Not so straightforward. The Namco connector has 7 pins so the HRAP/T5 cord won’t fit. To get it to work he should extract the wires/pins from the namco connector housing as well as from the connector housing on the replacement cord and then insert (correctly) the wires/pins of the replacement cord into the namco housing.
Booooo!! Off with his head!
Wow, where the hell did I learn to count? My mistake; thank you for the correction M K L. I just opened my Namco Joy Stick up to double check what you just said and lo and behold, it does only have a 7 pin connector! :wow:
In that case, sorry d0c_zaius; looks like you’ll have to do some wire splicing and soldering on your Namco. It should be simple; just a matter of snipping off the bit that’s torn up, stripping a bit of the wire off, then soldering the newly stripped wire back on, color coded of course.
:looney:
They’re not rare in Europe. I’ve been offered one which i’m collecting next week.
so if Namco re-released the nam stick it would outsell the TE and Hori sticks?
Well they are hard to find in the U.S. If Namco were to re-release it though, it most likely wouldn’t outsell the TE or Hori. This stick is really only appreciated by collectors and arcade stick enthusiasts. The average person imo would look at that stick and say “Its nowhere near as good as a Madcatz TE stick.” Thats generally because in comparison, its rather plain looking (To most people).
That Namco is definitely salvageable. The piece that holds the cord in place is only attached to the cord by a little adhesive. Just cut the cord where it’s bad, pull off the cord holder, slide the holder back on and glue into place if necessary, strip the ends of the wire and resolder it to the PCB. You cord will be shorter, but hey, you just fixed your Namco.
I’ve used my main Namco stick at EVO from 2003 to 2007. It was my go to stick for the longest time. It’s in storage now that I have a TE.
The Namco is definitely a collector’s piece. If you run across one, no matter the condition, pick it up. You can always clean it up later.
Quoted for truth, put a MC Cthulhu/Imp/Madcatz hack pad, a bit of paint, a printed artwork and you get a masterpiece 
Then that just be the Case.
Laugh.
Namco Arcade Stick cool because it is good stock.
You didn’t say about replacing the Buttons and Joystick.
But the picture of your Bang Namco does have those changes.
In case other people want to see your other Namco work:
[list]Tony the Tiger - http://forums.shoryuken.com/showpost.php?p=3644203&postcount=697[/list]
[list]Order Sol - http://forums.shoryuken.com/showpost.php?p=5715032&postcount=6043[/list]
[list]Bang Shishigami - http://forums.shoryuken.com/showpost.php?p=6794872&postcount=12866[/list]
I’m really curious about the namco stick because I overheard the best ST player at my arcade state that it was the best stick ever for a home console.
It looks great to me because it has the 6 button layout which i prefer over 8 (playing with 8 buttons annoys the hell outta me). I also like the simplicity of it.
For Fighters, (lets not talk about the aesthetics), how does it hold up? I think you mentioned earlier thats its personal preference but whats exactly are your personal preferences. How does the joystick feel? why is it different to other sticks and other hori’s eventhough it is a Hori?
A joystick doesn’t make the player. You really just have to get a feel for it and see how you like it. Some people swear by Happ Sticks, Some People swear by sanwa or seimitsu. When it comes to arcade sticks it really is a personal preference. I’ve gone through a bunch of sticks since SFIV came out and I still haven’t found the perfect one that I like. I’ve had a HRAP 2, HRAP 2 SA, TE Stick, SE Stick, HRAP 3 SE, HRAP EX, T5, EX2, Wii Fighting stick, and Virtua Stick Pro. Out of them all, I end up going back to using my custom Wii Fighting stick. I don’t know why but I love the thing
Sexperienced., the Namco is definitely no slouch for fighting games. It was advertised for Namco’s PlayStation 1 era fighters after all. I can’t talk about what kind of preferences the Namco fits exactly, but these are my observations:
- It has a significantly shorter engage distance than a Sanwa JLF, which to me is good since I play on an LS-32.
- The microswitches give a very nice audible click and since the microswitches actually have a tangible resistance, it functions a lot better for the Namco Joy Stick with its light spring than the TP-MA microswitches on a JLF work for its super light spring.
- As far as I’m concerned, the throw on the Namco is not any different from a JLF. That’s fine with me personally since I’m just concerned about the engage distance.
The reason the Namco’s joystick and buttons are better than anything else HORI has ever made is simple. HORI didn’t manufacture the microswitches in the joystick and although I’m not sure who made the microswitches in the buttons, it’s definitely much higher quality than the HORI buttons we see today. The Namco’s joystick uses microswitches made by the company Omron, the same guys who make the microswitches for Sanwa’s joysticks. In other words, even though the rest of the joystick itself is sub-par in part quality, the microswitches are definitely arcade grade.
I wasn’t around during the PS1 era arcade stick scene, so I can’t comment. Hopefully MarkMan, ShinJN, or zeetes can come in and fill in some info here. I was a young whippersnapper back then who didn’t know a thing about arcade sticks.
The feel of the stick I thought was similar to a very worked in Sanwa JLF (although not the same, this is how I’d describe it)
The buttons however are somewhat harder to explain. They feel like Hori’s but much softer. Almost no resistance at all. The buttons on mine felt even more responsive than my Sanwas.(sold my Namco stick to the awesome Ikagi-Chan)
However my gripe about this stick is that I’m a Xbox360 player and I didn’t want to use a converter plus the case was a little too small for me. I’m a lap player and the Namco case just felt too small in my lap while I played.
My only gripe with it as well.
If you’re playing on a table top - it’s hard to find another stick that is as comfortable to use as the Namco.
Oh for sure. I used the stick on a table top and it was pure class.
thanks guys.
I’m purchasing 2 namco sticks next week and a TE stick next month which i’ll mod with Suzo rotterdam sticks (i’m old school, not sure if you guys are familiar with these sticks).
If i dont like the namco sticks i can always mod them with sanwa buttons whish i have plenty of.
Hori sticks always have Omron microswitches and not because they want to use arcade grade components but simply because they’re very common, an almost inevitable choice.
last question, are the sticks stable? I tend to put a little force in my motions.
If the 4 rubber feet on the bottom are in good condition, then they’re extremely stable on a flat surface.
Thank you for all the replies.
I should have clarified before, that the stick isnt actually mine yet. A coworker that used to work at Namco had two of these sitting in a garage or something. I was amazed to find out that he didnt really know how good they were. He has one working stick and one with the frayed wires, so I was hoping I could get the frayed wired one for 30$ and fix the cable myself, leaving everything else stock. It would be nice if I could get the other working one too but Im not that lucky usually.
They must have come straight from namco cause there is a sticker on the bottom that reads “Property of Namco Hometek- Inc”.
I think Ill try splicing the wires and go from there, as I dont have any soldering experience or equipment.