I’m not sure if you know anything about this or not MarkMan, but:
I pre-ordered the TE sticks on the 28th of December. I live in a bit of a small town that usually doesn’t get hit very often for these kinds of limited releases. Is there a good chance of me getting mine?
That d-pad is pretty sizable.
Hmm, IGN called the d-pad “loose”. Still not sure what that means. What I like about the Saturn d-pad is that it kinda clicks for each direction making it easy to stop at any of the 8 points. Hopefully this Madcatz pad is likewise easy to stop at each direction.
Can you give any impressions, MarkMan?
Now, technically…friction is independent of surface area 
But really, thank you markman for taking the time to do these sticks right. I’m looking forward to reading your writeup :bgrin:
Aww man, you guys did have the
X,Y,LB
A,B,RB
layout before Capcom made you change it to RB,RT to mimic the SF4 default layout. That sucks.
The only thing I want to read in a Fightpad review is how it compares to the Saturn D-pad. Everything else is superfluous.
Oh that’s lame. I would have preferred the old way as well. And yes, the only thing that matters is how this pad compares to the Saturn pad. I own a PS2 Saturn pad and I love it love it love it. Would be the greatest controller in the world if it had two analog sticks with buttons underneath and two triggers.
Yea, sorry forgot to mention, that pic of the pad is an older prototype.
Oh and…
Any UK SRK members wanna help me out X_X ?
I want a few copies of the new EDGE Magazine #198, Feb. 2009 issue…
Can anyone help me out?
I hab monies…
Hey MarkMan, can you answer this?
is it me or do the buttons on the pad look giant. everything else looks godlike on it. looks like the pad is kinda shaped like a 360 pad and those fit very nice in my hands. i might have to pick one up just for the hell of it.
Nope.
Relax. I also ordered from them with paypal for more security, and mine also says “completed”. However, there has been no funds withdrawn from my bank, even though it says “-$153.14” in paypal. Paypal offers chargebacks also, in case you were charged for an item you never received, so you have more breathing room.
Like the previous poster said, they are simply just holding or verifying that you actually have sufficient funds to pay for the item on ship day. My paypal says “completed” since today in the morning when I checked and there has been no charge to my bank account, this is usually instant. So I would think twice before cancelling, and if your funds were truly taken from your bank and you can see it in the statement, then I would call or e-mail. After all still could’ve been an error.
MarkMan asked, so here’s my opinion so far. You’re free to use this any place you like.
Overall, I absolutely love what I see. The pictures of the sticks I’ve seen so far show me a level of care and attention to detail that I would never have thought to come from a MadCatz product. We all know their rep, have experienced their products first hand, and have heard that they are serious about changing their image. Based on these pictures, I actually believe them. But, if you’re here reading this, you probably know this, so I’ll try to skip over the generalities.
The TE case looks wonderful. Top and bottom access is great; I am one of those that truly believes that if you can’t open it, you don’t own it. This one is made to be opened up, warranty be damned. Sticks and buttons look like a snooze to replace, but that’s obvious. The quick disconnects have insulating sleeves on them. I mean, really, what the hell kind of anal retentive perfectionist puts sleeves on QD’s, when the only possible way for the prongs to get smooshed together involve either voiding the warranty or a trash compactor? I don’t know, but I’m glad they worked on this stick. Is it gonna affect anything? Nope, chances are it will never matter to anyone who owns them. But it is an attention to detail trying to do things ‘The Right Way’. Silly sentiment, I know, but MadCatz decided to spend the extra 5 cents per stick to do it The Right Way instead of pocketing it. That says a lot.
The construction seems to be all based on the bottom black plastic frame. Most sticks made of plastic use supporting plastic columns to keep the flex down, while the TE looks to be based on the black plastic frame. I think that’s a great choice, as long as that black frame is solid plastic. Based on weight, I think it is.
I’m a little worried about how well the hinged door in the back will hold up to the abuse I give my sticks. Structurally, from the little I’ve seen of it, I expect it to be the first point of failure in these sticks. There is a good chance that we’ll see a number of these at tournaments a couple of years from now with the back door busted. There is still every chance that I’ll change my opinion once I see how the door and hinge are constructed myself, but from a physical perspective, it’s the first place I’d start scrutinizing.
