Best Happ controls joystick?

[Biff Hardbody]

Hi All,

This is "Divine Crushing Fist". A while ago, I made a post here about X-Arcade and MAS sticks. Since then, I've had my MAS in the closet because the stick it uses ("perfect 360") has proven TERRIBLE for the older games I play.

At first, I thought it might be that I was rusty or the stick needed breaking in. Because, there was signs of the stick performing well. I spent a lot of time with it, and read a lot of posts on various sites like Shoryuken.com and google newsgroups about the 360. The general idea I got was 360 was by the absolute best. But, it played like shit for my games...I was actually having a very good game with the X-Arcades replica "Super joystick".

Time went on, and I told one of the uys who had recommended me the 360 about the horrible luck I was having. I mentioned that the 360 was performing terribly on games like SF2:World Warrior and Samurai Shodown. He then said something like "Oh yeah, 360's don't work to good on older games".

So, tonight I'm having my 360 replaced with a Happ's "competition joystick". I've heard the competition is the best stick for fighters, old and new. But, who knows if that's true. Before, I was led to believe the 360 was, and in my experience it's not.

Part of this post was to be informative for people buying MAS sticks, or building their own. The other part is I'd like to know if anyone has experience using 360's, and if so what is their take on them? Have you used a 360? With older games? Was your experience like mine or different? Have you used a competition stick? How is it?

Thanks for reading.

I'll post my thoughst on the competition stick I have installed later tonight.

[Cheebs]

I can't imagine the age of the game being a factor. Developer, genre, style....yes. Age.....I can't see how.

Did you like the 360's performace on any games? I have a Mas Stick myself, and it has never pissed me off. But then I suck at fighting games anyway. It has been very good to me with Metal Slug and various shmups however.

[Biff Hardbody]

I can't imagine the age of the game being a factor. Developer, genre, style....yes. Age.....I can't see how.

Did you like the 360's performace on any games? I have a Mas Stick myself, and it has never pissed me off. But then I suck at fighting games anyway. It has been very good to me with Metal Slug and various shmups however.

I didn't really like the 360 when compared to the Super. I'm sure age of the game has to be a factor, at least in my case. For example, I was able to do quite a few moves in Alpha 3...but I was lucky if I could do a fireball 1 out of 5 times in SF2 WW. I still wouldn't want to use it for Alpha though, the super was much better. But, just speaking about older games (the games I mainly play), the 360 has been HORRID.

The 360 was fine for games for Metal Slug, but every stick I have used has been fine for games of that type.

[japtor]

never used a 360 myself (well at least that i know of), so cant comment on that.

personally think the competition has the best base (pretty accurate in the way the switches get hit), but the spring isnt stiff enough for my tastes, i like the supers spring better. i think theres a different spring you can get for the comp that has the same tension as the super. otherwise i think the super has the best shaped stick. i think the super and comp shafts have the same notches so they might be interchangeable if im right.

course that was all pretty much subjective.

[Shapermc]

Competition sticks are the best. I would go with that or move on to jp sticks and get a sanwa.

[Biff Hardbody]

Well, I'm going to go ahead and buy the DC adaptor. I got the stick changed last night, and while I really like the stick itself...something isn't right. I suspecft it's the fact that I have to connect my MAS stick through my keyboard. The joystick maker said that could be the problem, and recommended I get it modified so I hook it via USB.

So, I'm going to do that. It's cheap. While I'm at it I'll buy DC and PS2 adaptors. God, I spent a lot of money on this. But screw it, Third Strike with this thing!

Yar...I reallly like the stick. It feels fucking great. Smooth and loose. Works great on MOTW too...gotta get it perfect though, that's where the adaptors come in.

[lithium]

They're all well made, quality sticks. It's just preference. I like Ultimates myself. Chances are very good that whatever you get, you won't like stiff springs (they are stiff).

[ssbomberman]

My 2 cents:

Yes you can get hard springs for Comp sticks to match tension of ultimates w/ hard springs (well, not quite as tight, but close).

I prefer comp with hard springs -- as it's a tight, spot on feel.

You can also get super sticks which use leaves that activate the switches, the same way Sanwa ball top sticks do. These are good if you are heavy on the sticks, they have very good endurance, but as they wear out, activating certain motions becomes difficult.

I would say that the Sanwa ball tops and U.S. comp sticks are my favorite. Both have good tension, but not too much.

There is also a bat top Sanwa stick, but I would avoid that as there is very little tension, even less than the Sanwa ball top.

But yeah as others said, it's all preference. I've also read and heard that 360s aren't good for older games, but I've used them for newer stuff like Marvel and thought they were decent, but I like to feel the click of the stick.