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?

[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?

[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.

old school?

[F13]

shouldn't that be old skool!?

cowabunga man! totally tubular..!

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

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.

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.

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.

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).