X-Gaming X-Arcade Review

Customer Ratings:

First thing is first, if you have a classic arcade jones, or maybe you are like me, and plan on building a MAME machine someday when you don't live on a third floor apartment, just pick up this stick. It's a quality product and is rock solid. That said, I have a few words of advice to impart.

As soon as you place your order or pick it up at your local Fry's, go to Home Depot and buy some rubber mesh shelving liner and a moderate size roll of 3M double sided tape. While the stick is rugged, heavy, and just oozes quality construction, it's way more mobile than I'd like when it's sitting on a smooth surface like a coffee table. I popped the hard rubber screw covers off, screwed the screws in all the way and applied small squares of double sided tape over the screws. Then I applied the tape the short length of the base and a few generous strips between the screw points along the length of the base, in addition to a few generous strips in the middle to help insure the stability. I then applied the shelving relatively taught to the bottom surface. While the stick could weigh a few more pounds for those 2 player sessions, it really isn't necessary after you apply the shelving to the bottom. On my wood coffee table, the stick now stays put wereas before, it would slide all around when I was the only person playing. It was much worse with two people. An adventurous person might look at securing weights within the confines of the joystick cabinet as an added bonus to immobility.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Just got mine today and it is like living in a dream. Feels just like the old arcade joystick and buttons. It is made very well and comes with a cable for your pc as well as a few games for the pc.

I got the X-Box adapter and after seeing how well it works on the PC and X-Box, I plan to purchase the adaptor for my Gamecube as well.

If you are looking for a great way to play those Mame Roms or old arcade classics, this is a must have.

Best Deals for X-Gaming X-Arcade

This is a great product for those unwilling to invest triple its price, but still wanting to replicate the arcade experience. Given that pretty much any 300 dollar Netbook running XP can run Mame, this thing = instant-arcade, complete with easily programmable buttons via a PS/2-connected Keyboard and 4 memory locations for key assignments.

Many of the complaints directed at this product are those directed at its PS2 adapter. While this may have been a problem with older revisions of the adapter hardware, I can say, without a doubt, that it has been adressed. The PS2 adaptor is how it always was--you plug the serial-male into the serial-female in the back of the X-arcade, then connect the 2 PS-style controller inputs at the front to the PS2. If you want to use a PS3, 2 incredibly high-quality PS3 -> PS2/PS2 mem-card adapters are included, which plug into the PS3's USB ports and can be set via the PS menu easily.

I set up my PC, using assorted programs (Joy2Mouse to convert the PS3 signal to a PC-friendly mouse-button click), to test the lag using all assorted adapters. All adapters tested had a delay of less than 7 milliseconds, which is about half the time a frame spends onscreen in a 60fps game. Check this link: which inspired me to do the above test (and basically lays out exactly how to do it including program names) The feedback is realtime given the new equipment.

The button layout is the only thing I'm not huge on--that and, upon original shipment, my 2p joystick "stuck" when the Right direction was toggled. It was easily fixed upon adjusting the throw (which is easily done by unscrewing all 4 feet, complete with intuitively layed-out innards, labels, and quick-disconnects for modding fun. The buttons have a little too much space between them, not to mention the layout is:

O O O

O O O

O O

which is a little tiring to the fingers when maintaining the arcade 3-button position. Still, by using the following buttons:

O O O

X X O

X O

it's a little more comfortable for long periods of time (3 button only, obviously). Still, Streetfighter 4 plays beautifully with it, as does Soul Cal 4, Soul Cal 2 for PS2 and Gamecube, and all emulated Gameboy Advance games through Gamecube/Wii VC games/Sonic Mega collection...the list goes on, and the X-Arcade has breathed new life into all my old games. I'm playing through Final Fantasy 7 with it just for the fun of it!

And no, you aren't as close to your partner while playing as some reviews might let you believe...you definitely have to know the person, but it's not like you'll be making physical contact the whole time you're playing...if you're sitting next to each other on a couch and the X-arc is on a table in front of you, you'll have plenty of room.

Enjoy!

Honest reviews on X-Gaming X-Arcade

The X-Arcade is, as advertised, a very well constructed piece of hardware, and I certainly can't fault the feel of its controls or the flexibility of the system.

Playing on PS2 with the adapter, however, there is some noticeable lag, presumably due to the button->serial cable->adapter->PS2 chain that the button presses have to go through. So many of the classic arcade games were based around the completely instantaneous response of the stick that the lag can really affect game play.

Also, games like Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-man, that were based around a 4-way joystick are impacted a bit further due to the X-Arcade having 8-way joysticks. When you accidentally pull on the diagonals, you just don't know what is going to happen on screen.

Between the lag and the 8-way problem, Pac-man and Ms. Pac-man are almost unplayable. Games that originally had two-way joysticks, like Galaga and Galaxians, don't have this problem, and it's also easier to compensate for the slight delay on those games. Fighting games that originally came with eight-way joysticks are quite playable.

That's all on the PS2. If you're hooking it up to a PC for use with MAME or with a licensed retro disc, I think the results might be better. You wouldn't have the extra lag of the adapter, and you could configure the key layout to a fare-thee-well.

I haven't yet tried it on MAME, though, so I can't attest to that.

I'd love to have a rig like the X-Arcade that was hard-wired as a PS2 controller so that the lag was reduced, but that would cut down on the system's flexibility, which might cut out some of the customer base for this item, and they might have to raise the (very reasonable!) cost some to compensate for having to make the different versions.

Recommended, with these caveats.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for X-Gaming X-Arcade

the construction is awesome. the joystick and buttons feel exactly like a street fighter arcade. the board is rock solid and heavy.

my main complaint though, one that i have never read before about this stick, is that while playing a fighting game such as street fighter 2 with two players, and when certain button combinations are pressed (dunno which, joystick direction/button presses on player 1 side?) the player 2 side joystick gets screwed up. for instance, down-left will just be down, up-left will just jump straight up. not only does it screw up the blocking, charging moves dont come out because the charge gets interrupted.

another way to tell there's a problem is when a player is dizzy, tries to shake out (shake joystick in every direction and jam on all six buttons), the other players character will do random stuff!

i know there is a way to rebind the buttons to different keystrokes, but i haven't tried to see if that fixes the problem.

but for this joystick to not work properly for street fighter out-of-the-box is just not acceptable.

(edit: i forgot to mention, i have the tankstick, the one with the trackball, but i'm guessing they both share similar circuitry)