Asking in a new thread since nobody answered in /fightan/ general.
I planned to buy an arcade stick for the PS4 around EVO time, and wanted to get one that was relatively cost-effective, has reasonable input lag and won't require much maintenance (I'll have to open them up anyway to silence the buttons and install an octagonal restrictor gate, but that's preferrably all I'll need to do).
Searching around, I narrowed my choices to around the $200 mark with the HORI RAP4 Kai, the Qanba Obsidian and the Razer Panthera. I plan mostly to play games like GG, DBFZ, Blazblue, and possibly some KoF and Tekken 7 (I would also say Street Fighter only V is cancer and I'm not sure Capcom can recover.)
While the RAP4 Kai is cheaper, I'll need to swap out the Hayabusa stick and buttons for Sanwa parts if I choose it, so the cost will be about the same anyway. The Teyah list on input lag placed the RAP4 Kai a little low compared to the regular RAP4, but unfprtunately I don't understand if this could be improved with the Sanwa components or if it stays that way.
The Obsidian generally looks like a good buy and comes with all the Sanwa parts, but I don't quite know enough info about it to close the deal. Nothing about PCB input lag, and some people have said it's harder to work on - it's a shame the Dragon is an extra $100 more, otherwise I might have settled for that.
The Razer Panthera supposedly has some of the best PCB input lag out there and also has Sanwa parts installed, but I'm concerned on how sturdy it is given that it can be opened at the front, and it's following up on the Atrox which had its own set of problems.
Any suggestions on which one would be considered the best choice of the three? I previously owned an EVO MadCatz fightstick and I got a fair mileage out of that, but I'd like to get something that is generally better and will last.
If madcatz didnt go under id recommend the te2+. I love mine to death
Ive seen alot of people swear by the obsidian.i have rap4 and while i like the stick i dont like the Kuro buttons. The panthera has the least amount of input lah iirc so i would just get that
Eli Rogers
Build your own
Bentley Jackson
I own first pic that I bought used. A solid choice that works perfectly natively on PC.
Parker Moore
I'm bad at a thing and don't enjoy it so you shouldn't either. Fuck off.
Connor Butler
It's your money, OP, but I can't recommend buying a modern fightstick when so many cost effective alternatives are out there; If you're patient, you could a buy a secondhand TE for half the price of a brand new RAP or Panthera. Even if the components ship in poor condition, you'd still be paying less in total by opting for a replacement set. Pic related is mine, no complaints to speak of.
Gabriel Gutierrez
Not to mention even if it is fucked arcade sticks can be easily fixed and parts replaced
Owen Gutierrez
I was actually wondering myself, but not strictly for fightan, but rather arcade use in general.
Matthew Smith
I thought the hayabusa sticks and buttons are fine, unless you tried them out yourself.
Connor Ross
unless you're playing four-way shit or analog, you can just pick up any fight stick unless you're really autistic about what type of buttons and sticks the stick uses.
Ryan Brown
That was originally my planned purchase…right up until MadCatz died and the price catapulted to over $400.
I'd consider it if I knew the first thing about what kind of board and wiring it would need.
I just have a fondness for the Sanwa pieces, though truth be told I haven't tried out the new Hayabusa components before. How would you compare them? Do they feel responsive?
That's somewhat of an option, and nice find!
Joshua Clark
PSA: Never ever buy or make a hitbox for serious gaming, unless you already had any sort of rapid finger movement mastery, like with musical instruments, typing not counting at all.
While you can adapt pretty quickly it will take years of practice to achieve the speed and consistency of a pad or a joystick, because you also need to develop proper technique, it's way slower at the beginning. After a year of buying one, i still struggle with some rapid inputs, the upside of this all, is having near perfect and clean inputs
Jack Carter
I was thinking of getting one of those things for Dragonball FighterZ when it comes out next year. The main thing that attracts me is that the "up" button is positioned like a space bar for easy jumping. I can absolutely get on board with that.
Aaron Williams
Its easy as hell You take the wires plug two into the buttons one acts as a ground the other sends the signal, then you take the ends and start plugging them into the terminal with the screws on top of it the terminals are labeled 1P 2P 3P etc. The only hard part is building an actual case but if you have basic skills in using power tools you could build one out of wood and plexi glass no problem.