Electrically, the 360 version. The layout on the 360 TE stick, and the SE stick, is very compartmentalized. The button all go to a distribution block and are connected with QD’s that are similar or identical to the ones connecting the buttons. That’s kinda cool. I really wonder why the same thing wasn’t done with the stick. If the stick is replaced with one that uses still uses a 5 pin connector, but either rotates the microswitch board for some reason, or uses a different pinout 5 pin connector like some Seimitsu’s, either soldering will have to be involved, or someone will have to take a lot of care to remove the pins from the 5 pin and replace in the right order. It know its minor bitching about what isn’t there versus what is there, but it just seems weird seeing all of the buttons going to a sweet distribution block and connected to the main pcb with removable connectors, then see the stick wires soldered in place.
The wires themselves look to be 22 gauge wires, and judging by the fact that actually move, stranded at that. That just kind of struck me, because its WAY overkill for these. Those wires are going to last for freaking ever. Chalk up another ‘The Right Way’ with a side of ‘Going for Epic’.
The lock switch was a great idea. It should disable anyone from activating the Home/Guide button and turbo. I wont know more until I see that little board myself, but I expect that it cuts off the ground from the turbo and guide buttons so they’ll never be activated. That’s pretty cool, but I was really expecting it to also disable the start and/or select buttons. I know those buttons are on the back out of the way, but I still kind of thought the lock would disable those as well. (in fact, I think it could be setup to do exactly that) But, if it works like I think, this means the Turbo and Guide buttons are more than likely available to be hacked with; it should be VERY possible to use those with a dualed pcb that can handle them. Having the Guide button available to be ‘Home’ on a Cthulhu is very very likely, if if the board supported it, Turbo as well. If the LEDs work as I expect them to, then messing with the LEDs becomes very possible as well, including installing light up buttons that flash the same as the LEDs, or in different patterns. Because they are accessible via that ribbon cable, the sky’s the limit.
Oh, did I mention it looks like EVERYTHING is labelled? I mean, seriously, the connections on the small pcb with the LEDs have silkscreen labels describing what they do, and so do the ones on the main pcb. Hot damn, that my friends is a dream.
One thing I am scratching my head over is the ribbon cables connecting the main pcb to the upper left pcb with the LEDs and guide button. There’s a ferrite ring around two of them. I’m still an early EE student, but I honestly don’t see any reason or benefit for those to be there. Maybe the designing engineer knows something I don’t, but to eliminate the extra weight and reduce the possibility of rattling, I expect to remove those from my stick.
For the regular fightstick, all off the stuff I mentioned above applies. It seriously looks like the exact same pcbs just installed into a different case. That’s a good thing. I expect the start and select buttons to be a little hinky, but I don’t really care; it should be only a minor annoyance to remove them, drill in 24mm holes, and replace them with ‘proper’ parts, if anyone gets that’s anal about the least used buttons.
Someone earlier was comparing the SE FightStick versus the closest competitors, like the EX2 and HFS3. Based on what I see in the FightStick photos, the difference is WELL worth the $20 or so difference in price. You can’t really hack either of those without a dremel, so the long term life span is MUCH higher with the FightStick. Take a close peek at the buttons used on all three sticks. Those Hori buttons are crap, and it’s even obvious just looking at a pictures; the plungers of the buttons are loose inside the button housing, while the FightStick buttons are in extremely close. The MadCatz buttons in the pictures I’ve seen, I’ll admit, look like a Sanwa knock off, like they took apart a Sanwa button and made a mold out of it for their buttons. I don’t care if they did; the construction of the MadCatz buttons looks GOOD, and I expect they’ll be close to the performance of Sanwa’s. If not, 5 minutes with a screwdriver and the new buttons are in.
I’m kind of torn on the SE FightStick case. See, on one hand, the supporting circular columns you see all of the time in plastic cases (smaller Hori sticks, Agetec stick, Namco stick, etc) isn’t there. That means no dremeling to make room for other stuff, but it also means that there might be give in the top making the overall stick feel hollow. I’ll have to see it in person to get a feel for it.
