joystick recommendation

[SteveDallas]

Can anybody recommend a good, cheap bare-bones PC joystick to use with MAME? Since it's only for use with Frogger, Ms. Pac-Man, Millipede, etc. I'm sure 99% of whatever the current hot 3D action-shock gaming features are would be useless (or worse).

[headsplice]

A gamepad might be more useful. Either way, you can pick one up (I would recommend USB if MAME will support it) for real cheap ($10) from any local computer store (if not the locals, a big chain will have one). For something that basic, a simple Logitech or Belkin would be fine.

[perth]

i havent been able to find a decent gamepad or joystick that could be described as 'cheap'. if i had the money, i would pick up one of these, but at 100 bucks for a 1 player stick, its a bit much. joysticks these days seem to be made for flight simulators, and i really dislike every gamepad ive looked at for the pc, including the one i settled on, the ms sidewinder. the problem is that most of those older arcade games had only 4 directions, and controllers these days can detect generally at least 8. well, todays games are more forgiving when you dont quite hit the right direction (a common problem when the d-pad is a big bubbly thing, see the sidewinder), but older games simply ignore any direction that isnt a primary compass point. and that makes pac man really hard. im very fond of the playstaion controller, and the design of the d-pad would do a damn fine job of minimising the problem i described above. so maybe something like this would serve you well. maybe i should look into it.

~james

[SteveDallas]

Thanks, headsplice, I'm planning a pilgrimage to Best Buy to pick up the Rocky & Bullwinkle collection... I'll see what they have. I'm not sure about compatibility... the MAME docs suggest it shouldn't be a problem, but they also suggest that you can use the mouse as a controller, and mine (a plain-vanilla PS/2 one) doesn't work. So I'll probably pick out something simple and cheap and see how it works, and bring it back if not.

perth, I've seen those, and I'm not going to pick up one for that much money to put on my PC. However, I have thought hard about using them for when I fulfill my current hi-tech fantasy, the construction of a table-model video game. But there are a lot of questions about monitors that I need to figure out before I could go ahead. On the other hand, if I'm going to spend $200 on the cabinet, another $200 on the controllers (one for each side), and a minimum of $300 for monitor and computer hardware (and that's assuming a lot of spare-parts cannibalization), why not just buy one?

[perth]

im of the same mind. now that we are finally buying a house with a spacious garage, im thinking of building a cocktail table as well. as far as the monitor goes, i was planning on getting a video card with tv out and using maybe a 20 inch tv, partly because its cheaper and partly because the low-res look is cool.

y'know, if youre handy with a soldering iron, you could probably build the joystick youre looking for using a torn apart sidewinder and parts easily found here. they dont seem to list prices (not obviously, anyway), but at one time they did, and i cant imagine the project being more than 50-60 bucks for a simple 2 button with an 8-way stick (or 4-way, depending mostly on the games you plan to play). still more expensive than what youre looking for, but isnt the satisfaction of building it yourself worth it?

~james

[SteveDallas]

Originally posted by perth
isnt the satisfaction of building it yourself worth it?

In a word, No.

In two words, Hell No.

In three words, No Fucking Way.

In four .... oh, never mind.

You see, as I get older, I've learned a couple things about myself--not much. One is that, I'm very good at taking some pieces and putting them together, if they are constructed in such a way that there's only one way they fit. But if I have to alter the shape of the parts, or if there's an opportunity to put the parts together at the wrong angle, I'm just better off bagging it. When I got my satellite TV system I had no trouble setting up the box, but I took the professional installation because I knew I was asking for trouble if I tried to mount the dish on the side of my house or do the wall penetrations myself.

So, if I do it myself I need a kit (such as the one from Arcade Depot) that has all the parts pre-cut and ready to screw together. And soldering? I might as well go sit in the emergency room with a match and light my hand on fire. (OK, it's not really that bad. But close.)

[SteveDallas]

Originally posted by SteveDallas
the MAME docs suggest it shouldn't be a problem, but they also suggest that you can use the mouse as a controller, and mine (a plain-vanilla PS/2 one) doesn't work.

Duh. You have to specifically enable the mouse as a controller. RTFM. Millipede is much nicer with the mouse. (Millipede performance is extremely important because it's Mrs. Dallas' favorite arcade game.)

Anyhoo, I picked up a Logitech Wingman Attack 2 for $19.99 at Best Buy. I played with some control pads that had thumb-operated mini-joysticks, but I didn't like them. I liked the larger stick, I liked having a fire button on the stick, and I thought the extra programmable buttons might be handy.

In practice, it was a dud because of exactly the problems perth described. The action is very mushy and it's hard to control. To be fair, this may just be a failing of analog sticks in general, as opposed to more discrete digital ones. It's actually not horrible for something like Millipede, where you want to move around freely within the boundary. But in something like Pac-Man or Frogger where you have to change a specific direction at a specific time, I actually found the joystick to be far inferior to using the arrow keys on the keyboard. It's going back at the first opportunity.

[SteveDallas]

I picked up one of these... with a switchable analog or digital (8-direction) mode, it seemed like just the thing, in combination with a $10 Playstation-to-USB game controller cable from Radio Shack. It was better than the Logitech, but still no cigar. The left-right motion was OK, but for some reason it was really easy for me to go up instead of down and vice versa. It failed the Pac-Man test miserably; I barely cleaned off the first screen before losing my 3 lives.

Back to the drawing board... at this rate I may end up springing for the X-arcade one.