Should I get a better stick?

[Tronotron]

I'm using the basic Mayflash/Datel arcade stick. I just play against the CPU and very rarely with others, although I hope to change that.

The Datel stick feels loose and it has quite a bit of play , but the only other sticks I ever tried were in the (european) arcades years ago, and they were a lot tighter, I think they had korean bat top sticks.

Anyway, I don't know just how bad this stick is.

I have problems pulling off some special moves involving half circles. Would getting a Sanwa stick help at this point?

[Celerity]

If you use an authentic Sanwa stick, you'll notice the difference right away. IMO the biggest difference is in the buttons; Japanese buttons (yes, buttons) are much tighter and perkier, and don't jiggle when you...caress them. The Sanwa buttons in particular are very responsive to light presses, though I prefer Seimitsu because I attack my buttons savagely.

As for your half circle problems, that is more likely a user error, but a new stick could certainly make your inputs cleaner, especially if you use a very centralized grip and don't ride the gate too much. A new stick won't make you a better player, but it will certainly make you feel more comfortable.

[Tigre]

I don't know just how bad this stick is.

If it's the stock Mayflash stick (as it seems to be) it's got terrible parts in it.

If you want to put Sanwa or seimitsu parts in there, you're going to need to do modifications to the case (http://forums.shoryuken.com/discussion/92494/paewang-revolution-mayflash-modding-tutorial-ver-laugh-lots-of-pictures) that are (as far as I'm concerned) not really worth the time for that case.

Sanwa sticks will feel more loose than an American/Euro stick, and a lot more sensitive. The mayflash stick very well may have problems hitting corners. A better stick would probably help.

[nstalkie]

Edit: short answer: if you play fighting games a lot, getting a good stick with sanwa or seimitsu parts is not a bad investment. You'll enjoy playing on it more than you are doing on a cheap stick.

I have friends that do stuff like tachi-gigas in 3rd strike on a Datel arcade stick (They use the one with Ryu as stick art).

The problem is likely you, but it could still be the stick. I don't have any experience with the stick you use, but I had similar thoughts years ago. Then I took my stick (a custom sanwa parts one) to a big tournament, a better player than myself asked if he could use my stick for a couple of matches and I saw him pull off some of the sick combos I was trying to do, but couldn't. He gave back my stick and said: great stick !

It was an eye opener for me. (The stick rusted in a nasty UK thunderstorm 3 years ago, so I don't have it anymore. RIP 3rd strike Makoto stick).

As another guy said, with a more expensive stick, you'll be liking the buttons a lot more than the ones on cheap sticks. The stick itself has not really been a problem for myself on any of the cheaper sticks I used.

Another thing that might help is to change from the default square gate to a hexagonal gate (assuming the stick you have has a square gate). I personally found a hex gate to be bit easier for doing QCF motions. I gave it about a month and switched back though. One of the reasons was that my IAD's were less consistent. That's a personal thing though. The other reason: when you need to borrow someone elses stick or play on an arcade cab, it'll likely be a square gate. I don't know how easy it is to change on a non-sanwa stick, with a sanwa stick it's easy to change. It's an option you might consider.

It could always be that there is something wrong with your stick ofcourse, I don't really have tips on how to check for failures that happen rarely. At the end of its lifetime, I was actually having some problems that I thought were genuine, where sometimes I couldn't jump. I never could prove it though.

The Datel stick feels loose and it has quite a bit of play , but the only other sticks I ever tried were in the (european) arcades years ago, and they were a lot tighter, I think they had korean bat top sticks.

Anyway, I don't know just how bad this stick is.

If you played with a battop in a European / UK arcade, chances are about 99% that it was a US style battop stick. They are still different from Korean sticks which are EXTREMELY tight.

Edited July 25, 2013 by nstalkie

[Tigre]

Another thing that might help is to change from the default square gate to a hexagonal gate (assuming the stick you have has a square gate) ... I don't know how easy it is to change on a non-sanwa stick, with a sanwa stick it's easy to change. It's an option you might consider.

It's not the easiest thing to do, these cheap sticks aren't made with the idea of replacing the gate. They look a lot like the Hori EX2 gates actually, they're just a big square piece of plastic with a square cut out for the gate. You may be able to retrofit a Sanwa octogate in there, I don't think it'll work properly, or solve too many issues.

[Tronotron]

Thanks for your comments. Yes, it's the white Datel "Arcade Pro" (lol) stick with the Street Fighter -like artwork. I may just get a sanwa stick with an octagonal gate and put it in there, seems easy enough. My only problem with the buttons is that some of them are too sensitive. They probably miss inputs but I haven't noticed it yet.

Also, what is the recommneded outlet for stick parts in the UK?

Edited July 29, 2013 by Tronotron

[nstalkie]

In the UK, you have Gremlin Solutions (http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/). I never did business with them, so maybe someone else can chime in.

I dunno how easy it is to swap sticks in that Datel, you may want to look up some information on how to do it somewhere.

[Tronotron]

I dunno how easy it is to swap sticks in that Datel, you may want to look up some information on how to do it somewhere.

It's easy, there' a link in this page. I think it is totally worth it, as buying a stick with Sanwa parts will cost at least twice as much as it'll cost to mod this one.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Tronotron

[Kikuichimonji]

I'm using the basic Mayflash/Datel arcade stick. I just play against the CPU and very rarely with others, although I hope to change that.

The Datel stick feels loose and it has quite a bit of play , but the only other sticks I ever tried were in the (european) arcades years ago, and they were a lot tighter, I think they had korean bat top sticks.

Anyway, I don't know just how bad this stick is.

I have problems pulling off some special moves involving half circles. Would getting a Sanwa stick help at this point?

Sanwa parts will remove any potential doubt over whose fault it is, and that's important to me. It's worth the investment.