Joystick vs Gamepad

I've always felt arcade cabinet controls to be too "loose" and imprecise.  The stick direction seems innacurate, the buttons have no real sensitivity besides "mash" and "unmash," and most of the time the controls are beat up and not working from day to day use.

Gamepads, on the other hand, allow fast and precise movements, from the SNES, PS1, even the slightly awkward Dreamcast.  I find fighting games and 2D shooters infinitely more playable with a gamepad, and suck immensely when playing in the arcade.  I'd get a console arcade controller or X-arcade for that authentic arcade experience, until I remind myself that I loathe arcade controls no matter how much I try to like them.

I agree for general games and the two genres you mentioned, but for driving games, the arcade offers a lot more. Though I was pleasantly surprised by how well the XBox triggers worked for the gas and the brake, an analog stick just doesn't cut it for steering. It's better than a D-Pad mind you, but the basic point is that with the physics in driving games as good as they are now, the difference between turning a steering wheel sharply and pushing a stick all the way right is huge, and will fuck you up until you begin to adjust for that difference. It doesn't help that in general that you can do holding it straight, the speed you change lanes with, and attempting to turn the car sideways, but not much in between. Not that a wheel and pedals will fix that completely, because you won't feel all the tiny accelerations that you use to adjust while driving a real car (but then would you try multi-track drifting if you did?).

Also, I imagine a yoke would kick ass in a flying sim. Additionally, home DDR pads seem wonky, and the controller that came with Taiko Drum Master makes baby Don and Katsu cry, though that could just be the sucky American track list.

for fighting games it depends on the game. if i'm playing something like say street fighter i'd like a joy pad, but for say Ivy's lust shaker move or whatever it was called you're gonna need a joystivk

so it really just depends on the games to me (i've goten used to both anyways)

...differs with each game in my case.

Most shmups:  Ball-top Joystick
Shmups that require a bit more "finess" or subtle movement than normal ('sup Progear):  D-pad
Most fighters:  D-pad
Most SNK Fighters:  Bat-top Joystick
Virtua Fighter/Tekken/etc:  Ball-Top Joystick
Puzzle games:  D-pad
Driving:  Steering Wheel or Analog Stick

Virtual On: Joysticks, definitely.

Ball-top Japanese-style sticks for any and all arcade game. They're shitloads more precise. Of course, AT the arcade, you use what they've got (Happ parts), and that's a small adjustment but not huge.

Side note: I want a Real Arcade Pro, like, a bunch.

descent3 - THE UBERGAME

JOYSTICK

See, I just can't get the directions down with a joystick in fighting games.  Half the time it'll be more like an RPG with a chance of missing certain moves.  With a gamepad you know what direction you're performing, but a joystick can be slightly off even if you think you're in the right direction.  I can't play Capcom games for shit in the arcade, whether its SFII, SFA3, Rival Schools/Project Justice, MVC2.  Half the time the moves I want to perform fail horribly.  This doesn't happen with a gamepad.

Fighting spam, one bump at a time!