Dreaded first day back at work after crimbo today, which ended rather promptly when everybody got sent home because of the shoddy weather. What did I find waiting for me at home when I returned? The X-Arcade (http://www.xgaming.co.uk, http://www.x-arcade.com for the colonials) stick I ordered on monday. This thing kicks arse, so I just thought I'd post this to review it and gloat shamelessly
Service
Despite the rather ropey website, service was excellent. Shipment was delayed by a day since they appear to have forgotten to put a CCV number field on thier order form, so they had to e-mail me to get it. Once that was sorted, it was despatched by next day delivery and arrived today. £100 for the stick, £30 for a USB adaptor an a tenner for delivery.
Genral
Its a big monster, same as any standard upright arcade control panel. It has a Euro stick and 8 buttons for both players, two start buttons complete with the little toilet man pictures on, a button on either side for credits and pin useage and some gubbins on the back for programming and things. Comes as standard with a PS/2 interface with a feed througth for your keyboard, but you can get the USB adapter if (like me) you cant be arsed to climb round the back of your PC and mess around with your keyboard every time you want to unplug it
Gripes
Dunno if its just me being out of practice or whether the stick needs adjusting, but the left diagonals are a bit of a pain to hit. The moulding around the edges sometimes chaffs on you wrists and arms and It would of been nice to have two buttons on each side so you could have tilt as well as flippers for pin games, but you cant win 'em all. Other then that, top stuff.
Games
Street Fighter is ace, but hampered a bit by the diagonal problem. Mortal Kombat it mint, the game just isnt as satifying with a pad and its allot easier to do some of the more pain-in-the-arse moves with proper contols. Great to play Smash TV properly with two sticks again, no severe thumb mangleling like you get when you play it on pads. Space Invaders, Pac-Man and all the other golden age classics play as good as you would expect them to with original arcade controls. Final Fight and the Konomi side-scrollers are all back to thier full arcadeyness with sticks and buttons. I'll be giving Virtua On and Title Fight a whirl as soon as I get all my ROMs upstairs onto the 2200+ machine. Obviosly i'll still need to use a PS pad for dial/rotary games and some other odds and sods, but it is well out the window for any game that used standard sticks and buttons.
Overall
If youve got £110 lying around doing nothing, this is as good a way to spend it as anything. If your not a decadent arcade fiend like me and your not particularly bothered about contols, its probably not for you.