X-Arcade MAME Dual Controller Rated

VL writes "Keyboards and mice are great for gaming, but sometimes you need something old school... especially when playing those MAME classics - here's ViperLair's review of the X-Arcade dual controller." X-Arcade also makes a single-player version, and a sturdy-looking trackball.

Comments

this is headline news?

[falcon5768]

its been out for a year now, actually i think longer, how is this headline news, it seems more like a ad to me. now if the guy MADE them himself like i know a lot of people have and posted how, then i would be impressed

Re:this is headline news?

[badasscat]

its been out for a year now, actually i think longer, how is this headline news, it seems more like a ad to me. now if the guy MADE them himself like i know a lot of people have and posted how, then i would be impressed

Not only has the damn thing been out for more than a year, there are already dozens of reviews posted, many from more reputable sources. As you can see, pretty easy to find them too.

I've just learned to expect that every day or so a story like this will slip through. It'd be one thing to announced that the trackball has actually shipped (something a lot of people have been waiting for for a long time!) - that'd be news, honestly. But a new review of their base controller that those who need already have? No, this is not news. I was disappointed when I clicked through; I thought this must be a new product.

Re:this is headline news?

[nycsubway]

I agree, the news here is that they're selling this thing for $150/US. And there's probably someone buying it.

Re:this is headline news?

[PurpleFloyd]

Have you ever actually played an arcade game (and I don't mean via MAME, I mean played a real game in a real cabinet)? The controls have a certain "feel" to them that simply cannot be easily replicated. This is mostly due to the fact that while almost all keyboards, joypads and the like on the market use rubber dome switches, arcade machines (and, presumably, the X-arcade) use microswitches designed to be hammered upon by excited and frustrated kids.

Obviously, the parts in this thing aren't cheap, and since it's a fairly small-run item, each customer has to bear a significant portion of the manufacturing costs. Still, there are a lot of kids who cut their teeth on '80s arcade games who are just now becoming sucessful in the corporate world. These people have money to spend, and are willing to spend it to create a nostalgic experience.

Basically, it's a hobby item. You might not spend $5000 on an elaborate model train setup, but there are enough model train fanatics in the world to support a small industry. The situation with the X-arcade is similar - while the customer base certainly isn't mainstream or huge, it is dedicated, has money, and is large enough to support an (apparently) successful business producing replica arcade controllers for the PC.

Re:this is headline news?

[ShavenYak]

arcade machines (and, presumably, the X-arcade) use microswitches designed to be hammered upon by excited and frustrated kids.

I'm sure the X-arcade uses microswitches like the modern arcade machines, but REAL arcade machines use leaf switches.

Re:this is headline news?

[Eu4ria]

Actually I am in the process of making my own and am using cherry microswitched buttons from Happs. But I think the old skool machines all used leafspring switches, which don't click when you press them.

Re:this is headline news?

[bwy]

arcade machines (and, presumably, the X-arcade) use microswitches designed to be hammered upon by excited and frustrated kids.

While this may be true today (I haven't played a game in an arcade in years) it wasn't true 20 years ago. I have a Ms Pac cocktail in my dining room, an original Midway (not some brand new copy like they're now selling.) The original joysticks used leaf switches as opposed to micro switches. The difference in game play is pretty big IMHO. There is nothing like flying around the Ms Pac maze with a leaf switch joystick that gives you just the right amount of "bounce back". Compare that to the unfortunate 21st century replacements I ended up buying for the game which are micro switch. It just ain't the same.

P.S. while we're on the topic, those old Midway games are some real old school shit. Mine has the original monitor, I believe. It has been re-cap'ed several times but still works.

Re:this is headline news?

[mdielmann]

You're sorely lacking in research. Old games used leaf spring switches, newer used microswitches (sometimes). Leaf springs need maintenance to use for full lifetime, micros will probably work fine until complete failure (like most electronic hardware). And the price for each button (either kind, last time I checked) were measured in dollars (one or two per). Either hooks up the same way. Piecework may have a bearing on the price (and bet that it is still pretty high), but the type/quality of switches has little bearing on the cost. As said before, Happ is a good reference to find out more. My prices might be off somewhat, but I won't be looking too much more until I can afford to build my own.

Re:this is headline news?

[antime]

If you prefer leaf-switch buttons I would suggest the "official" Dreamcast arcade stick and a suitable adapter. It has only six buttons (plus start) but that's enough for the majority of games.

Personally I use an Asciiware Playstation stick, which has eight buttons plus start and select. The buttons use pretty nasty bubble switches, but I prefer it over the Dreamcast one because the stick has a longer shaft and a slightly smaller ball that fits better into my small, girlish hands.

