Updated Hori Twin Stick design, regular orders offered

[feixaq]

I get your point, but I have to disagree about the severity. The keyword is "abuse". Unless the controller is subject to abuse, the real VOOT arcade joysticks are fine. Broken shafts and other damage is caused by violent usage, such as idiots using the sticks to support their full body weight, or idiots trying to break them on purpose.

I'd agree with that. A very long time ago, when I played OMG and VOOT in the arcades, I always cringed when I saw players take their frustrations out on the joysticks after losing and just smack them around. I tend to keep my peripherals/accessories in good condition and would never abuse them, so this may be a moot point.

[efforteater]

Just to clarify, are these twin sticks going to be a limited time sort of deal?
Y'know how much japan loves to tease with awesome toys.

[jiakhang]

On the topic of sticks abuse, we had people doing "one arm gliding ram / slc" with enough force to break the sticks. I still had a piece of the broken support rod as evidence

Well we the players subsequently outlaw that as it broke the very sticks that we love to play with.

Another thing that could't be repaired is that the seimitsu sticks tend to come loose a bit after a while, and you can rotate it it slightly on the y axis, giving it a loose feeling.

On maintenance, a little WD40 helps but too much of it will kill the micro switches. and of course the compulsory contact cleaning because of oxdisation as mentioned by menthol.

I learnt those from observing the arcade operators during our calls for maintenance during our games. The most horrific part was when I saw the amount of dust and hair that some how got under the arcade sticks. It looked almost like a vacuum cleaner's dust bag in there

[MentholMoose]

On the topic of sticks abuse, we had people doing "one arm gliding ram / slc" with enough force to break the sticks. I still had a piece of the broken support rod as evidence

Well we the players subsequently outlaw that as it broke the very sticks that we love to play with.

Yup, some people really are horrible. I think a big part of it is lack of respect for other people's property... after all, if the controller breaks on an arcade machine, it only affects the arcade owner, right? It's the reason arcade machines rarely have VMU/memory card slots... idiots will put their gum/trash/etc. in it.

Another thing that could't be repaired is that the seimitsu sticks tend to come loose a bit after a while, and you can rotate it it slightly on the y axis, giving it a loose feeling.

This is actually a design issue and was fixed in newer joystick revisions (at least by 5.66 release, maybe earlier). The shafts were changed from being purely cylindrical to having some square sections that prevent the grip from rotating. On the old shafts, the grips can suffer wear and eventually break.

On maintenance, a little WD40 helps but too much of it will kill the micro switches. and of course the compulsory contact cleaning because of oxdisation as mentioned by menthol.

Using WD40 isn't a good idea, although I suppose it is slightly better than nothing. The problem is that WD40 will break down very fast, and when it is gone there will be no lubrication! Without lubrication, the joystick will start wearing out anywhere there is friction, and especially when there is metal moving against plastic (in particular, the spring catch, which is supposed to glide smoothly on the shaft, will wear out rapidly without lubricant). A long-lasting lubricant is required to keep the joysticks working. I've always used lithium grease and it's served me well.

That reminds me of a VER.5.4 cabinet that was at a now dead arcade called Illuzions. I attended a tournament there, and the tech had just cleaned the joysticks, but he refused to put any lubricant! Several players actually had lithium grease available since we had a Dreamcast VOOT setup in one of the party rooms, but the tech refused to use it. The sticks felt horrible, and I've always felt they might have affected the tournament results (DNA side was a bit worse than RNA). Later the machine fell into disrepair, which is no surprise considering the incompetent tech.