SRK Newbie Saikyo Dojo Arcade Stick FAQ (Read this before asking questions)

eltrouble

superscrub, post: 7490377, member: 56931 wrote:

I bought a Brawl Stick ( updated electronics compared to madcatz SE ) that already has modded sanwa stick + sanwa buttons inside, right here on SRK for the same price as sanwa parts by themselves. Very happy with my purchase.

Now for the noob question. There's sort of a sticky substance on top of 2 buttons + on part of the usb cord. It's not a big deal, button is still ultra-responsive and works fine. Just wondering if it's safe to use a wet tissue to scrub off the sticky stuff on the buttons without removing them. Or do I really need to open the case, remove the buttons and clean them outside? I'm not going to bother cleaning the cord since I don't need to touch that part anyway.

Ewww, don't even know why you have sticky substance to begin with. *shivers*

In any case, it's safe to clean it with a damp towel, disinfectant wipe, or rubbin alcohol + rag. Just try not to get any liquid substances in the PCB area and you should be fine. As long as the button works, there's no reason to take it apart. Just wipe the surface of the stick and the USB cord, and you're good to go.

superscrub

Haha I’m sort of a germophobe but I don’t think the sticky substance is biological.
Nice, thanks for the thorough tips. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it and I’m glad that it’s a safe and easy wipe, no disassembly required.

eltrouble

superscrub, post: 7490512, member: 56931 wrote:

Haha I’m sort of a germophobe but I don’t think the sticky substance is biological.
Nice, thanks for the thorough tips. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it and I’m glad that it’s a safe and easy wipe, no disassembly required.

Famous last words from anyone who's ever touched toxic substances. lol

Cleaning a stick is a pretty simple process. Now if your buttons feel sticky and unresponsive, THEN you might want to consider opening your case, taking apart your buttons, cleaning it, and possily adding dialectric grease. Also an easy proceed, but it's not necessary, then don't bother. Keep it simple.

Someguy92

Why aren' t arcade sticks dual compatible with both PS3 and Xbox? Am I going to have to buy a whole nother stick just to play at certain tournaments just because I don' t have both consoles?

eltrouble

Someguy92, post: 7535117, member: 21642 wrote:

Why aren' t arcade sticks dual compatible with both PS3 and Xbox? Am I going to have to buy a whole nother stick just to play at certain tournaments just because I don' t have both consoles?

Because it costs more money to buy dual-modded sticks. However, if you've got the cash lying around, there is a solution:

http://eightarc.com/qanba-q4-black

I personally recommend the Qanba. It's $30 cheaper than the Eightarc (both of which are dual-modded for use on xbox, ps3, and PC), and is 85% identical. Qanba even helped to produce the Eightarc. Only noticeable difference is that the Eightarc has a different art design, re-located start button....that's about it. I love my Qanba stick.

The alternative is to get your stick dual-modded. You can either do it yourself or find a modder in your local area to do it for you. Still costs money though.

Head on over to the Tech Talk section of this forum for more info on that.

SaltTheDead

Can you guys name me some good sticks between 30 - 60 bucks. I just want something cheap as to where I can decide if its for me or not with little risk. Im poor as hell right now and Im not even sure if I wanna be a stick player yet. If I like it Ill probably drop the $150 sometime down the road. Please dont turn this into a whats the best stick thread and tell me to just spend the extra off the bat because I literally cant. I just need a few examples of decent ones between the 30 - 60 dollar range. Preferrably with the 4 buttons on top and bottom as opposed to 3.

I played on the stick that came w certain bundles of tekken 6 and it seemed good...Thoughts? Also, quick opinions on tekken 6 for someone who only knows tekken from SFxT (In the past 15 years anyway)?

What about the SF4 stick from Hori thats about $40?

I always see a MvC2 stick at my local gamestop but i imagine its expensive. Curious as to what people think of it tho, if for no other reason than Im always seeing it.

Thanks in advance guys.

Necrotrophic

A cheap stick will no doubt be bad unless youre building one yourself. All you will find is frustration with crappy sticks that are even harder to be accurate with than good ones.

