joysticks and buttons then I dont think so, but it you have say an x-arcade wich does not use read arcade components, then yes sanwa would feel so much better, I personally use a Hanaho Hotrod SE and it is the best stick I have ever used.

[CrotchMonkey]

just keep working on the execution for those quarter circle x2, its tough but you WILL get it. bassventura gave me a tip back when i was getting pissed. i forgot it heh but it went something like keep doing the quarter circle then as you keep doing it slowly speed yourself up so you are doing it x2.

that way you get the execution down in your brain instead of fumbling to do it in the heat of the fight.

[DarkChylde]

It all depends on the game you're playing, this is of course a generalization by what I've seen in the fighting game community.

MvC2: American sticks
CvS2: American or Japanese sticks [K groove, pad]
3S: American or Japanese sticks
#R: American or Japanese sticks, pad
Tekken 5 (and 3D games in general): Japanese sticks, pad

[Taichi]

Actually the difference is huge, especially if you are using a stick made with genuine arcade parts. If you've never used a stick (which means you've never played in an arcade, shame on you!!!!) then those buttons are going to feel fucking massive at first, and feel like they are miles apart from each other. It will in all likelyhood be very akward at first. But don't give up, the stick is the only way to play fighters. You'll probably get to the point where you'll refuse to play a fighter with a pad.

well, I have played in arcades before, but the transition wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be......

the buttons took a bit of getting used to, but i've adopted the standard 'claw' quickly enough.......

awkwardness wasn't really a problem, I soon found myself playing in the exact same manner as I had with a pad (or at least with the exact same skill), and it became second nature after only an hour or so of play.......

I agree that the stick is a great way to play a fighter, and all my pads have been put on 'retirement', unless I have a friend over, in which case, they have their choice of what pad they'd like to use, but they may never touch my stick!

[vpt_whatup]

I was forced to learn the ways of the stick when Tekken 4 hit arcades. After that I started to get into CapCom fighters (on a nice cabinet with Sanwa sticks--spoiled me XD) and just stuck with it. I think my main fault was that I was thinking too much and trying to hard. I learned that moves sometimes come out easier than I think. Now I can do CvS2 cancels, some CC's, a few MvC2 combos, and a whole lot of Tekken combos (I must note that my EWGF is still better on pad).

Like everybody says, just practice. Also, don't be afraid to try moves that you think you can't do.

[shadowchaotix]

I don't know how to explain why this happened to me, but I can tell you what happened. I used to play fighters on pads and rarely played in the arcade. I got SFAC for PS2 and then me and some friends started playing 3rd Strike at school (afterschool) frequently. It was the first fighter that made me want to get serious with a fighting game. I decided that a stick was the only way to get better so I fished out my pelican universal arcade stick (I got it free with SCII for GCN... I don't know how to mod sticks so why else would I have it?) and started using it. I could not do anything at all. I thought I would never get good. Then I took a long break from 3rd Strike because of school work and stuff. After a while, I decided to pick it up again and I started playing with the stick and I was like WTF? I could suddenly perform like 80% of what I could do with a pad. My control with a stick is still bad, but I'm going to get a HRAP and I'm going to practice until I get better.

[fjf314]

I can only use a stick for 3D games. In 2D games, I can't do shit with them. I tried playing 3S with a stick awhile back (I have the American Tekken 5 HRAP), but after a couple of weeks I didn't notice any improvement so I just gave up on it. I was still fucking up DP inputs, and while I didn't have too many problems doing qcf x 2 motions for Super Arts, I couldn't do them off of a 2mK to save my life. I keep telling myself I'm going to try to use the stick again, but I always end up just going for the pad.

[Ouroborus]

360's all the way. The transition from pad to stick is not to difficult, you just gotta get use to it. What was a big transition for me was playing mvc2 on jap sticks, instead of regular ones. Took me a while to get use to, but now i prfer jap stix over american sticks. In the end i still rather play on pad for mvc2 haha

the truth...........