What's a good arcade stick for Tetris?

[Ap2000]

See thread title.
I'm looking for an arcade stick to play this gem with (and possibly some other 2D things).
I'd be ok with paying up to 100€.

Preferably something with XInput compatibility and letting you change each button's placement.
I absolutely do not care about fighting games, so I don't need anything special for that genre.

The only thing I know I'd probably want is being able to switch between 4-direction and 8-direction input on the stick's gate.

[Yeish]

Keyboard is probably the best choice for Tetris as it's the fastest input. I have a Street Fighter Tournament Edition FightStick. It's absolutely amazing, but I think it goes over the budget and I rarely use it except for fighting games and some classical arcade games.

[Jailhouse]

definitely keyboard. Or hitbox/mixbox.

[Grottowalker]

how crafty are you? if you bought quality parts and came up with a cheep solution for the case then you could get quality parts for the stick and stay within budget.
i think i end up liking it more, getting satifaction of getting use out of my labor of creation.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/97654974934155264/416427129320767498/DSC_0265.JPG

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/97654974934155264/416427128561729536/received_325138784629863.jpeg

this is the stick i built.

the PCB is a Brooke PCB
http://www.brookaccessory.com/detail/58690501/

the stick is a Myoungshin Fanta

and the buttions are suzo-happ with Cherry micro switches.

i was able to get a cheep fightstick off my friend for free, gutted it.
i already had the tools and wood to machine the top part of the stick.



do you know if you would like a korean stick or a japanese stick ?

[Kitaru]

For this particular style of Tetris game, you probably want to use a keyboard or Hit Box. Most games that follow the current Tetris Guideline ruleset allow "diagonal" inputs -- that is, you can keep holding left/right and still soft/hard drop a piece without losing horizontal momentum.

With a keyboard, preserving autoshift momentum between pieces is pretty intuitive: hold left/right and press drop (up arrow, spacebar, or whatever key you use) as necessary.
With an 8-way joystick, preserving autoshift momentum may feel a bit more awkward: you're doing twitchy 474747... or 696969... inputs. It's still doable on a square gate, but probably pretty weird on an octagonal or circular one.

Most "arcade-style" or classic console versions did not allow "diagonal drops," so you would use a 4-way diamond gate for those. However, in Puyo Puyo Tetris, that would mean giving up the potential benefit of this speed optimization; if you can't move the joystick diagonally, then naturally you can't keep that left/right momentum held when you go to press up.to hard drop a piece.

But, to answer the original question, anything that uses a Sanwa JLF would be good for Tetris -- it's switchable between 8-way and 4-way configurations. MadCatz Tournament Edition sticks and Hori Real Arcade Pro use a Sanwa JLF.

Hori Real Arcade Pro "Kai" models have an in-house designed Hayabusa stick -- I haven't used those, so I don't know if that has an easily switchable gate or not.

Even some of budget MadCatz sticks use knock-off JLF parts with a switchable gate, but the quality of the parts may not be as good as authentic Sanwa parts. The up-shot is that since they use the same mounting dimensions, you could always replace the stick and buttons with actual Sanwa JLF and OBSF later on.

(The Seimitsu LS-32 is also switchable if you prefer a stiffer stick with shorter throw. The LS-32 4-way gate has some nubs by default that make it move in more of a "clover" shape than a smooth diamond, but these wear down over time. You may want to file them down if you don't want to have to break in the gate over a longer period of time.)

[Tim]

It doesn't matter what stick you use in particular. What matters is people use a triangular gate in their stick instead of a square gate. At least the professional TGM players do that.

[ghml]

You can use Nintendo Switch joy-con, where the four arrow keys are separated, giving more precision. It can be paired with a PC natively using bluetooth

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Nintendo_Switch_Joy-Con_Grip_Controller.png

[Ap2000]

Thanks for all the input.
Right now I use a Dualshock controller, which is pretty good for 2D games overall because of the d-pad placement. But an arcade stick is something that always seemed like a fun thing to have. hah

Originally posted by Yeish:

Keyboard is probably the best choice for Tetris as it's the fastest input.

I haven't tried it yet, but I imagine getting cramps.