You're better off trying out a stick at a store or something. If youre broke, dont be wasting money on video game crap.

eltrouble

http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/srk-newbie-saikyo-dojo-arcade-stick-faq-read-this-before-asking-questions.100617/

http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/what-stick-controller-should-i-buy-read-the-guide-on-pg-1-before-posting.137321/

SaltTheDead

eltrouble, post: 7588140, member: 50728 wrote:

http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/srk-newbie-saikyo-dojo-arcade-stick-faq-read-this-before-asking-questions.100617/

http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/what-stick-controller-should-i-buy-read-the-guide-on-pg-1-before-posting.137321/

Thanks.Ill check those out.

And Im not living hand to mouth lol, I just meant I dont have loot to be dropping 100+ bucks on a controller, especially when Im fairly new to them you know? Like I said I used the Tekken 6 one from I think Hori for a while and it seemed pretty good... Dont take offense when I say this, I just cant think of a better way to word it at the moment, but are you speaking as like, a stick snob or is anything less than $150 really garbage? Id be stoked to get even a year or 2 out of it just to get myself re aquianted with arcade style playing. Again, sorry if that sounded dickish, I just know alot of guys say anything less than the best is a waste, which is fine and I respect that, but it cant really be true... Theres gotta be a practical jumping off point, right?

BlackShinobi

Just keep playing on pad until you have $100 to spare. Every major there is a promo on some madcatz fightstick for $100. Having 6-8 buttons and a joystick do not make an acceptable stick and if you buy a cheap stick and you don't already know how good your stick execution is you won't be able to tell if you can't do moves on a stick because of you or because of the stick. A bad stick i a waste of money.

eltrouble

SaltTheDead, post: 7588309, member: 77581 wrote:

Thanks.Ill check those out.

And Im not living hand to mouth lol, I just meant I dont have loot to be dropping 100+ bucks on a controller, especially when Im fairly new to them you know? Like I said I used the Tekken 6 one from I think Hori for a while and it seemed pretty good... Dont take offense when I say this, I just cant think of a better way to word it at the moment, but are you speaking as like, a stick snob or is anything less than $150 really garbage? Id be stoked to get even a year or 2 out of it just to get myself re aquianted with arcade style playing. Again, sorry if that sounded dickish, I just know alot of guys say anything less than the best is a waste, which is fine and I respect that, but it cant really be true... Theres gotta be a practical jumping off point, right?

I hope this paragraph wasn't directed at me, since I literally did not say anything.

If you can't afford a controller, don't sweat it, the pad will work fine for now. However, if you feel strongly that you need a new pad or stick in order to execute better, there's nothing with with the stuff in the $50-$100 price range. The PDP pads run even less than that, and function a lot better than your average pad. The Madcatz SE line is an excellent basic stick to start off with. If you should want to put in the high quality arcade parts that $100+ sticks have, it is VERY easy to mod the Madcatz SE in order to replace the joystick and buttons, and the cost of a brand new stick+buttons is around the $60. So, you buy a $50 stick, put in $60 worth of parts, and you spent $120 for a stick that has the same parts as a $140-$150 stick, without the badge value, or the weight of the more expensive sticks (they're wider and heavier).

Now, if you had $150 to blow, I would HIGHLY suggest the Qanba Q4. Best value-for-money ever.

SaltTheDead

Nah the only part of that post that was directed at you was where I said thanks. And thanks again for your follow up reply. :)

And apologies to the dude I was directing it to if I came off raw.

D.R.E.

There's a defined difference of quality between lower end and higher end sticks. Durability and responsiveness are night and day. So if your in the market for a stick, you may just want to save up for a TE Mad Catz or Hori

mistercakes

All,

Kind of a convoluted question but I'm going to be purchasing an arcade stick soon (dual-console). I'm a big Tekken guy but I also like to do MvC,SF4,Blaz. I don't want to be switching joysticks/gates all of the time. To play all of those games competitively (but not at tournament levels) what type of jstick would you recommend, Korean or Japanese.

Thanks..

eltrouble

http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/srk-newbie-saikyo-dojo-arcade-stick-faq-read-this-before-asking-questions.100617/

http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/what-stick-controller-should-i-buy-read-the-guide-on-pg-1-before-posting.137321/

mistercakes

eltrouble,

Thanks for sending toward the FAQ's.. read them both. I'm probably just slow but didn't get a clear cut answer. Just want to get peoples opinion that have tried both Korean and Japanese sticks. the $150-$200 investment isn't an easy one for me.