Re:this is headline news?

[ArcadeNut]

If you want a trackball, check out the HotRod by Hanaho Games.

The pictures they have are of the older model, but you look at the Arcade PC, you can see the one with Track Ball.

I own both the X-Arcade controller and the Hot Rod and the Hot Rod is a better product overall than the X-Arcade.

Not only that, you get a lot of the original Capcom games with the controller.

Re:this is headline news?

[DjMd]

Worse yet this VL (submitter for the article) is ViperLair. It is just to generate traffic to his website... all of VL's story submitions are just post on his website.
(User vl has never even made a post)
It is either sad that slashdot editors don't pick up on this or worse they know and are intentionally supporting it...

old school?

[F13]

shouldn't that be old skool!?

cowabunga man! totally tubular..!

Looks great!

[edoc]

I would love to have one of these that would work with my Linux computer that doubles as a Mame arcade, I currently am using these controllers for gaming on my Windows computer and they are great. There are several different styles of controllers for PC now that are great and that easily compare to anything available in the console arena.

Re:Looks great!

[operagost]

You're supposed to just push straight up if you want to turn at the next corner. I know, that's not the answer you're looking for but I can't see why you're pushing diagonally when pushing straight in the four compass directions is the only input the game expects.

wonderful.

[Allison Geode]

I love mine, personally. I bought all the adaptors except for the one I really need: usb. apparently, my keyboard port doesn't output nearly enough electricity to power the thing, and performance on pc is sluggish at best. works great on my xbox, and the gamecube version of soul calibur 2, while great with a standard wavebird, shines with the x-arcade.

IANAET (English teacher) but I'm mortified

[The I Shing]

You can tell the reviewer has spent a lot more time playing videogames than learning how to punctuate and spell.

Proofreading: The Anti-Suck

build your own

[Anonymous Coward]

using this -> http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html

trackball for xbox?

[chaos421]

if they make the trackball one for xbox (i see the joystick one is...) i'd buy that in a heartbeat. it'd be great for tiger woods golf... the single and dual joystick... i dunno, they just seem like they're for kiddies... but perhaps i'm wrong... i could see how gamers would like them for fighting games...

the x-arcade trackball..

[enrico_suave]

the x-arcade trackball has been in "preorder" status for over a year now... maybe it'll see light of day before half-life 2... *Shrug*

there's been plenty of x-arcade reviews before, I'm not sure what's "new" about this one...

e.

kevin steele's retroblast review

[enrico_suave]

Kevin Steele did a review comparing x-arcade, hotrod, slick stick (custom mondo arcade control panel), and one other...

retroblast has the review (even has a video review with some cheeky production value) =)

e.

x-arcade dual sticks too close together

[enrico_suave]

The one complaint I'd have with the x-arcade is that it's a little tough for two adults to stand side by side and play a game without feeling "crowded"... although they are close enough to play a nice game of robotron... but you can take your friends teeth out if while performing zangief moves in 2player street fighter II =)

I actually used x-arcade joystick and buttons (from an ebay auction... like 20 bucks for 2 happs super clone joysticks and 20 buttons) on my taito mame cabinet conversion

The buttons are made a little bit cheaper/thinner plastic than happs/etc and use cheaper zippy microswitches (as opposed to cherry brand switches) but pretty solid overall... they've survived numerous track and field poundings =)

e.

Rotary knob?

[diesel66]

A rotary knob would be nice on one of these for:
Major Havoc
Tempest
Tron (and DoT)
and maybe others...

that things ok..but you can build your own too

[atarione]

all you need is some joysticks and buttons.. (happ controls)http://www.happcontrols.com/
a M$ usb gamepad a soldering gun and some wood
and time.
you just solder onto the sidewinder pcb.. so that your pc thinks it's a sidewinder but the buttons and joysticks are old skool arcade ones.

Re:that things ok..but you can build your own too

[Anonymous Coward]

I've built a few of these things, long before there was 'X-arcade'.

Originally they were for the PSX. You take the PSX controller apart, and simply solder wires from the arcade buttons to the PSX controllers contacts. Very minimal electronics experience is necessary. You just need to know how to solder really.

Happ competition stick ~ $14 x 2
Happ competition button - $1.75 x 20
2 usb/gravis game pad/etc game pads for the guts ~$20 x 2
Wood/plastic/etc to make box out of ~ $10

If you want to roll your own, you will end up spending about $80-$90 on parts for a two joystick setup. After a lot of pain, you'll have something that works. Maybe left goes up and up goes diagnal down/right, but it does something!

