/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.8621628]

Why were so many terrible arcade sticks released in the west?

[Anonymous No.8621651]

>>8621628
They were selling.

[Anonymous No.8621653]

>>8621628
Because there was money to be made and little accountability, and players had low standards for controllers like that.

[Anonymous No.8621814]

>>8621628
I don't understand why anyone prefers arcade controls to an actual controller. The latter are designed for ergonomics, and the former to stand up to chronic, repeated abuse and a range of bodily fluids. They're meant to be durable, not comfortable.

[Anonymous No.8621827]

>>8621814
Games where you have to move constantly like shmups can be more comfortable with a stick. Also games with button combos like fighting games. On the opposite side of things, a platformer like mario world plays worse with a stick

[Anonymous No.8621850]

>>8621628
The official sega stick is pretty good, it has a micro switch dpad and the buttons feels as good as the neo geo controller.
The snes super advantage is terrible, the buttons rub against the plastic so they don't feel smooth and the stick is crap so you are not certain of the direction.
Reviews at the time were pretty bad at mentioning the flaws and were more concerned with how it looked.

[Anonymous No.8621932]

>>8621814
If you started out in, or played primarily in arcades your muscle memory and reflexes would be trained for a joystick and a d-pad would feel awkward in your hands.

[Anonymous No.8622005]

>>8621628
it's not like it was easy to get something that was arcade-quality. Controllers weren't that great in the first place. They did the job for what was available.

There were, however, rare exceptions here and there. usually they were sold in limited capacities and as high-end items, so there's little reason to expect them to be common. Despite their rarity however, they did exist.

[Anonymous No.8622007]

>>8621850
Damn I think I have that one in storage back at my parents’ house. Maybe it’s a knockoff. I don’t know if I ever even used it.

[Anonymous No.8622012]

>>8621814
you can have more precision with a wrist than you can with a thumb, and you can handle many inputs at once with the right hand using potentially all of the fingers.

[Anonymous No.8623012]

>>8621628
Because it worked in the """east"""?

>>8621850
>pretty good
>as good as the neo geo controller
timetostoppostingcat.jpg

>>8622012
>using potentially all of the fingers
This. But copers gonna cope. A while back there was a youtube watcher shilling 6 face buttons. I baited the fucker for about a week while it demanded I explain how it was wrong and dug its hole deeper and deeper. When I pointed out it had 1 thumb and 4 fingers it claimed it put the controller on its leg and used 3 fingers. Couldn't make this shit up.

[Anonymous No.8623267]

>>8623012
You sound genuinely unhinged

[Anonymous No.8623290]

>>8621814
A lot easier to use six buttons using four fingers than one thumb. Same reason typing on a keyboard is faster than texting with your thumbs

[Anonymous No.8623684]

>>8623267
>you sound like a grownup

[Anonymous No.8623775]

>>8621628
Because fighting games were hugely popular and the idea was an arcade stick was the proper way to play them.
As to why cheap out and release shitty rubber membrane sticks instead of real arcade controls?
Mostly betting western consumers wouldn't know the difference or just not giving a shit.
In Japan most arcade sticks at least had a mechanical joystick, and often had arcade-style switches for the buttons.

But then there are companies like Pelican that would release products that make you ask "Has anyone there ever actually played a video game?"

[Anonymous No.8623780]

>>8621628
This is one of the better ones

>>8621850
This one is very good

>>8623775
This one is also far from terrible

[Anonymous No.8623797]

>>8622005
>it's not like it was easy to get something that was arcade-quality
There was an ironic situation going on in the west with arcade controls.
Most of the arcade sticks that were released in stores were based on the Japanese style. In the best case scenarios these products had actual Seimitsu or Sanwa parts in them. Such as the Capcom Power Stick Fighter, which had a legit Sanwa JLW in it in the western version. Some of the other sticks still had clicky balltop joysticks of in-house design from companies like ASCII.
But to the western gamer this was not the real thing. They wanted joysticks like they would find on a Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat machine. Wico/Happ/IL style controls and buttons. Which have today fallen out of favor and could be considered to be not the "real" controls for these games anyway. They were a compromise from US arcade OPs who favored durability and cheapness over input accuracy.

[Anonymous No.8623803]

>>8623780
>This one is also far from terrible
Have you used it? The joystick is not mechanical. It's a plastic rocker over a rubber membrane like the NES advantage. The buttons are also mushy membrane crap.

[Anonymous No.8623806]

>>8621628
Seems like you weren't around in the 80s and especially in the European home computer scene. We got so many dodgy joystick designs in these days, you can't begin to imagine how bad things were.

[Anonymous No.8623809]

>>8623803
like 90% of all sticks due to cost. you get what you pay for in the end. best way then and now is to get some quality parts and build one yourself.

[Anonymous No.8623814]

>>8623806
>europe isn't the west
>random "I'm an oldfag" appeal to authority
yup it's a shitpost

[Anonymous No.8623816]

>>8623814
No, I'm actually an oldfag. Playing since the C64 came along.

[Anonymous No.8623819]

>>8623816
Might add that Europe and US FELT very different when it came to gaming. Kinda isolated over here in the 80s.