Thanks

The Breaker

Uhhh...you're not really playing competitively if you're not gonna go as far as you can go at some point. Well, whatever. The two topics above basically cover what you want to know, and it's really down to your preferences. Unfortunately, it doesn't go into much detail about Korean products on the first page of those topics. The easiest option (probably the most affordable too) is the Omni, but since you're a Tekken player at heart, I don't know if I should recommend Japanese or Korean parts. Apparently, Korean sticks are generally not as loose as Japanese ones are and the buttons require a bit more pressure (as in if you feather buttons, the risk of accidental presses goes down.) Korean sticks generally don't use square gates either afaik. This can be nice for non-fighter use, especially shmups (personally, I can't stand the default TE parts with Mushihime-sama Futari on 360.)

More of an issue with that though is that the Omni is basically fucking awesome compared to buying two TEs and modding them yourself, and I don't see it in stock anywhere.

mistercakes

Breaker, thanks for taking the time to respond.. makes a lot of sense.

eltrouble

The Breaker, post: 7590547, member: 57167 wrote:

Uhhh...you're not really playing competitively if you're not gonna go as far as you can go at some point. Well, whatever. The two topics above basically cover what you want to know, and it's really down to your preferences. Unfortunately, it doesn't go into much detail about Korean products on the first page of those topics. The easiest option (probably the most affordable too) is the Omni, but since you're a Tekken player at heart, I don't know if I should recommend Japanese or Korean parts. Apparently, Korean sticks are generally not as loose as Japanese ones are and the buttons require a bit more pressure (as in if you feather buttons, the risk of accidental presses goes down.) Korean sticks generally don't use square gates either afaik. This can be nice for non-fighter use, especially shmups (personally, I can't stand the default TE parts with Mushihime-sama Futari on 360.)

More of an issue with that though is that the Omni is basically fucking awesome compared to buying two TEs and modding them yourself, and I don't see it in stock anywhere.

Easiest and most affordable is the Omni? Are we looking at different sticks? Because the Omni is like $195. If so, who in their right mind would buy this? Just get the Qanba Q4. By FAR it's the best value-for-money stick on the market.

Just stick with Japanese parts. They're good for any variety of games and come with a variety of gate options if you want to switch. They're the most widely used and popular arcade stick parts for a reason.

mistercakes

Eltrouble - thanks for the feedback.. much appreciated.

Missing Person

Really, I started out on Japanese parts. They're pretty solid. But my game actually leveled up markedly when I switched to Korean parts.

It does take a learning curve to get used to without the gates. But it was negligible for me. Maybe one or two days and my play was already good. Maybe I'm biased, but give me a Myoungshin Fanta and crown buttons over a JLF, or even my previously favored LS-32, and OBSFs any day. That's with every game I play. I also play Tekken and when you've played it on both, you'll understand why the preferred hardware for the game is Korean.

And as far as SF4 plinking goes regarding the sensitivity of Korean parts. Yes, crown buttons are less sensitive than OBSFs, but they are far more sensitive than my previous Seimitsu buttons. I have zero problems plinking or anything on K-parts.

Actually, my accuracy in inputs is markedly better on Korean parts. For whatever reason, I was not doing hazanshu cancels from crouching position in SF4 on Seimitsu parts. I would get accidental inputs, including ones that would instead net me SBKs, I have never had an accidental SBK on a Fanta.

So yeah, maybe it's biased, but I definitely feel Korean parts are better.

Lemstar

The Brawl sticks aren't that bad for $35 shipped on Amazon. The parts obviously aren't as good and the stick itself is significantly smaller than a full-priced stick, but it should be sufficient to decide whether or not you like playing on stick, and upgrading it is simple.

http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-WWE-Stars-Brawl-Stick-3/dp/B004M25NNQ/

Trouble Brewing

Merging into the sticky.

Iron fighter

just bought a madcatz streetfighter IV stick for 75$ is that good for a beginner stick player???

Iron fighter

just bought a madcatz streetfighter IV stick for 75$ is that good for a beginner stick player???

eltrouble

Iron fighter, post: 7783423, member: 70127 wrote:

just bought a madcatz streetfighter IV stick for 75$ is that good for a beginner stick player???

Yes, it's a good stick.

