X-Arcade stick review

http://www.amigans.net/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=19

This is my entry for the article writing competition.. hope you like it. It has subtle humour and good technical information. Also, its not too long so even people with short attention spans should be able to get through it okay. :)

@jahc

Quote:

After "review" i skipped to the end, can you tell me what this is all about?




/me ruuuuuuuuuuns

Nice article but one question did the usb adapter work with OS4?

RWO

@rwo

Re: USB adapter

I only got the PS/2 adapter. BUT.. I've decided to shell out the money and get a Tank Stick, which has built in USB functionality. So I will attempt to hook that up tonight somehow. I'm going to pick it up in 2-3 hours. I'm not looking forwards to this, because I had problems with AmigaInput under Update4, let alone hacking the files together and using it under OS4 Final. :(

I've got a few computers in this room, The A1 is MY machine, so I'm going to keep the 1 player stick connected there, and hook up the Tank Stick to one of the PCs which the kids use. However, I will try and check out AmigaInput compatibility sometime! Then I will update the Review accordingly. :)

@jahc

nice review! nice device!

Damn.. I couldnt get the tank stick to function on my A1 with either PS/2 or USB.. and then when I plugged my A1's keyboard back in after a while, it doesnt work properly anymore.. so I'm using another keyboard I found in my junk. :) I used the tank stick with USB on the PC though. It's great. The weight makes it perfect, it doesnt move while you're playing. $350 nzd and I'm already sick of it 1 hour?later?(hehe). I just need to find some better opponents maybe. I dominate my brothers. :P I have to admit I'm slightly unbeatable.

@jahc

hahahahah! =)

@spotUP

Re: USB adapter..

I've been very lazy, and maybe a little too busy as well.. but anyway, I was lying in bed last night until 2am thinking about my x-arcade sticks and the tests I need to do on them to formulate a more complete review. So.. I finally jumped out of bed into the cold, and tried the Tank Stick with the A1 using the USB adapter (again).

I left my PS/2 keyboard plugged into the A1 (my old one got fried 2 days ago somehow), and plugged the stick into the USB. Now, it booted. I was able to type fine in a shell, but I pressed the buttons on the stick, and.... it didnt work! I was gutted! But then about 3 seconds later, a window flashed up and disapeared on Workbench.. I caught a glimpse of "X-Arcade" in the window.. then I started pressing my buttons, and like magic it started printing text in the window! So it appears the USB adapter works EXACTLY like the PS/2 adapter! It turns the x-arcade stick into a KEYBOARD DEVICE in other words.

So, we configured X-Men Vs StreetFighter and me and my brother had a bash.. but unfortunately heres where the bugs started to creep in.. it appears that when we're bashing the controls at the same time, every now and again the XMAME screen goes to the back and Workbench pops up to the front. So I have to switch back to the XMAME screen repeatedly... It seemed to happen when me and my brother tried to do our special moves at the same time, which require all 3 punch buttons to be pressed at once... so we were sending about 6 keyboard events to the machine at once. But before I could do any further testing, my machine acted up and needed a reset (it seems to do that sometimes when its extremely cold or extremely hot).. and it was very early in the morning, so I put off any further tests.

Now, I gotta try and reproduce the problem for my article. But at least we know the USB adapter works on the A1. I'll find out if its compatible with my solo player stick, and test that too.. I'll see if the workbench popping to front problem exists with that setup. It's never done that before using the PS/2 adapter.

One last thing.. it appears my PS/2 interface on my Tank Stick doesnt work properly. It could be two things.. 1. its fucked. 2. the computers I've tried it on cant supply enough power to both the tank stick and keyboard (it states in the manual that this might be a problem).