I tried this over in another forum and received no responses. Will my MadCatz stick work on games I buy off PSN. Specifically PS1 games like Alpha 3? I’d like to know before I purchase it.
Ah yeah, no wonder. You posted it in the alpha anthology forum, which is largely dead. Plus it’s a PS2 game anyway. I’ll move this down to tech talk where you will get a firm answer.
Madcatz sticks definitely work on PSN games like 3SO. I’m pretty sure it works on PS1 games as well, but I’ve never tried as pretty much all of the PS1 versions of fighting games are garbage. Unless you want to play around with world tour mode, I’d strongly advise you against playing the PS1 version of Alpha 3.
But off topic stuff aside, dropping this to tech talk to get you a clear answer.
Yeah, you can control perfectly any game with your stick which needs only 1 analog.
Maybe it sounds stupid but we (me and my brother) has only 1 PS3 controller, and a fightstick so when we play Plants vs. Zombies in versus mode is always use the stick… 
Thanks for the answers. I don’t really care how good or bad a version it is, I just want to play Alpha 3 every now and then.
I don’t see why the Mad Catz stick will not work with PSN titles, including PS1 games.
I’ve used PS3 sticks with games like Ehrgeiz and Intelligent Qube on PSN, works fine.
Alpha 3 should work fine with a PS3 joystick but, yeah, the Sega versions (Saturn, Dreamcast) of Alpha 3 and the PS2 SF Alpha Anthology are better ports… Not that the PS1 version of Alpha 3 is horrible, btw. Darkstalkers 3/Vampire Savior turned out fairly well for the PS1, too.
The whole joystick compatibility issue really only affects PS2 games operating on PS3’s with backwards compatibility. Reprogrammed, hi-def remakes (reprogrammed PS2 ports to the PS3 like Prince of Persia trilogy) wouldn’t be affected nor would the PS1 games as far as I’ve heard.
The thing is that nobody’s bothered to do a hi-def port of any of the PS2-only fighting games to date… at least none that I’m aware of.
The real Capcom turkeys on the PS1 were the Vs. games (X-Men Vs SF, MSH vs SF) and Marvel Vs Capcom1. Why Capcom attempted to port those games to the PS1 (okay, it was $$$$$ and Sony fanboys who didn’t know better) is beyond me. To be honest, though, even the Saturn port of X-Men: Cota was at best “good, not great” and Capcom botched Marvel Superheroes on both 32-bit consoles back then… (PS1 port of X-Men: Cota was horrible from all the reliable reviews I’ve read… Likewise, Darkstalkers1, which is a bad buy even if the port was perfect! The two Darkstalkers sequels are much better games.)