After making numerous arcade style sticks for use on home systems, my advice would be to buy the friggin' x-arcade stick ;). The only reason you should make your own is if the x-arcade stick isn't good enough and you want to use even better quality stuff...IMO it works great.

Just build your own, it's very simple.

[Anubis333]

I wrote a tutorial a while back on building one of these control panels, and also building a cabinet to go with it. It's really very easy to wire up, you can see the buttons on the page linked in the story.

Please check it out, because it's a great project to do, and it's very simple, these X-Arcade and Hotrod guys are just raping people; you can build one of these dual sticks for about 20 dollars, and it's a lot of fun.

Re:Just build your own, it's very simple.

[iantri]

The parent, by the way, has either a bizarre sense of humour or a bizarre sense of "simple"; this can be much more easily done with a PC, MAME and a keyboard encoder. Just wire the buttons up to the terminals on the keyboard encoder, use the programming software (for Windows, Mac and Linux, on the I-PAC, Windows only on the one I use) and you're set! Much more customizable, although it does cost more than $20.

For the full experience...

[darnok]

it's gonna have to emulate:
- the "clunk" of a controller that's been bashed slightly beyond its designated left/right/up/down extremes by a million users overdosed on Jolt and Mountain Dew
- the strange sticky feel that comes from having Coke dribbled into the controller drop by drop over several years
- the strange smell that comes from the carpets and walls of old video arcades. Male sweat + flatulence + cigarettes + dope + ...
- the smeared screen that's been touched by 1000 "helpers" trying to tell the game player what to do next

When it does all this, count me in!

Re:Linux drivers

[cyrax777]

Xarcade doesnt need drives it plugs in thru the ps2 slot the buttons emulatate keyboard keys.

Sticks like these are _not_ analog.

[Anubis333]

A word of warning to people. These type of control panels do not have analog sticks _or_ buttons. And most games for modern consoles _require_ them. These sticks are only for a few fighting games on next gen consoles, and not to be used instead of a controller. You cannot play halo on these.. however, at Software Etc we get these back all the time with that same complaint.

What they really need...

[Black Art]

is a dial for playing Tempest.

Using the keyboard is just not the same.

Re:What they really need...

[operagost]

I would suggest trying to set it up 'custom', if it's an old-fashioned analog joystick. Choose one of the 'flight yoke with throttle' options. If it's digital, in XP there's a Logitech Wingman Digital auto-detect option that should work.

something like...

[abscondment]

sometimes you need something old school...

Like a baseball and a bat?

More games not controller

[superpulpsicle]

What I am really interested in for my mame emulator is more games. There used to be a couple fast mame sites which you can download ROMs for. All of them have been pulled offline.

Why get a controller if you can't even find games anymore??

Re:More games not controller

[base3]

Some alternative ways to find ROMS:

StarROMs
alt.binaries.emulators.* Usenet groups
eMule

I'm sure there are many more.

Hanaho Hotrod-SE

[UserChrisCanter4]

I purchased a Hanaho HotRod-SE around Christmas. Similar idea; Hanaho is a huge arcade cabinet producer, and gradually got into this as a side business. The controllers have a PS/2 passthrough, and do nothing more than emulate keypresses while using a microcontroller to allow many buttons to be pressed simultaneously. The controller runs $99 rather than the $150 here. The only downsides I can see:

-The controls on both units are spaced too closely. This makes it a little smaller overall than an arcade cabinet's control area, and forces you to get a bit too friendly with your neighbor. The 1-player X-Arcade's would solve this, but they're $99 each instead of the $150 for the dual unit, and with two one-player controls you lose the "feel" of that arcade machine.

-When using a USB->PS/2 adapter, the Hotrod's signal would get "jammed up". If a button or direction was pressed for about two seconds, it would stop responding, unless another button was pressed in there somewhere. Not a big problem with shooters where you're frequently mashing the fire button, but Street Fighter pained me sometimes. I had to abandon my idea of using iton my home theater computer through a USB hub wired in the rear of my livingroom (to minimize wiring), and instead had to run a big-ass PS/2 extension.

-The keys are all hard-wired equivalents of various buttons on the keyboard ('r', 6, etc.). One of these keys is, for no logical reason, 'alt', which MAME ignores but some emulators have an issue with.

-Shipping was $20 for ground, which was pretty damned irritating, as it represented 1/5 the cost of the controller. To be fair, I have no idea what the X-Arcade's shipping costs.

If I had a choice again, I would probably still stick with the Hanaho unit, though. For $50 the USB complaint is extremely minor, and the 'alt' problem can be worked around. I do lust after those adapters that would let me throw down some XBox soul caliber, though.

To be fair, I only skimmed your tutorial...