Carter Ross
They feel like a stick man, although some might complain about the stick wobbling too much but I hold the stick hard so that isn't much of a problemo. I think you can't use an oct gate with hayabusa sticks? I'm not sure, do that research yourself. as for buttons, they're pretty light.
sounds like the controller for me :^) remember that the trio of rhythm games, fightan and shumps is what makes a suicidal person complete
Benjamin Hughes
>>>/reddit/ just look at the parts, cheapest shit with sanwas and the features you want. Namely the amount of consoles/PC compatibility.
Jackson Ross
LOL
Jose Anderson
Go for HORI
Josiah Carter
Controllers are better to be honest outside of unorthodox inputs and QCF/B input speed for those high damage specials. Keyboards/hitbox are massively overrated because they only work well in isolation and make all the simple stuff needlessly tiresome and difficult, NRS games being the only exception I suppose. 2D fighters with their inputs are going the way of the dinosaur, 3D fighters might survive if they can become something that's easy to sink time into, less isolated. Smash did this and will survive.
You're welcome.
Sebastian Perez
nigga how tf does keyboard make shit harder to do
Isaac Morris
I guess those SFV trials really did a number on his self-esteem.
Josiah Howard
WHAT THE FUKC YOU MEAN? i dont understand
Eli Roberts
It turns 1 button into 2 separate buttons.
Brody Peterson
judging by his other post
he means hitboxes break inputs like QCF from being a single, kind of natural motion on joystick/pad, into a series of inputs, which makes things more complex, on a hitbox to do qcf you have to press down, hold and press forward, then release down, it's actually 3 movements. Doesn't sound too hard at that point but going just a level higher with HCF you have now to press and release the three buttons with a good timing so that you dont go from down back to down forward while skipping down entirely which would cause the move to not come out.
You mean 2D art is becoming obsolete? Not in my opinion, its just that 3D animation is cheaper to implement than hand drawing every frame in the game.
The circle inputs are universal and not hard at all, charge inputs is what should disappear IMO (only the charge part) following the example of a couple games, the only reason i can see to justify charge time on charge inputs is because of DP auto-correction.
I don't even want to reply to this, also smash is not a 3D fighter
Jason Gomez
the charge meme is pretty bad because you have to "feel" the timing, and that is just fucking gay and retarded.
Jayden Hughes
Get one of these
Ryan Taylor
My first and only stick is a RAP4. I got it for $100 and it's pretty good but I would like to swap out the buttons. Are Sanwa buttons that much of an improvement? Should I swap the stick as well? Also, if you aren't afraid to break the bank, I'd recommend the Obsidian if you can't get a TE2. I've heard nothing but good things about it and it looks sexy.
Anthony Turner
Is it worth getting a 2 player fightan sticks for a dedicated mame box anons? Or should I just stick with controllers? If so what are some decent & cost effective sticks?
Luis Richardson
is it possible/easily feasible to get the parts to make an arcade stick where the stick is actually a trackball?
Henry Adams
No, trackballs do read movement in the form of X/Y coords , which would need a complex electronic setup to make it translate into simple directional inputs before feeding them to the game,
Isaiah Price
What the, if anything I thought that this would be superior to the joystick since the buttons are always going to be clean as fuck. Been wanting to try this out for a long time, I want to get into fighting games since I'm already tired of shooters and there is nothing new on the horizon. Those things seem sold out I can't find anything that works on the PC.
Aaron Richardson
Unless you're building a cabinet for players to sit down at stick with separate controllers.
You're best off building your own hitbox if that's the route you want to go. You're either going to spend a lot on something pre-made or have to build it yourself. I suggest the latter, after the box itself parts aren't going to run you much. Anything that support xinput will work fine on PC as well. Just avoid boards that are PS4 only.
Around evo is the worst time to buy an arcade stick because everything will be marked up to hell and back. I saw $150 sticks going for $300+ last year at Evo. Last year was a bit of an oddity because a lot of new stuff got released for the PS4/Xbox One but they do mark up prices every year. Best time to buy a stick is any weekend other than the one Evo falls on.