[Anonymous No.8623823]

>>8623809
Well I was mostly talking about the ironic mindset of players in the time period. They bemoaned that they had to make due with these ball top sticks with strange little buttons that weren't "real arcade controls" when the reality is they actually were closer to the real thing the original developers were playing on.
Joysticks like the Super and Competition joysticks were not the "real" arcade controls for games like Street Fighter from a more modern point of view.

I recall seeing the Dreamcast arcade stick from Agetec and being completely uninterested because I wanted a MAS stick so badly and saved up to buy that instead. Today I would reach for the Agetec every time.

[Anonymous No.8623829]

>>8623816
>I'm actually an oldfag. Playing since the C64 came along.
Pro-tip: no one gives a shit.
Lots of us are oldfags. This is an old fag board but we don't feel the need to tell everyone in a pointless appeal to authority in every post.

[Anonymous No.8623831]

>>8623829
chill little buddy, you might live longer

[Anonymous No.8623839]

>>8621628
Why was the layout like that when it should have been Y X L B A R

[Anonymous No.8623846]

>>8621850
Only the japanese ones had microswitches.

[Anonymous No.8623853]

Meanwhile in Japan Hori sticks were everywhere. There are so many of these for sale on ebay every day that they must have made millions.

[Anonymous No.8623856]

>>8621628
I imported this and two of the smaller ones in like 2005 and never looked back desu

[Anonymous No.8623864]

>>8623856
How much did you pay for it in 2005?

[Anonymous No.8623869]

>>8621628
I have this exact pad for the megadrive.
Used it a few times and shelved it, not really for me desu.

[Anonymous No.8623876]

>>8623864
I don't remember. Not that expensive.. I'm pretty sure the shipping from Japan was more than the actual price.

[Anonymous No.8623893]

>>8621628
>>8623780
I had the one in OP, it’s fucking awful. Instant RSI generator.

[Anonymous No.8623928]

>>8623823
The Agetec Dreamcast has pretty terrible stick and buttons.

[Anonymous No.8623949]

>>8623928
I completely disagree. The joystickfeels a little loose and the buttons are kind of taller and mushy, but overall it is an excellent stick. It's comparable to what Mayflash makes today.
I've seen people use these in tournaments and do the highest-skill level combos and tactics with them.

[Anonymous No.8623952]

>>8623949
>I've seen people use these in tournaments
They've probably swapped out the stick and buttons. It's a pretty easy mod.

[Anonymous No.8623994]

>>8623952
No, they were the original controls.

[Anonymous No.8623997]

>>8623994
How do you know that?

[Anonymous No.8624115]

>>8621628
American arcades had Happ parts, and those were extremely fucking bulky, see pic. Making a controller with those meant making something insanely bulky, for a thing aimed at kids. Giving little Timmy something so heavy that he could kill his little brother with it and so big that he could hide the body inside didn't seem like a good idea, so everyone went with membrane.
In Japan, parts were much smaller and arcades were more prevalent, so there was demand and potential supply for controllers with a proper arcade feel. Even since the Famicom days, they had proper microswitched sticks.

[Anonymous No.8624823]

>>8624115
>American arcades had Happ parts,
ackshually in the 80s and 90s they were Wico and Industry Lorenzo parts. Happ came later.

[Anonymous No.8624829]

>>8623997
Can tell by looking at the buttons. Agetec buttons are little bit smaller and taller than Sanwa buttons.
Don't know about the joystick but considering the type of guys I saw using these I am 99% sure they were not modded. This was in the mid 2000s when it was tricky to get real Japanese parts.

[Anonymous No.8624876]

>>8624823
I'm pretty sure mechanics were the same regardless.

[Anonymous No.8624881]

>>8624829
>This was in the mid 2000s when it was tricky to get real Japanese parts.
Yeah, so they were using them because they had no alternative. I'm not saying they're so bad that you'll be unable to play properly using them, just that they're unpleasant to use.

[Anonymous No.8626325]

>>8623780
This is a baby parrot

>>8623856
Sure you did, champ. That's why you can't remember what you paid.

>>8623864
Not the LARPer you asked but around that time you could find a NIB 0130 for about $10

[Anonymous No.8626339]

>>8624115
>If you or someone you know

[Anonymous No.8626368]

>>8624115
Why does the happ one have 3 prongs?

[Anonymous No.8626384]

>>8626368
There might be some arcane reason, but it's probably "just 'cuz", or these switches were borrowed from some other thing that did need three prongs, and it stuck.

[Anonymous No.8626592]

>>8626368

>>8626384
>imma cluless but shitpost anyway
18+

[Anonymous No.8626702]

>>8622012
>>8623290
This is why. Arcade games like shmups were designed around arcade controls. You can still play perfectly well with a controller, but I would say an arcade stick is the objectively superior input method because it gives a finer degree of control.

[Anonymous No.8626731]

>>8623853
This is pretty nice for the price, I don't know how much they go for today but I paid less than 25€ with shipping for mine in 2007, I sold everything some years ago.
>>8623856
The smaller stick is really bad in quality and not easy to mod either, it just looks nice which is all that matters to coomlectors.

[Anonymous No.8626794]

>>8626368
The microswitches that are used are standard ones. There is a pin for “normally closed” as an extra where you want the connection to be closed until the button is pressed. Not used in most arcade games, but these microswitches could be used in other industries as well.

[Anonymous No.8626817]

>>8621651
>>8621653
These are the correct answers

[Anonymous No.8626823]

>>8626384
This is an example of when not to post.