Specific question about restrictor gates and input errors (diagonals)

Hi,

I’m just getting started with fightsticks and recently got a Qanba Q1, and am noticing that I do diagonal jumps without meaning to fairly often. I currently have an octagonal gate in it and am wondering if switching to a square gate would help me to keep that from happening. Does the square gate mean that I have to move my stick a little more to register a diagonal input?

I have no preference about gates, I just want to stop accidentally jumping from DP or SRK so often until I eventually decide to upgrade the joystick.

Thanks

How long have you been playing on arcade sticks? It just sounds like an execution error that you can iron out through practice and experience, and not some sort of mechanical defect.

Square gate might or might not feel better to you. It’s all personal preference really. I can’t stand playing on an octogate and prefer square gates, but many other people are the opposite. It just depends on what you’re used to.

No, the square gate doesn’t mean you have to move your stick further to hit corners. It’s a misconception that the stick activates whenever you hit the edge of the gate. It activates earlier than that, but the gate is sort of there to guide you with certain motions. It’s important to get into the habit of not ‘riding the gate’ or moving the stick purely along the edges for most of your motions.

Thanks for the quick response,

I’m totally new to using sticks so it sounds like I might be better off just using the square gate then because it isn’t as easy to drag it against the side for the srk motion since that is what I end up doing some of the time.

Go for it if you want. Just don’t think that it’ll magically make you an execution god. Whatever gate you use, it’s still going to take some time and practice to work it properly.

And again, dragging against the sides isn’t ideal for the SRK motion. You want to make a clean “Z” motion. So from neutral position, it’s straight to the right, straight to the down position, and then straight to the down-forward position. Dragging the whole motion along the edges is only going to slow you down and give you some bad execution habits later on down the line.

You’re overshooting.

It should be a simple switch for you, just open it up and pluck it out of there (yeah, “simple” is relative). Try it out.
The “standard” is square gate Sanwa, but that’s not right for everybody (i.e. Seimitsu guys, K-sticks, Happ, etc., etc.) Point is, don’t be afraid to experiment or ask others for test runs to find out what fits you.

Anyway. With a square gate, there are corners on the diagonals (1-3-7-9, or western style, d/b, d/f, u/b, and u/f).
Concerning a Shoryuken, you tap forward, go to down, and then you can slide right into that corner.

Because of how the gate is designed, you shouldn’t slide into forward unless you force it (the corners are pretty deep).

The bad part is- if you hit the gate, you will now slide into u/f when doing things like quarter-circles.

In any case, slow down. Make big motions, then gradually make them smaller, then gradually make them quicker.

If you play on your lap, pay attention to the slant of your legs, as well. If the stick leans away from you it might affect how you handle the stick.

Fact is, yes the course is longer to reach the 2 microswitches to activate a diagonal than a single microswitch for a straight direction. By nature. Some people feel it more than others, it’s a tiny difference but still. No matter the gate you can think of, this will remain. Until someone create true diagonal switches sticks.

Maybe 1mm or half a mm longer. True. But in a practical sense, that won’t matter the slightest.

Diagonal switch is impractical though, as it increases cost, and no controller in the world assigns a diagonal motion to anything unless you’re using an analog stick. And we all know how terrible analog sticks are for fighting game use.

The other option is to use a circle gate, where the gate sort of helps keep a consistent distance to any point along the edge.

Well, the ColecoVision Super Action Controller has 8 actuators. It may be a 16 way stuck if it does tertiaries by “tweening”.

And the intellivision pad has 16 separate actuators for each of 16 ways.

I have a Sanwa currently.

In the 90s, I had whatever KY Enterprises was offering and was an execution god. I ride the gate, feel the high tension to tell my hand stop, and my hands are quicker than they are controllable.

My reflexes are good, my instinctive response in athletics is usually wrong in degree, not principle. I’m the kind of person of can partially catch something to slow it down enough to not shatter, just soften the thud.

It’s not unheard of.