Hit Box - We so S Tier1!

I sent my email around late February and got the email about the PS3 boxes on June 26th, but I opted to wait for the dual mod boxes. It sucks though, I’m stuck playing on my computer because I can’t use anything else. I wanna get out and play some of my friends.

Mine arrived yesterday, feels good so far. Big difference in execution going from a keyboard to the hitbox, especially when trying to do anything that involves multiple button presses in a small period of time. Only took me 5-10 minutes to get used to the layout, since I’ve been using a keyboard layout fairly similar.

Can’t say much about stick vs buttons since I’ve never used a stick. All I know is that I’m picking up execution in third strike fairly quickly, and once I get something down it stays pretty consistent.

Wow at least a four month wait. Blerg, that means I won’t be seeing mine until at least November.

Any chance we could order more than one once our turn comes up?

I got an email today aswell saying I could order my hitbox for ps3/pc, but when I went to put in details into the website for purchase I kept getting an error next to zip/post code saying “Incorrectly Formatted Zipcode”. I live in the UK and had chosen that for the country. Is it a website problem?

Cheers

Do we get a notification of when our item is shipped after we’ve paid? Is there any way to get tracking information?

I’d like to get my execution up early by mashing F5.

After we send out the box. You get a notification on the tracking code

Tight, thanks. Eagerly awaiting.

For those of you that are leery of the price: I just sold my modded TE stick for 110 plus a copy of MK9 with the online code (which still sells for 60 in Canada), so this Hit Box was nearly free. Doing something similar could easily get any of you one.

That’s a lot of dedication for a controller you presumably haven’t used before.

Well I wasn’t originally intending to sell the stick until I got and tried the Hit Box but I got a buyer earlier than I expected.

More importantly, I still feel like my execution is way more consistent on keyboard even after using a stick for this long, so I’m sure I’ll be at home with directional buttons. Execution on buttons seems more precise and faster to me “in theory” regardless, so I figure I may as well train on the superior tech even if I do find out it’s not comfortable at first.

Yea same here I am selling my marvel TE stick for ps3 and my reg TE stick for xbox I an stricly doing hitbox and I finally master the walking 720. I’ve been plAyin boxer with just dirty bull now an I laugh when I get ppl with it

You know that’s no longer a 720 right?

Placed my order! Now to play the waiting game… When is that teleportation tech supposed to be available again?!

I just received my HitBox in the mail yesterday. Here are my initial thoughts after several hours of play with the PC/PS3 version of the HitBox:

