Best Arcade Stick solution for X360?

Tech Talk
#1

Okay, if this belongs in another thread, let me know…

I’m having a terrible time controlling Pac-man in Pac-man C.E., and I wanted something to have for when VF5 comes out (next month, right?), so I was wondering what the best plan of action would be. DOA4 stick is hard to find and kind of expensive, but I think they’re coming out with a HRAP for 360 for when VF5 comes out. Would I be better off building a stick, or would I get the same results/cheaper if I just went ahead and bought the HRAP when it comes out?

Thanks…

#2

imo best solution would be getting a custom one made frmo a wired MS 360 controller.

#3

It would be a lot less work to pick up Hori’s new VF stick.

You might have seen the XFPS thing, which lets you use a Playstation 2 stick on 360. But you need a wired controller to use it AND it’s like $90. But it might be better than building/buying a stick ONLY for 360.

#4

Nobody has even seen a pic of this VF5 stick though. I know gamestop has a place holder for it but they have been wrong before.

#5

Koi built me a fantastic xbox 360 stick with a wired controller for a very fair price. It looks great…plays great. Look him up if you decide to go custom.

#6

If you’d like a immediate fix to satiate your pacman needs:
http://www.ufighterx.com/guides/videogame/360dpadfix/360dpadfix.htm
That’s what I did to my controller since I play 2D fighters on my computer. Except, I took a knife to mine (there’s a youtube video of someone doing that online). I don’t feel like taking apart my controller and don’t really care if someone can notice I used a knife and not sandpaper.

#7

Your best bet for a 360 stick is to ask someone in the SRK forums to build you one in the Trading Outlet subforum. The VF5 360 Stick appears to be a reissue of the DOA4 stick with VF art (it’s made by Hori and costs $60, just like the DoA4 stick). The most expensive route is to get a GoPodular joystick, but only go this route if you want to use the same stick on multiple systems.

#8

I have the DoA stick for the 360 and I was trying to figure out the best way to mod it for Pac-Man and other retro games. Ideally I’d like to just replace the stick in the box with another similar sized one (my old “American” Pac-Man leaf switch stick is a little too big). Can someone point me in the right direction for the best stick option here that works in these nutty crazy small Hori controllers?

I appreciate any help!

#9

In regards to the DOA stick, what I did for pac-man is put an octagon restrictor in it. basically just open up the stick and take off the bottom restrictor plate made by hori, and drill some holes in the sanwa gate to make it fit. there is a whole thread on it, I’ll try to find it. Anyway, it will give you those ultimate left, right, up, down grooves that are good for playing pac-man with, but its still ok for fighters too. I prefer a square gate for fighters but really it isn’t bad playing everything on an octagon.

#10

That’s a good idea for the restrictor plate. My issue is really with the stick itself. It just doesn’t feel “right” to me. Maybe it’s the plate, but it just doesn’t have enough…something.

If I’m going to purchase a new plate anyway, I probably should just go ahead and get a new stick…if for nothing else but for future use and to have more junk laying around to annoy the girl. With that being said, what stick would work well here? I was thinking of pulling the whole thing apart but keeping the “guts” intact and just seeding it into a new case with a new stick that has a more familiar feel.

I think the steps I am going to take on the mod are this:

  1. Try and find a good replacement stick (Happ or Sanwa probably…Happ for the stick or Sanwa for the plate) and then follow the steps Final Cut suggested. Nice avatar by the way…S-Girls rock!

  2. Maybe attempt to use the smaller “bracket” (excuse my layman’s terminology, this is still a newish hobby for me) that is already in the case from the Hori stick and adapt another stick to it. Once again I would enjoy having that leaf-switch “feel” even though I know it’s going to make it practically a dedicated 4-way. Since I really do retro gaming 100x more than fighting, however, I’m ok with that.

  3. Failing those two things I may recreate the controller casing out of wood to make it deeper allowing for the better fit for a bigger stick. Once again since I’m pretty new to this I would consider this a last resort. No wait…

  4. Last resort. Stop playing Pac-Man. If I can’t bust 300k on Pac-Man C.E. on the 360 by now with the craptastic Xbox controller, then it just ain’t going to happen with that pad.

Whee!

Thanks for the advice and if anyone else has 2 cents to throw in…please please do. I’d like to sit a spell under a learning tree.

#11

Has anyone had any communication from gopodular recently? I was looking to buy a stick from them but haven’t heard anything back from my initial email for over a week. I know he posts here sometimes, but I haven’t seen any recent activity and am wondering if they’re still in business or just backed up with orders.

#12

Looks like for all the trouble you are willing to go through, you should just get a custom stick with your favorite kind of joystick built into it.

The reason I brought up the restrictor switch is because it is unbelievably easy to do. Putting a new stick inside the Hori DOA4 stick, however, is unbelievably difficult. I’ve been looking for the mod instructions for a while, but I can’t find it. people were calling it the Jumpsuit mod, because this guy jumpsuit jesse posted it up.

#13

Edit:

Ok, I finally found the Jumpsuit mod on the official Xbox.com forums and it really doesn’t look that bad (just like Final Cut said). I checked out the gates and everything and I have a different question…

Would the gate from a Sanwa JLW-TM-8 Ball Handle stick work? It’s a square but it’s one of those “slide the plate around and retighten the screws” to go from 4 way to 8 way jobs. From all of the measurements I could find they appear to be the same size and everything as the octagonal plates that are being used, and since I’m wanting to use this for a “forced” 4 way feel for Pac-Man and stuff then I thought this might be the way to go.

#14

Yeah,

I think I’m going to order this stick from Lizardlick. That way I get to play around with the “easy” mod and have a workable solution for my Xbox Live Arcade woes.

Then, when time and space allow, I can learn to be a soldering mastah.

If anyone can think of a reason why using a square gate for a 4-way stick (turned into the “diamond” configuration) is a bad idea, please let me know. The octagon just doesn’t do it for me, I like the feeling of the dedicated four. Of course, it would be nice for fireball throwing and what-have-you, but what can you do?

#15

If you only want four directions, then there is not bad side to limiting yourself to them. Also, having the diamond shape should help you since there will be a corner to push the stick into.

The only time that just four directions would be a bad thing, is of course, if you want to play a game that can use or needs diagonals.

#16

Looks like ebgames finally update the link the pic of the VF5 stick is now up:
http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product_id=802191

#17

more like hori fighting stick VF5 edition for 360. as far as i know, hrap are exclusive to playstation.

#18

If it is like the DoA stick, it should be easy enough to mod right?

#19

supposedly. i’ve seen some DoA stick mods. doesn’t look too hard.

here’s the VF5 stick.

http://www.gamewad.com/hori-fighting-stick-ex2-for-360-4465-p.html

chippermonky’s DoA mod guide.

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=131221

#20

You can try the Fighting Stick EX2, I believe it’s the same as the VF5 model, just no stickers. TMove.net has them, you can check it out here