As for modding, damn. Damn. I’ve been jogging through my head thinking about various sticks and I can’t really think of anything that comes close; everything in the same ‘weight division’ doesn’t compare. The really weird thing? You don’t have to. You don’t have to mod either stick; it looks like it will be good out of the box. But if you do, oh boy. We are easy to identify place to tap into anything we might want; installing a Cthulhu into either stick looks not only possible, but pretty simple, even solderlessly. Even better, the directions for any kind of mod on one stick look like they will apply exactly the same on the other edition. 360 TE instructions could be followed on an SE without missing a step. Light up mods? Easy. Dual pcb mods? Easy. Want to add PSX support (outside of a Cthulhu; I’m not trying to make a sales pitch here.)? Get the pcb from an HRAP. Grab a collection of wire splices, about 20 cents each. Splice the wires together in the proper order, and you’re done.
Comparing the TE to the HRAP3, the case construction is close, but the TE has the better layout with the Start and Select out of the way, plus much brighter future for modding especially with the removable arwork.
Comparing the TE to the HRAP EX, the TE wins handily just by being a common ground stick, with the very simple headset jack in the front instead of the monstrous thingy right over your stick, plus every reason given above against the HRAP3.
Comparing the SE to the EX2 or HFS3, SE wins easily. Similar case construction, but better original parts on the SE and the easy ability of replacing them down the road with a screwdriver instead of a dremel and soldering iron.
I cannot think of a Japanese style stick that is more welcome for modding than two editions of Hori’s. It reminds me quite a bit of the SFAC stick and to a degree the Pelican Universal Arcade sticks, which were also begging to be modded. The big difference is though that you don’t HAVE to mod the TE or SE to get good sticks because parts already are quality.
One last minor thing I’m worried about; I havent seen the business side of the pcb’s yet. Most MadCatz products buy the ‘wafer’ of the chip they use and cover it in a blob of black epoxy because it’s cheaper than buying the actual chip. I know its just a pet peeve, but I hate that. The chip should be exposed and soldered like any other. Even if they do go with the wafer+epoxy method, the pcb from the 360 version of either stick will end up being the ‘dream’ pcb for the Xbox360, much like the Agetec stick pcb is still the dream pcb for the Dreamcast.
We’re gonna have a lot of fun with this. MadCatz and all involved did real good from everything I see.
Order information from Amazon seller BluTronic
Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for your recent purchase with us.
Please be aware you have pre-ordered the Xbox 360 Street Fighter IV Fight Stick.
This item will be shipping Feb. 2nd 2009.
Please let us know if you would like to keep this order and your order will be
shipped as soon as it is available.
However, if you wish to cancel your order we would be happy to do so.
Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.
Thank you,
Game World Store
is it me or are they delivering the sticks WAY early?
…:xeye:
One week+ ahead? Either a bug/error/typo or you’re really lucky.
Toodles… Thank you VERY much for all the feedback. That was an awesome/helpful read.
I’m going to forward this post to our engineers and others involved… I’m sure they’d love the feedback.
Thanks again…
he could’ve easily meant the 12th.
anywho, if i do manage to actually get my TE sticks, im guessing they are staying the boxes for a while. i’m going to end up beating my hori’s up before using something of that quality. i’ll also probably pick up a pair of the normal sticks, since it seems like those are 10x better than hori already. i cant wait to see some of things people do to mod these sticks. if its easy as pie to end up with a dual console controller then im going to be all over it.
For those of you who scrolled past the wall of text above this post, let me summarize:
Arcade stick modders are going to have a lot of fun this year.
I fully expect a renaissance of stick mods after these wonderful things hit. I’m talking users selling no-solder quick mod kits, preprinted art for the TE sold by multiple users, and enough mod guides and tips to fill an entire subforum.
I’m freaking ecstatic right now, and Toodles just made it worse. I NEED one of these sticks right now.
Edit: I started typing this before anyone had responded to the thread after Toodles, so imagine I’m about 5 posts up from here.
I’m gona just wait for the reviews on this stick and if it gets good ones I’m just gonna have to buy a standard edition and change it with sanwa parts
I got a question for you markman if i put sanwa parts in a standard edition stick would it feel like the TE but smaller? Also what model are the sanwa parts in the TE if you can answer that.
Thanks=D
Thanks for the translation. Walls of text are usually my kryptonite. Personally, I won’t be even touching my TE stick with any mods, just not this one. It’s too much of a masterpiece to even think changing anything about it, perhaps replacing the buttons when they get old at most, maybe not even that.
Years from now it will be a priceless relic, a world wonder of artifacts… at least in the SF world =).