best pre-made arcade controller (Hot Rod or X Arcade) ?
 

Right now I'm trying to decide between getting a "hot rod SE" or that X Arcade one.

Won't be putting it into a custom built mame cabinet or anything (well not yet), just using it on top of a coffee table to play on a projected screen (a decent solution for now). So will be getting it for the PC and using MAME primarily.

Any experience on which is better?

Thanks!

Have you checked out the Slikstik joysticks. They use Happ parts but they're expensive.

Those are nice! But too pricey...

Looks like a $30 price diff. between a HotRod & X-Arcade Shipped. (HotRod = $120 shipped versus X-Arcade = $150 shipped for their two-player models...).

Leaning toward the HotRod though, something about it seems nicer...

Hmmm...

I've heard nothing but good things about the X-Arcade. Dunno about the Hot Rod SE.

If you're seriously thinking about eventually building a mame cabinet, why don't you just get a cheap housing and a bunch of happ parts and assemble your own? That way you could just reuse them whenever you get around to building a cabinet.

So aren't these type of setups compatible with an eventual mame cabinet? I was thinking when I get around to it, I could just use this as one of the elements.

Off-topic, but how do you get a controller to work with MAME and how do you configure the controls? I looked at the instructions that came w/ the program, but it's all confusing gobbledygook to me. Thanks in advance for your help.

The X-Arcade comes preset for mame. It does not come with any of the console adapters. These must be purchased seperately.

Can you use an off-the-shelf controller (in this case a $7 Saitek P150 from Wal-Mart) for MAME games? It works with RAINE. Thanks.

I've played with an X-Arcade, I can't even imagine ANYTHING being better.

So no one with any Hot Rod SE experience?

Easy answer... just click "Controller" in MAME under the controls tab and it should identify a controller and use it automatically without any configuration.

here's another option
http://www.massystems.com/ProStick.html

So the X-Arcade can work for any system? Like I buy the "PC Kit" one, but can hook it up to my Xbox/PS2/GCN?

young, that link doesn't work.

weird... it works for me. :confused:

try w/out the Prostick part.
http://www.massystems.com

http://www.massystems.com/Gamecube-2.jpg

How utterly bizarre. It times out and returns a Cannot Find server error along with that picture you posted being dead as well. :confused:

Working for anyone else? Or is it just me?

I downloaded mame074b.zip (Windows command line version of MAME 0.74) from the official MAME site and I have to run cmd.exe (in XP) to get to the fake DOS. Then I run a game. The only control tab I see is by clicking on the tab key on the keyboard, which gives me a bunch of options, including a control config option. The problem is, it doesn't recognize my joystick when I press it. I have no idea where to find the auto-config you mentioned. Yeah, I'm a newbie at this stuff, so any help would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks a million!

Download the win32 version of it. not the DOS version, that should fix things. :)

Gallant, have you searched the Arcade Controls forum? I remember seeing threads asking about Hotrod and Xarcade joysticks there. For $120 I would get the Hot Rod since it uses real arcade parts from Happs.

Thanks D300. The decision just got harder.

Over there they are going on about the quality of the HotRod and saying the X-Arcade doesn't match up, but the any-console ability of the X-Arcade is damned tantalizing.

For some reason, the official MAME website doesn't even have MAME32, so I found it elsewhere (I didn't know about it before) and everything works fine now. Thanks for your help and patient replies. Now I can kick some booty in Double Dragon. :)

MAME.net does have it listed in "Other Ports"

http://www.mame.net/downports.html

Yeah, you're right. I didn't even think to look there. I guess I figured the best version of MAME would be available in the main downloads section.

X-arcade works great in mine.

As far as the mame controller question hit tab during a game to config everything.

Gallant,

Here is a great review comparing the Hot Rod, X-arcade, and Slikstik.

Whoa, nice thanks!