Well, let’s see if I can clear up some of the trash talking of the X-Arcade products.
First of all, this forum caters to the best fighting game fans, and a large majority of them like the small ball-top Japanese style sticks with square actuators.
The X-Arcades were built mainly around classic gaming, which is why they have concave buttons and Super style joysticks. Thousands of fighting game fans have still chosen to buy the Solo controller and change the buttons and joysticks out with HAPP comps, and they still use them today.
If you are using the standard 2-player controller sitting down it will be indeed tight for 2 players. Most people buy it for use with MAME where they want to play dual-joystick games like Robotron and SmashTV, and casual 2-player play. The 2-player is not actually so small compared to real arcade 2-player setups, it is that your elbows and body in general widen out when you are sitting. When used standing up such as in a cabinet, it’s fine. If you want something wider, the new Tankstick has more than enough room, it is a beast.
As for our microswitches sticking easily, that is false. Our switches have been tested to over 1 million presses and it is very rare for a switch to go bad at all. The defect rate on them is very low even compared to known competitors.
We have also recently begun to use new buttons and new switches that are even better than before. You will notice they are much tighter, less noisy, and very responsive. They have been tested to over 10 million button presses. The Tanksticks have them now, and the rest of our products will slowly move over to them.
You no longer have to plug a keyboard into our controllers anymore either, as all X-Arcade products now have USB support built in. The connections have also been improved.
Finally, the guys at Retroblast.com are regarded as the hardware gurus of arcade hardware. Again, they are not fighting gamers, but they know arcade hardware better than anyone. You can see how our products compare to others for yourself: http://www.retroblast.com/hardware.html
Also you will notice that many who trash-talk the X-Arcades here are building custom controllers for sale here, they seem to be the ones that speak out first and loudest. Just an observation.