Payment and Shipping
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[]Payment via the website was a little confusing until I realized I needed to create a user account on the hitbox homepage and sign in before clicking the payment button in the email, after that it was easy as pie.
[
]Shipping was fast
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Quality and Appearance
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[]The structure and quality of the buttons are top notch and I couldn’t find anything to complain about. The device itself is rock solid and the length of the USB cable should be able to accommodate any player’s needs.
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]The device looks sharp, although I would have loved to have more colors for the buttons to help sharpen the look and differentiate between the different button types. My version only had two button colors, blue for the left hand directional and black for the right hand buttons.
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Ergonomics
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[]I like the small buttons and the more compact formation that covers less area. This makes it very easy to access the buttons for both hands without having to shift your hands around in any way, everything is just right there and easy to access.
[
]I found the size of the HitBox to be rather uncomfortable for my left (directionals) hand. The HitBox isn’t large enough to rest my left wrist on, so it usually ended up bent and in an awkward position with my lower palm resting against the relatively sharp bottom edge of the plexiglass top. In order to find a comfortable position I had to either set the HitBox down on a table and play with it that way, or use a pillow to prop up my wrist while it was sitting on my lap. Even so, my wrist still got tired sitting in that position and I had to take a break. One way to fix this would be to add an inch or two to the inward length of the HitBox chassis (the side facing you) to give your wrist something firm to rest on, or perhaps just make the chassis larger overall so it fits better on your lap and gives both wrists a solid resting surface. As it is, the small size and minimal surface harms the overall ergonomics of the HitBox.
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Performance
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[]Once you get the hang of it, input is much more consistent with the HitBox than a stick or pad (this coming from a stick player). On a stick or pad you’re using a single input device (stick or pad-plate) with multiple directions, so anytime you input directional commands you run a certain risk of “overflowing” onto a directional input that was unintended. On the HitBox you have separate input devices (buttons) for each direction, so you only use the buttons for the directions you want and leave the others alone. A good pad or stick player will probably be on equal ground with a HitBox user, but a HitBox user will usually achieve the same consistency much earlier and without needing to train as hard.
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]Once you get the hang of it, input speed is extremely fast. Again, a good stick or pad player will probably be on equal ground with a HitBox user, but the HitBox user will almost definitely be faster with less training or experience under their belt.
[]Getting accustomed to the HitBox doesn’t take long and most people should be able to pick it up within an hour of playing around in training mode, with one major caveat: the jump (up directional) button. It could just be me but I’m still having trouble getting used to the placement of the jump (up directional) button near the bottom and using my thumb to operate it. This seems rather unintuitive and I keep instinctively wanting to use the duck (down directional) button to jump. I may play around with this some more and if I can’t get used to it, perhaps try reversing the inputs so the thumb is duck and the middle finger is jump to see how it works.
[
]I have yet to see any advantage to having the jump (up directional) button accessible by the right hand, but I guess it’s always nice to have the option.
[]The key to executing directional motions with the HitBox is timing. Since each diagonal direction is a simultaneous press of two buttons, your timing has to be smooth in order to perform that 1-button -> 2-button -> 1-button transition. If you can get this down you’ll do fine.
[
]One interesting note is that while I found almost every other directional motion easier to perform consistently with the HitBox than with a stick or pad, I found the DP motion (foward, down, down-forward) more difficult. This is probably due to the 1-button -> 1-button -> 2-button scale which is different from the other “piano” scales. I imagine this will change with practice but it’s worth noting.
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Summary
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[*]Overall my first experience with the HitBox was good, not great, but good. With a few tweaks and perhaps a little more time with it I think it could shine. It’s definitely different from an arcade stick, but luckily it doesn’t take long to adapt and it definitely has some advantages. As of this moment I still prefer the stick but I’m going to keep trying it out and see if I can get used to the odd placement of the jump (up directional) button and some of it’s ergonomical quirks.
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Give us a update in in 3 days or so, day 2 I was fairly sure I was gutting my mod and going back to stick. Natural jumping and movement finally came after trying some fresh characters last night and I’m much more impressed than my initial experience.

If you have been on a stick for a long time I think the learning curves a lot longer. 4 hours + I still can’t do a 720 on it and wouldn’t take it in to a online yet.

Are you guys going to be utilizing the new features of the ps360+? So far, they released that the board will have player port leds :slight_smile:

I think they say to keep wrists up

Sorry, can’t quite say what our plans are for the future just yet.

Actually, it’s best to keep your wrists straight and keep your hands slightly elevated. Like playing a piano, you don’t rest your hands on the keys, you keep your hands up so they can move freely. You shouldn’t experience fatigue with this method.

is very nice

This definitely does take time to get used to. I’m a keyboard player on PC and I’ve recently switched the the HitBox layout, in preparation for the actual box, and it took me a while. I was using arrow keys for my directionals, so I kept wanting to hit an up button above the other 3 directional keys every time I tried to jump. It just takes a lot of practice to train your mind and your muscle memory to hit the right button.

For me, it took actual matches to get the jump button down pat, Training Room practice only did so much. I feel like in Training Room you’re telling yourself with your conscious to hit the right button. While in matches you’re thinking about the gameplay and the match at hand, besides hitting the right jump button, so you forget. Your sub-conscious/reaction needs to catch up with hitting the right button without thinking.

I tried using Q (Left), W (Down), E (Right) and Space Bar (Jump) as my directionals at first, since I was used to doing all directions on my left hand like with Arrow Keys, but I just felt awkward using that set up. I stuck with the same QWE set up from before, but switched jump to Numpad 0 (I use Numpad 456+, 123Enter for attacks because my keyboard has multiple-key-input issues) so my right hand deals with jump. It sounds weird at first but it’s a lot easier.

This makes me kind of uneasy because I do gently rest my hands when I play, I hope it’s not an issue and not as bad as I think.