Madcatz's joysticks for the 360

[Smooth Groove]

Is Madcatz making more of their high end joysticks?  I have a really great PS2/PS3 stick but I'm gonna have to splurge on a 360 stick as well. 

Apparently,the PS3's POS hardware can't even run a simple game like SF4 as well as the 360. 
(http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/face-off-street-fighter-iv-article)

The cheaper one was available at Fry's but Hori's non-HRAP has sticks made me leery of budget joysticks. 

[Rman]

I think Prole bought the entry level stick for the 360.  I luckily got my hands on a HRAP EX before all the shortages.  I did some simple mods and I'm loving it. 

Also, Smooth, I think the difference between the versions are exaggerated. 

[drohne]

there's supposed to be another run of the highend madcatz sticks in april, but good luck finding one

anyway, i've got both versions of sf4, and the visual differences are hardly worth buying another stick over, though it's pathetic that the ps3 version had to be cut down

[ferrarimanf355]

I'll probably get the entry-level Mad Catz stick and put some Sanwa parts in it. It's supposed to have quick disconnects, right?

[drohne]

yep. though good luck finding sanwa parts at this point!

[ferrarimanf355]

It must be tough as hell to find 'em, then...

[Smooth Groove]

yep. though good luck finding sanwa parts at this point!

Do Sanwa parts really make a difference for most gamers?  I know that the Sanwa parts are much more durable but they don't seem to help me pull off moves any easier.  My friends also agree that they play just as good with my HRAP Sanwa edition as they do with a regular stick. 

[Rman]

yep. though good luck finding sanwa parts at this point!

Do Sanwa parts really make a difference for most gamers?  I know that the Sanwa parts are much more durable but they don't seem to help me pull off moves any easier.  My friends also agree that they play just as good with my HRAP Sanwa edition as they do with a regular stick. 

Not really.  I would agree they make no difference, especially the buttons.  Some people do prefer the octo gates for 2D fighters.  I could see how someone would prefer an octo gate for the stick,though. 

[Smooth Groove]

How does an OCTO gate feel different from a regular gate? 

[Rman]

I actually prefer the OCTO gate, but I'm too lazy for the mod.  For me they feel tighter and a tad more responsive for the qcf moves.  The square gates, which are used for most sticks and arcade cabs these days feel slightly looser.  They perform best for 3D fighters that contain tons of directional input moves, such as Tekken and VF.  The original SF4 cabs actually used square gates.

It's all about personal preference, really. 

Here's a good write up from a shoryuken.com poster.

So what's the difference between the two? The biggest differences if your dead zone area. With square, you have a more tight and narrow area to play on. Being on a square, you can feel your corners. With octagonal, you have a full circle you can play around in. Just you have more room to move which can be a good or bad thing for you. In my case, I've been playing on a square gate for the past year. After a couple of hours of play with the octagonal gate, here are my impressions of the games I picked out. Tekken 5: DR and SSF2THDREmix.

First is Tekken:

Square:
This is ideal for Tekken (and VF as well in this case). It was made for Tekken in mind with EWGF, wave dashing, etc. You have quick reaction with a flick of your wrist.

Octagonal:
It's tricky at first but after you get a hang of the extra room with your motions, you'll play it like it were a square gate. The only big problem I see with this is you'll get tired in your wrist a lot quicker because of the large motions you have to make with your moves compared to the smaller movements with the square.

Conclusion:
If you are a first time Tekken player, either one will do you fine. Long time player, I high suggest the square gate. Octagonal is optional under the circumstances that you play other fighters. If not, stay with the square gate for games like Tekken and VF.

Now onto Street Fighter:

Square:
Fireballs, dragon punches. It takes some time getting used to doing these with a square. But with patience, you'll catch on. Performing a super move I still struggle with. Granted I've only been playing Street Fighter on a arcade stick for the past month. So this could be due to my inexperience of the game on a stick. Performing a full 360 is really tricky because of the square corners that you can catch on and slow your roll. Charge characters are easily played. For me, I played much better with a charge character (Guile, Blanka, etc) than the others by far.

Octagonal:
Just with the two hours played, I was able to easily adjust my game with perform moves with Ryu, Ken, Cammy, etc. Fireballs, dragon punches, supers. All performed without any issues on either side. Even Zangief I was able to perform his 360 moves on classic mode without any hitch. As for charge characters, the difficulty turns up. You have a much larger area to perform this moves. Charge back to forward you'll get used to but charging down to up is very difficult.

Conclusion:
Between Square and Octagonal, they both have their ups and downs. You might want to look at who your main characters will be in the long run. If you're gonna play a charge character, the Square gate works perfectly. Other characters such as Ryu or Sagat, the Octagonal make them playable without having to worry if you're going to perform a super or not on either side.


Super Conclusion:
These are all my opinions and based on 2 hours of playtime with an octagonal gate today. At this time, I will be staying octagonal because of how it improves my performance with Street Fighter. As for Tekken, it remains the same. It was a little awkward at first because of the huge space I had to use with my wrist motions, but I got used to it and am able to keep the same performance with Tekken as if I were playing on a square gate.

If it's your first time using an arcade stick and going to start off with Street Fighter, I'd suggest going the octagonal route. This could also be applied to future games such as KOF12 and Blueblaze (I get that right?). But either gate can go either way for you. Everyone will have their own preferences.

[archie4208]

my TE stick

[Smooth Groove]

Is there a comparison between the arcadeinabox.com stick and the Macatz Tournament stick?  The arcadeinabox solution costs a bit more but they can make it compatible with both the PS3 and the 360. 

[drohne]

Do Sanwa parts really make a difference for most gamers?  I know that the Sanwa parts are much more durable but they don't seem to help me pull off moves any easier.  My friends also agree that they play just as good with my HRAP Sanwa edition as they do with a regular stick. 

i've played a lot of sf with entry level hori sticks and with sanwa-modded hraps, and i wouldn't say it makes a huge execution difference in practice. sanwa sticks have got much smaller deadzones, and sanwa buttons are crisper and more sensitive, but yeah, i can basically hit moves on any old stick. maybe the best thing about having a full sanwa stick is knowing that it isn't your stick's fault when you mess up. and durability of course, though i've personally never managed to wreck a low-end stick

[Smooth Groove]

I like to indulge in the fantasty of eventually becoming an elite player through the use of an arcade quality joystick.  However, even with a high quality stick like the HRAP Sanwa Additon, I suck at fighting games .

There was a time when I was decent at pulling off SF moves with the Genesis 6 button joypad so maybe I should also get a quality pad to use with SF4. 

3D fighters are definately more fun with a stick though.  Sticks make it so much easier to button bash in games like Tekken 5 or SC4.  Button bashing actually destroyed one of my low end sticks which is why I decided to invest in the HRAP SA.