Kaww

eltrouble, post: 7490538, member: 50728 wrote:

Famous last words from anyone who's ever touched toxic substances. lol

Cleaning a stick is a pretty simple process. Now if your buttons feel sticky and unresponsive, THEN you might want to consider opening your case, taking apart your buttons, cleaning it, and possily adding dialectric grease. Also an easy proceed, but it's not necessary, then don't bother. Keep it simple.

My buttons on my hitbox is actually kinda sticking when pressed down from an angle and doesn't come back up instantly *it's not literally sticking down but it's when I payed attention to it, it felt kinda sticky.*

I'm completely new to taking care of the buttons so is there a faq or do you have any step by step instructions that I can look into for cleaning the buttons and maybe considering using dialectric grease?

I don't want to mess up my first stick lol. Especially since it's my fiancee's gift to me. :(

Trouble Brewing

Tech talk would be a better place to look for repair-related advice.

Kaww

Will do

Venomish

I have a question, when you move your character from back, forward, dash , jump , crouch block, qcf, hcb, 360 etc
do you move the stick all the way to the left then all the way to the right etc etc, as if you are moving the stick in the air... or do you just follow the edges of the gate throughout your motions ??
I feel it is very hard to to move the stick without touching the edges...
What do top players do ?

eltrouble

Venomish, post: 7823083, member: 14211 wrote:

I have a question, when you move your character from back, forward, dash , jump , crouch block, qcf, hcb, 360 etc
do you move the stick all the way to the left then all the way to the right etc etc, as if you are moving the stick in the air... or do you just follow the edges of the gate throughout your motions ??
I feel it is very hard to to move the stick without touching the edges...
What do top players do ?

Move the stick in the air? Not sure what you mean, but yes, you touch the edges of the gate for things like moving around, dashing, jumping. But to do complex motions like fireball motions, uppercut motions, half circle motions, it's best not to ride the gate along the edge.

Venomish

Thanks ! This makes more sense to me than strictly no edge touching.
I will put that in mind in my next stick training session.

Shintarru

I know this may be a stupid question and may be off topic but I didn't want to start a new thread just to ask one question. If at a tournament they say the game I want to play is on xbox 360 and I have an xbox pad already I wouldn't need a converter of any sorts will I?

eltrouble

Shintarru, post: 7830171, member: 21083 wrote:

I know this may be a stupid question and may be off topic but I didn't want to start a new thread just to ask one question. If at a tournament they say the game I want to play is on xbox 360 and I have an xbox pad already I wouldn't need a converter of any sorts will I?

You have an Xbox360 controller and your game is on Xbox360. Why would you need a converter? Converter is only necessary if you're using a controller not supported by the console, like a PS2 controller for example.

Memento24

Hi guys,

Just bought my first arcade stick yesterday, I wanted to get something in the 50$ range at first but after reading some posts on SRK I decided it would be better to spend a bit more so Ive dropped about 100$ can. to get a Qanba Q1 cut (Christmas sale for 2 days instead of 150 +shipping).

The low price and what seems to be an ok product for the price sold it to me even if its not the Sanwa or the Seimitsu version.
Knowing that I am a newbie to all this and that it will be my first stick, what can I expect from this product (cant find any review)?
Any advice?

Thank you very much and it is always nice to see passionate guys like you ! Keep the good work.

Tumbas De Sal

Hello, I'm a new owner of a madcatz wwe brawl stick and I want to swap the artwork. I found some artwork in the forums but it is for the madcatz SFIV TE fightstick. will this fit my stick? Thank you.

Trouble Brewing

I don't believe it will. Check the SE modding guide in the tech talk stickies.

Tumbas De Sal

Trouble Brewing, post: 7944136, member: 5950 wrote:

I don't believe it will. Check the SE modding guide in the tech talk stickies.

Thanks.

Emanuelb

I have a question about button sensitivity - I understand american buttons are less sensitive, while japanese parts are more sensitive. What I don't understand, is what sticks have japanese parts and what american ones. For example, Madcatz Soul calibur TE stick what kind of parts has ? in the item description it says sanwa parts - that means japanese or american ? (sounds japanese, but...).
I'm interested in a stick with more sensitive buttons - right now I have a tekken 6 wireless stick (yeah, cheap one, but it's ok), and I wonder how are the buttons compared to a Soul calibur TE stick. Thanks.