Originally posted by ghml:

You can use Nintendo Switch joy-con, where the four arrow keys are separated, giving more precision.

The Joycons are terrible. :X

Originally posted by Grottowalker:

how crafty are you?

I actually looked into buying a cheap box like the Mayflash F300 and enhance it with a Sanwa JLF like Kitaru suggested, but I haven't made up my mind yet if that's what I wanted to do.

Originally posted by Kitaru:

But, to answer the original question, anything that uses a Sanwa JLF would be good for Tetris -- it's switchable between 8-way and 4-way configurations. MadCatz Tournament Edition sticks and Hori Real Arcade Pro use a Sanwa JLF.

I looked at the Hori Real Arcade Pro N, but the button layout doesn't seem very appealing, since it's not designed to have your right hand at an angle on the board.
The Real Arcade Pro 4 Kai has a version with a switch for XInput, but I'm not sure if I can get them where I live.
Both are around 150€, which would be the absolute most I'd be ok with paying.

[Kitaru]

Originally posted by Ap2000:

I actually looked into buying a cheap box like the Mayflash F300 and enhance it with a Sanwa JLF like Kitaru suggested, but I haven't made up my mind yet if that's what I wanted to do.

Cool, didn't know JLF was a drop-in replacement in that Mayflash, good find.

Originally posted by Ap2000:

I looked at the Hori Real Arcade Pro N, but the button layout doesn't seem very appealing, since it's not designed to have your right hand at an angle on the board.
The Real Arcade Pro 4 Kai has a version with a switch for XInput, but I'm not sure if I can get them where I live.

The HRAP N seems to be using the Namco Noir control panel layout. The Noir button arc is apparently very similar to the one used on the P1 side of the Sega Astro City[www.slagcoin.com] and other Sega cabinets. On the other hand, the HRAP4 and the MadCatz sticks use a Taito Vewlix[www.slagcoin.com] layout. You can print out the layouts and test them out if that would help you get a feel for each; you should probably focus on the arc of the main 6 buttons since you'll rarely need to use last button in each row, but it's a plus if you like where those extra buttons are placed too.

I can say from experience that, in practice, both layouts do form a good arc to fit a natural hand placement; I play a lot on both Sega arcade cabs as well as console sticks using a Vewlix layout, and it has never been any trouble to jump between the two. In the end it's mostly a matter of preference -- some folks still prefer flat/angular layouts like the American Street Fighter 2 or American Neo-Geo layouts, so to each their own.

[Ap2000]

Originally posted by Kitaru:

You can print out the layouts and test them out if that would help you get a feel for each; you should probably focus on the arc of the main 6 buttons since you'll rarely need to use last button in each row, but it's a plus if you like where those extra buttons are placed too.

That's a very good idea.

[Kitaru]

Originally posted by Ap2000:

I looked at the Hori Real Arcade Pro N... Real Arcade Pro 4 Kai

Late addition, but important: both of the models you mentioned use a Hori Hayabusa joystick, so it seems that lately Hori has been using it by default. The Hayabusa does not have a switchable gate -- it's just a static square. So, if you want to be able to toggle between square and diamond configurations, your options are a) replace the stick with a JLF (which seems like kind of a waste), or b) get a JLF restrictor gate alone and drill holes in it so it can mount on the Hayabusa.

(I did find an aftermarket octagonal gate -- see Kowal's Octopus -- but I wouldn't expect something similar for a switchable 8/4-way gate due to complexity and lack of market demand.)

I'm a little less familiar with the current generation of arcade sticks on the market, but I would look for something that has a Sanwa joystick by default. The MadCatz sticks all have Sanwa JLF (or JLF clone in budget models), so I believe those are a safe bet if you find something in your price range. Upgrading the parts in that Mayflash may also be a good option.

[petran79]

Notice also that the Arcade dump of Tetris the Grandmaster 3 has input lag. Better play the free spinoff Texmaster

[Laserbeak43]

I have a 4 player HAPP arcade stick setup and I can't get it to work with this game. I can use it on DragonBall Fighter Z, Street Fighter 5, Tekken 7.... just about any game besides this one...

[Laserbeak43]

Scratch that! Finally got them to work! Had to enable generic gamepads in steam settings.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1282123067