Anybody try the HotRod arcade stick?

[miked]

Heres a link: http://www.hanaho.com/Products/HotRodJoystick.php

In the specs it says it uses all Happ sticks and buttons. For $120 after shipping, that seems like a nice deal since the X-Arcade uses knock offs and cost 150 after ship I think.

The 24" wide part kind of bothers me, but is good in others. I plan on using this for a table top arcade cab based around a 17" or 19" CRT monitor, and I think it might fit nicely.

[fastbilly1]

Ive got one, the only complaint is that one of the buttons for the second player is mapped to right shift. That kinda kills it in some emulators. Mine is currently partially gutted, but if you want pictures/measurements just tell me. Sadly I do not have a 17 or 19 inch monitor to put it in front of.

I got mine on sale for $99 with shipping and it is by far the best premade I have ever used.

[Hatta]

Are they all that color?

[fastbilly1]

To my knowledge. I like to bring it out at "hardcore" lanparties...

[miked]

Yeah the color kinda gets me too, but luckily colors can be changed..........after that 90 day warranty is up though.

Which emulators specifically does it have problems with cause of the shift button? I will probably dedicate it to MAME, but no telling what I might get into after receiving it.

Fastbilly: Is the 24" measurement for the top, or the base? If you have the time and feel like getting a measurement of the base, you would be my hero haha.

[fastbilly1]

The only emulator I really had problems with was NeoRageX (NeoGeo MVS emulator). I was, and still am, running it on an old 600mhz box and it runs every game very well (unlike mame at that time), but it just cant handle that input for some reason.

For your measurements - base is 22.5 by 8.5. But I thought some comparison shots were in order - forgive the blurriness, one handed photography is no longer a strong point of mine:

General comparison of size (that is Super Mario Kart, a AA, The Hobbit on DVD, and a Hori Wii Arcade Stick:


Comparison with other sticks I have on hand (Blaze Arcade Pro for PSX, Hotrod SE, NES Advantage, and Hori Wii Arcade Stick):


Other sticks from the side:


And lastly with a standard IBM keyboard from the mid 90s:

[miked]

Wow, thanks! I was comparing the 24 and 22.5 inches to the monitors and it looks like the 19 is just a little too big. With the 17 I think I will be able to fit in some small speakers on either side of it. I originally wanted to at least make a base that the controls could sit on with a slide out keyboard underneath, but I think im going to let the controls sit in front of the cab on whatever desk/table I put it on. Maybe I could even get or make a nice trackball controller someday to swap out for Centipede action.

Im going to meet up with my dad tomorrow to start making some plans and discuss things, and hopefully start building by the weekend.

[SpaceBooger]

My buddy gave me one of these - he is not into gaming and got it from some dude at work - and I have it hooked up to my arcade cab.
I love it. I did have to modify my cab a little to drop it down because it sat higher than the PS2 arcade sticks I was using.
If you are making your own cab this is a nice stick to use, I have mine mounted on/in the keyboard drawer.
Most of the emulators I use on my cab (MAME, kawaks, and Magicengine) automatically map, or have the option to map to the HotRod.

Here is a picture of my cab before the hotrod:


Here is what the modified keyboard drawer with the hotrod looks like now:


I wish that I would have had the hotrod when designing the cab so that I could incorporate it's design better, but I'm cool with it the way it is now.
If you need any ideas or assistance in the design of the cab feel free to ask or pm. Also you can check out how I made mine:
http://www.spacebooger.com/index.php/20 ... t-day-one/
http://www.spacebooger.com/index.php/20 ... t-day-two/
http://www.spacebooger.com/index.php/20 ... hree-four/
http://www.spacebooger.com/index.php/20 ... -finished/

[miked]

Your cab was actually what inspired me to take on this project. After seeing the materials used, and realizing I had most everything except controls its just too cheap not to do it.

What size of monitor do you have in yours and is it a TV or computer monitor? Also on the software side of things, do you use a frontend software that automatically boots when turned on? I plan on gutting the computer and putting it in the cab to save space, and not having a keyboard and mouse drawer would save even more.

[SpaceBooger]

Your cab was actually what inspired me to take on this project. After seeing the materials used, and realizing I had most everything except controls its just too cheap not to do it.

What size of monitor do you have in yours and is it a TV or computer monitor? Also on the software side of things, do you use a frontend software that automatically boots when turned on? I plan on gutting the computer and putting it in the cab to save space, and not having a keyboard and mouse drawer would save even more.

Inside I have a 19 inch crt monitor. As for software the computer has XP and emulators only installed and I use Maximus Arcade (http://www.maximusarcade.com/) as a frontend. I highly recommend it. It looks nice and boots up on startup.