Playing SHMUPS on Mad Catz Fightstick Pro

[Dakarus]

I was thinking about about buying this mainly for shmups I have on the Xbox360. And for $100 that seems like a good price. I read somewhere that the stick made for these isn't good. I do have a couple fighting games but I want to use it more for shmups. Should I go with this? http://store.madcatz.com/Mad-Catz-Arcad ... ox360.html

[emphatic]

While a stock SANWA JLF stick isn't preferred by many shmup players, adding some parts will make it top notch.

Paradise Arcade custom JLF spring: http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/sanwa ... pring.html
Paradise Arcade custom JLF actuator: http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/pas-c ... uator.html (aluminium)
Paradise Arcade custom JLF actuator: http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/parad ... uator.html (delrin)

As the springs are cheap, best to buy a couple of different ones and find the one you like the best. Same thing with the actuators actually.

[Special World]

It's a well-made stick, but it's tuned for fighting games in particular. It should do you pretty well, or you can get one of their cheaper sticks and mod in some seimitsu parts pretty easily. Either way you'll have a pretty good stick.

[emphatic]

While Seimitsu parts are considered better by most people here, a modded JLF (with the suggested parts) is even better.

[danholo]

I have a MC Fightstick Pro SFxT version. It's quite good but I'd say it's not perfect. I find it a little cumbersome to maneuver the ship while playing. It's hard to hit diagonals and there's a huge dead zone. It could be a matter of getting used to but it seems that shmup players like to mod these for optimization and this makes sense from experience. I don't have the time or interest however.

[Dakarus]

How about this you guys? http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Real-Arc ... DEI4B0UP1U It uses Seimitsu stick and buttons.

[chempop]

HRAP EX-SE is pretty great. Buttons are easily swappable if you prefer sanwa (I do) but the stick is a nice stock LS-32 which replaceable with some wire soldering, but likely with another seimitsu LS-32/40 (doubt you'll fit a LS-56/58 in there, but I could be wrong).

The downsides are that there is no common ground, and that the stick uses a ribbon cable.
Still, undoubtedly your best option in the $100 range. The HRAP-EXSE was my first quality arcade stick, all the difference in the world compared to the crappy sticks I had used in the past.