MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Quick market survey

Personally, I dont understand why you feel its different.

In the arcade, Street Fighter IIce got me hooked. I ran out and bought an SNES as soon as SFII came out for it. Was very disappointed in how poorly it was to try to use shoulder buttons as high kick & high punch. Even worse is trying to play Killer Instinct with them accurately.

Even simple moves like dragon punches were a ton easier with real arcade sticks, rather than the dpad.

In fact, in the arcade, I and a group of like 20 regulars played KI several times a week for hours at a time... and I got to the point where I was doing combos while holding down a certain button.. then when you end the combo with a special move, you release that button...which adds more damage + speeds up the move by 50%. No way in hell Id be able to pull that stuff off well on an Snes controller.

Trust me, I loved the consoles. I have owned (and still own most) C64,Amiga500,Atari 2600, Sega Master System,Snes,Sega CD,Atari Lynx,PS1,PS2, NeoGeo CD,(other consoled Ive played.. but never owned). Also have, Spy Hunter Arcade, Asteroids Deluxe Arcade, Sega Turbo Arcade, and 3 pinball machines. I loved games so much, that I ended up managing a Namco Arcade for 3yrs.

Ive learned the ins and outs of almost every type of controller... as from an early age, I ripped them apart to see how they worked... and years later, fixed them, most especially in the arcade.

My very first realization about arcade level controls-vs-console gamepads came from the Sega Master System. A game called Maze Hunter 3D. You had to run on Ice.. exactly two tiles long, then make an immediate one tile diagonal, then jump across a 2 tile gap chasm. It was impossible to do accurately with a dpad. Then I found an Epyx handheld joystick that worked with the C64 & SMS. It has real arcade micro-switches in it, and is very close in construction and accuracy of real happs controllers. I was able to nail the complicated & precise jump almost every time with that stick.

I dont think there are any console controllers that come close to the control, durability, accuracy, etc.. of real arcade controllers.

I can see gamepads for nostolgia.. or cheap means of playing a game.. but IMO, the control is far inferior to real arcade controls. And heck, remember that most consoles and even computers... had plenty of arcade ported titles. Though sadly, almost none of them were worthy.
A lot of times it was the missing and adapted controls that have ruined those ports... such as Spy Hunter. You simply cant play that game right... without the real controllers.