Yes, I have too much money

[RabidYak]

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.

[Damian]

So you got the 2 player version then and not the new 1 player? Sounds like a good investment. Any reviews comparing it to the much more expensive HotRod? .

[RabidYak]

I did think about waiting for the single player one to show up over here, but I came to the conclusion that it wasent a very good option since i'd still be stuck with either using a pad for dual-stick games or not playing some of them at all. I would of liked a Hotrod, but the nearest Hanaho distributer is in France and purple isnt exactly a colour that I would want an arcade panel in.

The X-Arcade review at http://www.mameworld.net/xarcade/xarcadereview.html is the closest i've seen to a comparison. Theres comments throughout about what its like compared to the hotrod and theres a little table at the end with the features from both.

[Silverhaze]

You bastard!

Thats about all I have to say about that


Would be cool if my PC wasnt such a pain in the arse though. Even with low power usage it seems not to play smoothly. I've had it playing real smooth then freeze for like half a second then play smooth again with Final Burn so until I get a PC that can play these games how I want them to play your gloating post has no effect on me! Despite my previous outburst. I just did that to throw you off the scent.

Git

[ivwshane]

Very nice, although I prefer to make one:p (well that and the whole cabinet).

Should I give you guys my opinion on the act labs light gun?

Ok

It sucked!

[Silverhaze]

[KoHC]

I've been using my custom build arcade stick for over 2 years now. Maybe I'll build myself another one just for fun.

Love to hear my friends whining about how "unfair" that I'm using arcade stick and they're using gamepads.

[RabidYak]

You bastard!

Thats about all I have to say about that


Would be cool if my PC wasnt such a pain in the arse though. Even with low power usage it seems not to play smoothly. I've had it playing real smooth then freeze for like half a second then play smooth again with Final Burn so until I get a PC that can play these games how I want them to play your gloating post has no effect on me! Despite my previous outburst. I just did that to throw you off the scent.

Git

Damn, you really had me fooled with that first line.

Have you tried runing the emus in question in a window and using Task Manager to see if any programs are nicking your CPU power? If that dosent throw up any answers, your best bet would be to strip the PC down to bare essentials and a fresh OS and then go througth it bit by bit and program by program to see where the bottleneck is. Might take a day or two, but it'll nail whatever it is thats causing the chugging.

Very nice, although I prefer to make one:p (well that and the whole cabinet).

Should I give you guys my opinion on the act labs light gun?

Ok

It sucked!

LOL, I should imagie shooting at stuff on 17"-21" VGA moniters with fireflashing and constant calibration while sitting on a chair isnt exactly the most authentic of arcade experiences.

I was thinking of making a stick for ages before I decided to buy one, but parts are an arse to get hold of here and its allot cheaper then buying all the bits individually. Plus with my woodworking skills, it would probably look more like a birdtable then a control panel.

I've been using my custom build arcade stick for over 2 years now. Maybe I'll build myself another one just for fun.

Love to hear my friends whining about how "unfair" that I'm using arcade stick and they're using gamepads.

If they whine again, make them use analogue flightsticks and the keyboard.