Trouble Brewing

Sanwa is indeed Japanese. The Tekken 6 stick as far inferior to real arcade hardware; it's basically hot garbage. There is a rundown posted in the review thread linked in the first post.

Avaritia Aurous

Ok so I already read at the start that the Tekken 6 stick is terrible, however I've been using it for over a year and I prefer it by far compared to a controller.
However what my actual question is, am I probably going to have to relearn stick if I end up getting a good one?

eltrouble

Avaritia Aurous said:

Ok so I already read at the start that the Tekken 6 stick is terrible, however I've been using it for over a year and I prefer it by far compared to a controller.
However what my actual question is, am I probably going to have to relearn stick if I end up getting a good one?

Not really.  Arcade sticks are all very similar in that the motions you learn on one will work very well on another type of arcade stick, as long as the joystick and button setup is the same (which they are).  You might have to adapt to how sensitive the joystick and buttons react, especially if you're used to lower quality sticks that require a bit more force and effort, but it's easy to adjust to that within a few hours or a few days of practicing.  

Rest assured that the skills you learned while executing on your Tekken 6 will transfer over very easily once you start using higher quality parts on your stick and/or purchase an entirely new arcade stick.  Keep in mind that it's probably cheaper to simply purchase joysticks and buttons and swapping it out yourself.  

Avaritia Aurous

Alright thanks for the info.

SPECTERLIGHT

What are good prices for buttons and joysticks? I don't want to over pay.

eltrouble

$2-$3 for basic buttons.  If you want the high quality ones, such as Sanwa-RGs, they'll cost like $5 due to the superior micro-switch.  

Basic sticks cost around $30. 

SPECTERLIGHT

Emanuelb said:

I have a question about button sensitivity - I understand american buttons are less sensitive, while japanese parts are more sensitive. What I don't understand, is what sticks have japanese parts and what american ones. For example, Madcatz Soul calibur TE stick what kind of parts has ? in the item description it says sanwa parts - that means japanese or american ? (sounds japanese, but...).
I'm interested in a stick with more sensitive buttons - right now I have a tekken 6 wireless stick (yeah, cheap one, but it's ok), and I wonder how are the buttons compared to a Soul calibur TE stick. Thanks.

Japanese & Korean parts are mainly what you will come across in the higher end sticks.
The PDP Mortal Kombat stick has custom Happ parts which are American, but other than those and IL, there aren't many high quality, if any, American parts companies still around.

DJPlace

i got a question about this arcade sticks why is so hard to do the shoryuken command with them? and also should i buy this stick used for 75 bucks at a local game shop?

http://www.gamestop.com/ps3/accessories/official-street-fighter-iv-fightstick-tournament-edition-for-sony-ps3/73046 i''m think about buy sadly i'm only an online player and i never go to local places for personal reasons.

eltrouble

DJPlace said:

i got a question about this arcade sticks why is so hard to do the shoryuken command with them? and also should i buy this stick used for 75 bucks at a local game shop?

http://www.gamestop.com/ps3/accessories/official-street-fighter-iv-fightstick-tournament-edition-for-sony-ps3/73046 i''m think about buy sadly i'm only an online player and i never go to local places for personal reasons.

Because you need to practice doing the shoryuken motion.  Simply switching to an arcade stick won't instantaneously make your execution better.  Much like being proficient at playing a musical instrument, you'll just have to sit down and practice doing the SRK motions from both 1p and 2p side until you can do it consistently in training with at least 90% accuracy.  If you can pull that off, then it'll make it much easier trying to do it during a live match.

The listing you posted has it at $110.  It's a solid stick that has quality arcade parts, and it's a good purchase.  If you only plan on using this at home with your own console, then it's a good choice.  If you intend on attending local sessions where they use a different console, you'll either have to purchase 2 sticks, or dual-mod 1 stick to work with both ps3 and xbox360 consoles.  

Out of curiosity, can I ask why you don't want to attend local sessions?  I highly recommend it, as it will both help you prove much quicker as a player, and allows you to be part of an actual fighting game community where you can meet up with other guys who enjoy the same games you do.   

SPECTERLIGHT

In regards to the Korean joysticks, the Fantas, what gate do they have, if any?

eltrouble

Korean sticks don't have gates. They use rubber grommets to return the stick in place, much like a traditional spring would. You're better off looking in Tech Talk for answers to these questions, as I don't think they belong in a Newbie FAQ forum.