[TheHonestTruth]

Here's two scenarios:

1: I follow your tutorial. I buy a soldering iron and solder stuff. I have wires everywhere (and my wife is growing increasingly annoyed with my "project"). It takes me at least a couple days working after work on it. Crap, I messed something up. I solder some more. OK, I'm finished. Tada, working controller, albeit not very pretty because I'm not good at making things look nice. A couple months go by, it breaks after heavy use. Go back to the beginning.

2: I order the X-Arcade off the net. It arrives. I plug it in and play. A couple months go by and it breaks. I ship it back, they fix it for free. Repeat.

Sorry, but scenario 2 seems better to me. Maybe it's because I bought a mac, but I personally just want something that works and works now. I don't want to build my own. It's great that it can be done and that you did it. I'm sure you do (and should) take great pride in your accomplishment. But that's not what I'm looking for. I'll pony up the money if I don't have to dick around with making it myself. But that's just me.

-truth

Does this have a 49-way joystick for Sinistar?

[StandardCell]

The 49-way joystick (12 gradations in four directions plus center) to me would've made it worth the price along with a rotary knob and trackball. As it stands, Sinistar had one of the most complicated joystick arrangements in terms of control points.

Really, folks, this is $150 we're talking about here. That's not chump change. I honestly expected more.

Re:Does this have a 49-way joystick for Sinistar?

[HBI]

So THAT is why the joystick was always busted on the one Sinistar machine in Seaside Heights, NJ.

Great game, too. (this is mid-80s i'm talking about here)

Keyboards and mice great for gaming?

[Rolman]

Well, if you're limiting yourself to the genres where these input devices really shine (FPS, RTS, RPGs) then you can say they're great.

But a control pad is definitely not "old school" it has seen more innovations in the last decade in terms of responsiveness, force feedback, analog control, durability and ergonomics than any other input device in history. Just look at the PS2 controller in its third generation, look at the N64's, Gamecube and even the SNES pads, they ooze polishness and innovation at the beginning of each console's life-cycle.

Compare that to keyboards, which are not really designed for games and that haven't changed at all for how long? Twenty-something years? And what about the mouse? The middle button is not even standard! The scroll wheel seems to be achieving that status faster (but ooooh, we have optic mice now *drools* :p). Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't see the point of playing an action or fighting game with a device not designed to let you press more than one key at once. And don't get me started on offline multiplayer or when trying to play while in any other place but an office desk.

Really, the "old school" devices here are the keyboard and mouse. They may work great with some games that are _designed_ around the limitations and advantages of those input devices, but if you want to see the future, look at the advances in HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) on game consoles, especially the upcoming portable ones.

Things like X-Arcade controllers will always have a market because they are input devices designed for games, not the other way around.

Re:Keyboards and mice great for gaming?

[Uncle Jimmy]

Just look at the PS2 controller in its third generation, look at the N64's, Gamecube and even the SNES pads, they ooze polishness and innovation at the beginning of each console's life-cycle.

I thought Nintendo was a Japanese company, not Polish.

Not that great...

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone who regularly competes in arcade environments, I can say with enough authority that no one looking for anything more than nostalgia should buy an X-Arcade. The parts are really, really cheap quality compared to those used in decent arcades these days (http://www.happcontrols.com), the stick spring is ridiculously loose, and the buttons are rather unresponsive. Either make your own or grab a MAS (http://www.massystems.com).

X-Arcade Cabinet

[Solokron]

The X-Arcade controller is pretty old now. I build a Mame Arcade cabinet with it build in. Check out http://www.mame-arcade.com

Got one months ago, way worth the money

[Onceat]

I bought one of these months ago , and I live in South Africa , so this is hardly New news , well to me at least. They are great joysticks I got it with the additional USB converter, for shits and giggles with it that way it's easier to move this huge thing around , my converted dinninng room table is not big enough to keep it next to my computer permantly, so usb is a better bet than plugging it into the back of my machine in the keyboard slot. You just jack it in and it works, it's great I get a kick out of the coin buttons on the side in mame, and the same side buttons as flipper buttons in my pinball simulator. It's better than a real arcade cause i keep it clean , i rember as a kid all the aracdes around here where sticky or grimy, chances are if I miss that i can always put some food over the controler

Re:Rotary knob? -- oscarcontrols

[enrico_suave]

Oscar Controls makes spinners (even a Disc of Tron push/pull spinner!) for MAME cabinet purposes.

All high quality stuff, and Oscar has been a great contributor to the Build Your Own Arcade Controls community (msg board) All the above links are great for info on making mame cabinet, desktop controller or otherwise interfacing "real" arcade controls with your PC.

e.