Recommendation for buttons for arcade stick?

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Eps
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Recommendation for buttons for arcade stick?

Post by Eps »

Right, I'm looking to get components for my Dreamcast-controller-hack-job arcade stick project. It's nothing fancy; just putting components in a box, but my DIY skills are shoddy enough to qualify that as a project for me :D Anyway, I'm planning on using a Seimitsu LS-32 as the stick -- but I'm not sure what buttons to select. They have to be microswitched yet not have too high a resistance (for older games with button-mashing required to shoot) and be fairly durable. Anyone have any recommendations?

(Also, if anyone has any favourites for the stick that are different to my choice, feel free to throw it in; I'm after a toughish but not too tense spring set-up, a pretty short throw and not too long of a stick. Fairly certain that the LS-32 will fit the bill, but if you know differently, let me know! :D )
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raiden
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Post by raiden »

Anyway, I'm planning on using a Seimitsu LS-32 as the stick -- but I'm not sure what buttons to select. They have to be microswitched yet not have too high a resistance
I think the stick is excellent - I´ve had a Sanwa setup for almost a year now, but when I recently had the occasion to play for one day on an Astro City with a Seimitsu stick, it was not the Astro City that impressed me, it was the Seimitsu stick. With buttons, however, Sanwa is better.
You say you want microswitched buttons - have you ever played on an arcade cab with those? All of them have a much higher resistance than those used in Japan. They are probably very much vandalism-proof, but when you want to play comfortably, look elsewhere. I mean, it´s not like Sanwa buttons would break easily, really. During this one year I´ve had my setup, I haven´t noticed any performance loss with the buttons, and that´s very different from my experiences with several arcadesticks for consoles.
I know one type of microswitched button with little resistance, though - the buttons in the 2nd revision of the old Commodore 64 Competition Pro joystick were easy-going, but worked with a microswitch. They were concave, however, so for an arcadestick with several buttons where you might want to switch between buttons quickly on occasion, they´d probably perform sub-par.
Eps
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Post by Eps »

Thanks -- I'll bear that in mind (and I remember those sticks, I had one for my Amiga! :D ) Really, the main reason I like microswitched buttons is largely because I prefer the feel, although I concede it does often come at the price of a higher resistance. I'm open to all suggestions though. :)
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Shatterhand
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Post by Shatterhand »

I had a friend who had one of those competition pro sticks. It was awesome indeed, one of the best joysticks I ever used.
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raiden
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Post by raiden »

Really, the main reason I like microswitched buttons is largely because I prefer the feel,
I can certainly relate to that. The largest part of my arcade history lies before coming across J-style cabs, and among the western cabs, those with microswitches were always best. One way to deal with higher resistance is using larger buttons which you can hit with 2 or 3 fingers at once, which is pretty comfortable to play with as well, but once you want to play a game making use of more than 2 buttons, like Dragon Blaze for example, you´ll see the problem. If your gaming tastes are mainly oldschool, like pre-1995, microswitch buttons should be okay.
Eps
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Post by Eps »

Okay! Now I just have the problem of finding good microswitched buttons. Any advice would be appreciated as I am something of a novice at this joystick-building lark.
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tiktak
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Post by tiktak »

These at ultimarc are great but be avare that they are too big for dc stick (I solved it making quite tick wooden bottom) http://www.ultimarc.com/
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oxtsu
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Post by oxtsu »

For buttons with a microswitch feel (clicky) but lighter touch, River Service economy buttons fit the bill.

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=2180&start=0
OneEyedJack
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Post by OneEyedJack »

www.himuragames.com will set you up with real japanese buttons.
-Jon in Canada
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