Alright, yesterday I went and hooked up my X-Arcade 2 player joystick set to my spare computer, creating the skeleton of what will become my MAME Cabinet. What follows is my OFFICIAL FIRST IMPRESSION of the X-Arcade controller. Gaze in awe at my thoughts and opinions, mortals!
Why X-Arcade?
First off, why the X-Arcade? Why not the Hanaho HotRod, which is cheaper and has gotten equally rave reviews? Or why not build my own controller, and prove my ultra eliteness in the MAME world?
Well, I decided not to build my own controller because I recognize my limitations, I don't own any soldering and woodworking tools, and even if I did, I value my fingers. Also, the X-Arcade is built to arcade specs, using the same weighted particle board and controls that you would find in a real arcade. The reason I passed on the HotRod is because I saw that the X-Arcade has adapters available for most of the modern console systems (X-Box, PS2, and Dreamcast). Second, at the time I placed my order the price discrepancy was not nearly as big. Also, since I have a Dreamcast and several games for it the thought of using the controller to play Chu Chu Rocket or Ikaruga seemed appealing and worth the extra money. Plus, X-Arcade sells unassembled cabinets which use the controller so it seemed like it left my options open for when I finally decided to put together the cabinet. Hanaho only sells cabinets with computers and monitors already installed.
Initial Impressions
I ordered the unit off X-Arcade's website and they shipped it out the next day. It arrived in about 4 days. When it arrived it was in a retail package with plenty of protective packaging. After unpacking it and my Dreamcast adapter I hooked it up to the Dreamcast and tried it out on a round of Crazy Taxi. The X-Arcade has 4 button layout modes, with Mode 1 preprogrammed. You cannot reprogram Mode 1, but you can reprogram Modes 2-4 as you see fit. The controls feels solid, and hold up well to standard arcade play type abuse. I spent several minutes hitting the buttons as hard as I could and slamming the joystick from side to side and noticed no give at all. The joysticks responded with more sensitivity than the Dreamcast controls, but I found the button layouts to be a little uncomfortable for Crazy Taxi. They were laid out more for games like Marvel vs. Capcom or Street Fighter II, which played great on the control with no programming. Still, they responded well, and with a little reprogramming this would appear to be no big deal.
Hooking the unit up to the computer was a snap. There are no drivers, you simply plug the keyboard into the X-Arcade and take the PS/2 outlet from the X-Arcade and plug that into the computer itself. The X-Arcade maps to keys on your keyboard. What this means is that you can actually open up MS-Word or notepad or what have you and move the joystick around and see the letters that are mapped to the X-Arcade controls. When the X-Arcade is plugged in you can still use the keyboard as well, which is much nicer than any homebrew solution I would have come up with.
I have put together a front end for my MAME computer using PartyOn!, a simple Perl/VB front end for Windows. This front end has certain keys mapped to it to allow you to toggle between games and menu screens easily. In order to get the joystick working with PartyOn! I would have to delve into mapping the controls to certain keys. So I slapped the X-Arcade into Mode 2 and hit the Load button to get into programming mode. This was where I encountered my first (and only) problem.
The X-Arcade controller programming process appears simple enough. Hit the Load button to enter programming mode, hold down the button you want to program along with the keyboard key you want to map it to and repeat the process for every controller action, and hit Load one more time to exit programming mode. When you enter programming mode an LED at the top of the panel turns off. When you successfully program a button or controller direction the LED flashes, and when you exit programming mode the LED stays lit.
The problem I ran into was the LED wouldn’t turn off when I entered programming mode and none of my changes were being saved. It turns out that the X-Arcade relies on a certain amount of power being broadcast from the PS/2 port. Since the computer I was using was an older model (Dell Dimension Pentium II XP400), and there is no set standard on these sorts of things, my motherboard and PS/2 port just weren’t generating enough juice to program the controller. As a workaround I plugged it into my main system in the office, programmed it, and plugged it back into the old Dell and it works just fine. Apparently there is just enough juice to run it, but not reprogram it. Oh well, no big deal. The X-Arcade website was a little hard to navigate around and find all the info you need (especially since the Support FAQ appears to be a non-working link). However, they do have a really cool diagnostic utility that helps a lot when programming.
MAME Usage
After programming the controller I started cycling through games. Street Fighter II was a blast, as was Marvel Super Heroes and Captain
Supposedly the joysticks are eight-direction joysticks. Right now I only have 4 directions programmed in on each one. I may add the other 4 this weekend and see if that improves gameplay on the fighting games any.
Conclusion
All in all, I highly recommend the controller. The X-Arcade team has come through with a product that is brain dead simple to install. The only problem I had was due to me using some dated hardware with it, and it was easy to diagnose and work around.
So far it’s been a blast and it’s only been set up for one day. I can’t wait to lock myself in the game room this weekend and waste away a few hours! I'll let you guys know if my review changes after this weekend.
Copyright 2004 Edward Goodwin
Theme Design by Bryan Bell