For pre-made sticks anything $150-$200 will suit you fine. No reason to spend any more than that and you don't want to go any lower because you start getting into stuff with cheaper parts.
No necessarily, I just bought a RAP4 for my friend and have played on it a little. The joystick isn't exactly like a Sanwa JLF but it's close and certainly a decent stick. I may even like it better for SHUMPs but it's so close to my Qanba Q4 that it doesn't matter. I wouldn't swap out any parts on it until it was needed. Even though you'd probably be better served just swapping out the spring/pivot than doing the entire assembly. The buttons are only slightly smaller than the Sanwa 30mm, they aren't flat, and they have a grip texture (sanwas are smooth). I like both the joystick and buttons and if I hadn't spent so many years on Sanwa parts I probably wouldn't have even noticed the minute differences. The RAP4 is a solid choice if you're going for PS4 support. I really like the touchpad.
Input lag is all in the PCB so swapping parts won't help you here. I'm not sure how much input lag it has but I don't notice it. My own Qanba Q4 is pretty low down the input lag list too but it isn't bad enough to throw off my game. Once you've played on a certain stick for awhile the input lag won't matter much unless it's so bad that you would have noticed right off. If you're looking for something lag free you'll need to build a stick yourself or base your entire purchase on that one metric.
I haven't used that stick but my understanding is it's pretty similar to the Q4 which is a fine stick. The "hard to work on" bit might be people trying to swap in custom PCBs, which can be a pain in the ass on a stick with a lot of LEDs or extras. Usually they are still compatible but will require extra soldering if you want to retain those features. You seem way too concerned about modding a stick at this point in my opinion. Just focus on getting something to play with and worry about those things later.
Joseph Cook
(cont. sorry for reddit spacing the small reply box gets me every time)
I have zero experience with Razer sticks but my experience with their other products tells me you should stay far away from them. I've used a keyboard, mouse, and headset from that company and all of them were terrible. If I hadn't received them as a gift from my brother I would have returned them the first time I used them. The mouse was incredibly bad, in addition to begin cheaply made it required drivers that "sync with the cloud" causing my mouse to randomly stop working. This is annoying when I'm just shitposting but in the middle of a fire fight it left me helpless. In my younger days I would have raged and shot the damn thing by now. The headphones are the worst I've ever used, they have 5 or 6 speakers in each ear cup, are heavy, the hinges are cheap plastic and I'm surprised they haven't broken apart yet, and even in stereo mode the sound quality is garbage. The keyboard is the only half way decent product I've used by them but even if pisses me off because I could have bought two or three good mechanical keyboards for the same price my brother paid for this one.
The Qanba would be my first pick, the Hori would be my second and I wouldn't even consider the Razer. Before you drop a lot on a new stick though see if you can pick up something like a Qanba Q4 new. A lot of those PS3/360 sticks were never sold and now they're marked way down in an attempt to move the stock. Pair one with a Brooks converter for PS4 and you're good to go. This is what I ended up doing instead of buying an entirely new stick and the converter retains all functionality that the new sticks have. If I need the share button I just press select + start, if I need the touchpad I hold down a button and move the joystick. It works fine for me but I only play on console at my friend's house and at tournaments.
You might also consider building your own stick since you're looking to spend $200 anyway. You can get a Ultimate Fighter Board with pre-soldered headers for $90 or less right now. Buttons plus a Sanwa joystick assembly will run you $35-$50 depending on what you get. If you build your own box it's just labor + time + material, otherwise you can pick one up somewhere for $50-$150 depending on who you get it from. This way you'll have exactly what you want and support for anything you'll ever play it on. I plan on going this route soon. Oh, if you still have that old MadCatz go ahead and buy new parts for it. You can have it like new for about $20-$30. This way you'll have another stick laying around for whenever you have a friend over. You never know when someone else that likes /fightan/ will stop by.
Julian Carter
My brother gave me one of these.
David Butler
I was considering making a cabinet but will probably just stick with a smaller setup to keep it portable, thanks user. Will stick with controllers.
Isaiah Brown
I didn't mean not to get sticks. Just stick with seperate ones per player. Those big ones for 2 players are just too awkward when they aren't mounted with anything
