Play-Asia reveals new Mad Catz FightSticks [update]

How is it not?

It's ugly.

Your an idiot

I love irony.

I love Iron

@Vcize

LOLOLOL

A more appropriate question would be, "When was the last time you WENT to an arcade?"

And I'm pretty sure the ball at the top is for the ladies.

A) it's a japanese style stick.
B) http://gamingnow.net/Sanwa-Seimitsu-Parts.html -- Bat tops can be found here.

Japanese style joysticks, ever heard of them?

A local arcade used to have that style of stick, so I actually prefer it over American style: let's you have a better grip, and they look quite nice.

I'm a stick man myself.

This is why I took the stick from my Supergun and made it universal.

http://tinylink.com/?zE0yLb0Idk if you need a reference point as to what I'm talking about.

I have big "american style" hands.

companies make sticks with the ball top because that is how japanese sticks are... that is also why they have 8 and 4 way gates so the stick clicks into the corners a bit as it moves around. usually made of actual or imitation sanwa or seimitsu parts. Notice the buttons are convex. (TE stick has sanwa parts SE has imitation)

if you go check an older street fighter machine, the joystick has a bat top, and the gate is smooth, you cant feel the corners and the stick snaps back to neutral position quicker. the buttons are concave. this hardware setup is more inline with american happ sticks

many old school street fighter players (john choi and mike watson) prefer the happ stick with a bat top. many have started to prefer the japanese style stick as on their trips overseas, the initial transition from happ to sanwa style was jarring. seth killian and many other OG players have noted this numerous times when interviewed about going to japan for an event.

the advent of events like Super Battle Opera 7 or 8 years ago has led many tournament hopefuls to choose to play with japanese style sticks and many west coast arcades to import the machines to follow suit.

street fighter 4 machines were never intended to end up here, so almost all imported cabinets have the japanese style joysticks and buttons.(most if not all on the west coast and the set of 2 in NYC's chinatown fair feature japanese cabinets, philly's university pinball has the game running on its own cabinets, if i remember correctly with happ style bat top sticks)

if you really want to you can easily buy a bat top and unscrew and replace the ball top on any joystick. lizardlick.com sells arcade parts.

the buttons on the madcatz sticks are set so if you want to play with american style layout of buttons, use the outer 6, and for japanese layout (slight ergonomic curve to layout) use the inner 6.

the real question here is, will this model retain the authentic sanwa parts of its SFIV TE stick cousin? or will it have imitation parts to be junked and easily swapped out ala the SE model.

That's what she said!
That's what she said!

Easy.

$25 for the joystick. $3x10 for the buttons. $50-70 for the cabinet.

Include assembly, profits, etc. etc.

It's actually a pretty good deal.

okay, now i'm thoroughly confused. how is a joystick 25 dollars? it's a flippin JOYSTICK, from the 80s!!! and how is the cabinet/casing $50-70? just go buy some wood from home depot and get some sand paper and spray paint and it'd be cheaper than that.

And if you can make a great case yourself, with the time to spare, you can easily sell them for $50+.

Apparently there's a market for selling things to people because they cannot craft them themselves, such a crazy idea.

i'm boycotting!! and then i'm ripping apart my xbox controller and gonna 1up madcatz!!!

The joystick's a little more complicated than you think, and there are varying levels of quality when it comes to joysticks and buttons. The cheapest joysticks can go for $15 with the most expensive ones going for up to $45. Buttons can go from under $2 for cheap ones and up to $3+ for better quality. The board inside the controller is worth a certain amount (Xbox controllers are like $50 aren't they?). Then there's the case and artwork. If you built this yourself, bought and installed your own buttons and joystick (quality ones), wiring, soldering, bought an xbox controller to mod, did the wookwork, you're probably looking at a $100-$120 project, given you have all the tools.

...lolwut?

man some people are dumb as hell, anyways i'll indulge. this arcade stick is fully customizable they even encourage it. you can replace the ball top with a bat type by simply screwing it off. sorta like a car shift knob. bat tops sell for like $3-5

the reason for the buttons/joystick is because they are genuine sanwa arcade parts instead of replicas/fakes. the same buttons they use in japanese arcades.

Actually, Sushi, even though the parts are made by Sanwa they are not the same Sanwa parts you would buy from Sanwa. I heard (slightly rumored) that Sanwa specifically made those parts for the Madcatz arcade sticks. If you check the brands of the microswitches, they are not the same brands that you will see if you buy your own Sanwa parts. I don't know if they are actually lower quality parts or just the same. I'm not knocking on the stick; it's still a good stick and probably the best you can buy retail for that price.

You need atleast 9 buttons, and each are around 3 dollars. The joystick cost 25 bucks. You will also need a case and PCB as well as wires, soldering gun, solder,ect


Not likely.

I have a ps2 controller, soldering iron, wires, and lots of plywood. Is it just a matter of soldering the buttons to the controller leads? Same thing for the joystiq? If the parts are that cheap and you don't need lots of other stuff, then cool, maybe I can do this for on the cheap. I was just concerned that simply soldering good buttons to a ps2 controller would not, a good fighter stick, make.

if you got the parts and the knowhow, there's more detailed info about putting together a joystick yourself at http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick.html

lollipop style better? you sir have mini hands

that's what I'm saying, my big hands get caught underneath the ball, and my knuckles hit the cabinet

You guys must not have very dextrous hands.. I have pretty damn big hands(I'm 6'6" 280) and much prefer japanese sticks over american sticks.

Any one else visualizing an ape playing Street Fighter? heh, sorry, no offense intended.

I have normal sized hands, not my fault some people have sausages for fingers.

i'm pretty sure don't know how to hold the damn stick. i'm 6'5 and love the japanese stick compared the to the bat stick. also, this shouldn't even be a problem considering the stick is CUSTOMIZABLE!

And wait until October.

And uses Hori buttons.



So, in reality, it's not the same thing at all.

HRAP 3 SA.

SA stands for Sanwa.

Will this work with a PC? It is the version with all pro parts correct?

It will work for PS3 and PC. There is an 360 version which uses Seimitsu parts for $139.99.

Hm, these HRAPs finally use official buttons from sanwa/semeitsu apparently.

Still, for 360, I'd rather spend another $10, and get a stick now, compared to waiting till October.

Hori needed to release these in mass months ago, when people were scurrying to buy them.

HRAP series "real arcade" i think use Japanese arcade parts.

and you can either buy the ps3 or 360 version both will work on PC. 360 version you may have to look for drivers tho.

@DeepFriedSushi

Normal HRAP sticks have a Sanwa stick and Hori buttons, but the SA and SE versions use all Sanwa or Seimitsu parts (stick+buttons), respectively. Speaking of Seimitsu, I have an LS-56-01 I cannibalized from my old Sega Saturn Virtua Stick I've been meaning to isntall in one of my newer joysticks, I need to get the mounting plate from somehwere.

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Real-Arcade-Pro-EX-SE/dp/B002FKYPU4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1247696205&sr=1-4
Don't forget the HRAP EX SE. Seimitsu parts!