Inky

MAdcatz Street Fighter IV Fightstick, Tournament Edition. System: Xbox 360 (also available for PS3) Emulators: should work with any emulator that accepts a usb controller. I have tested it with GGPO. ###################################### For anyone who is seriously into fighting games, an arcade joystick is the holy grail of control types. And it's only natural to want to get as close to the arcade experience as possible while at home. since the console's launch fighting game fans have been stuck with the original controller, or the Hori EX2 and it's multiple rebrandings. the EX2 is passable but really sub-par with out extensive difficult modifications. There is also the Hori HRAP EX but that has been notoriously hard to get a hold of, requiring it to be imported. Madcatz has changed all that with it's street fighter IV line of sticks and pads. The Tournament Edition is the top end of this line. the Cadillac of retail arcade sticks, and you will pay top end price. $150usd is the retail. but sticks have been going for much more on the secondary markets like ebay and Amazon. Madcatz has stated they are working hard to get retail stocks up but so far any new stock is snapped up within minutes. Before the TE was released the only way to get arcade quality at home was to build your own stick. The first thing you will notice about the TE after removing it from its beautiful boxing is the size. it is huge. this may be a turn off to some, but I find the size allows my hands to rest on the stick and buttons as they would on an arcade cabinet. on the Hori EX2 my hands would rest on the edges with the outer part of my hands hanging off the case completely. the TE is spacious and heavy enough to feel very solid when playing roughly. The TE is made from what most consider the best arcade parts available, Sanwa. It is also built with moddability in mind, all connections are quick disconnect, so there is no soldering required if you want to change anything, or a button goes out. as the picture shows, the TE control panel is well layed out and easy to work with. the entire panel lifts away from the housing to reveal the stick, buttons, and all the quick disconnects. all the wiring is tidy and there is plenty of wire on each button to rearrange them if you wanted. the joystick 5 pin connection must be removed to get the panel all the way out of the housing. the Sanwa buttons are ultra sensitive. The 8 buttons are arranged in such a way that you can play American straight layout or the more popular curved Japanese layout. the top and bottom rows mimic the classic SNK 4 button layout. All buttons are Sanwa snap in style buttons with quick disconnects for easy modding. replaceable with 30mm Sanwa and Seimitsu snap in buttons. Happ buttons will not fit in the TE. The Sanwa JLF Joystick feels very solid. with a light tension and quick return to center. The stick it self comes with a Square gate, some don't like the feel of a square gate (me included) An octagonal gate is easy to install for a more American feel. the stick is also very easy to replace if you like Seimitsu. unfortunately Happ/iL sticks will not fit in the TE. Together the sensitive buttons and joystick require some getting used to for players used to the more rugged feel of American arcades fitted with Happ controls. but once the trial period is over, pulling complex movements and advanced combos becomes much easier. The learning curve will be much steeper for those who grew up on console pads and have never had arcade experience. Other features include turbo functions for all buttons, a panel lock out and a small compartment to store the cord when not in use. the Turbo function works as expected. press the turbo button and what ever button you want turbo. you can set any combination of buttons to 2 different settings of turbo. the panel lock out is handy to insure you don't hit the turbo or guide buttons during vigorous play, unfortunately the lockout doesn't disable the start or back buttons. these buttons are pretty much out of the way on the back of the sticks housing but I could see them getting bumped at some point, pausing the games at an inappropriate time. The cord compartment is really to small for the cord. Since getting the cord out of the compartment during the unpacking of the stick I have not been able to get it back in there. It's unfortunate the stick is not wireless, (the PS3 version is wireless I believe) due to Microsoft not allowing 3rd party controllers to be wireless. But the cord is very long so it isn't a huge problem. ###################################### Overall anyone who is serious about fighting games and has money to burn would do well to check out the Madcatz SFIV fightstick, TE. The complaints are few and minor. (not wireless, the stupid cord compartment, no room for Happ sticks.) The playability over a control pad is stellar. The Build Quality is far above previous Madcatz standards. I give the Madcatz TE Fightstick 9 out of 10 hadokens.

I'm passing up games just because I am to lazy to flash at this point. everything is wave 3 now. I was hoping to hold out until 1.6 comes out in a few weeks, but I really wanna play the wolverine game. if I am not feeling ultra lazy in the morning I may just go ahead. I've had all the files on my computer to do it for a month now.

It was skateboarding documentarys for me today. dogtown and z-boys http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275309/ the real story of "the lords of dogtown" a group of 12 guys from south santa monica that basically changes skating from a kids toy to what it is today. Rising Son, The legend of Christian Hosoi http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0782079/ Hosoi was the man in the 80's, later falling into heavy meth addiction and spent a few years behind bars for possession with intent to distribute, he is now out and a born again christian. Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0271211/ Mark `Gator' Ragowski was another top dog vert skater in the 80's his story is prolly the most interesting of the bunch. ending in the murder of his girlfriend's friend. he is still in prison. the only one I did not watch today was "the man who souled the world" (seen it before) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0924461/ the story of steve rocco, they guy who changed skateboarding from huge corporations to smaller skater owned companies. anyone interested in skateboarding, the 80's, or southern california youth culture would do well to watch any of the above. all of them show how a young kid with fame and money will almost inevitably end up on the wrong path.

I almost never carry cash, I'm almost 100% plastic at this point, no checks either, I write 2 checks a month, rent and car payment. paperless when it comes to bills. the only time I have cash is when I plan on eating out of the vending machine at work. they are supposed to get new vending machines that use ATM. then I'll really be in trouble. hahah.

the media is working everyone up. here is a fact. like 100 people WORLD WIDE have died from swine flu. over 300,000 people IN THE USA die of regular old flu every year. you should be more scared of the regular flu, or getting struck by lightning, or hit by a bus. you have a better chance of hitting the Lotto then dieing from swine flu.

to encourage you to give them more money. it's a pretty simple idea.

the chick in [rec] is alot hotter then the chick in quarentine too.

thanks but this is rather old, almost 6 months. I've long since sold the PSP.

they are asking for it, until we go in there and kick ass, then you'll all be like: "oh america, why are you throwing your weight around? you're not the global police! stay out of their business!" yeah, flock em, and any countries in striking distance.

crap, X-S didn't mention that............

verizon is also in talks with apple to get the iphone. I hope they do get it too. I don't want to switch providers but I want an iphone.

cash is life. no cash, no food, clothing, housing, or medicine. you know the things that keep your frail pink body from dieing.

I got the elephant flu.

I don't want to come off as arguing either... but I was 16 in 91 when it was all going down. formative years ya know? I seen all three of those bands live at the breaking point when it all exploded. Although my musical tastes have changes completely and I don't listen to that stuff for pleasure anymore. It's still like yesterday in my memory. and I have strong opinions about it. *shrugs*

Soundgarden was more metal. Nirvana was more punk. grunge was just some label they put on all the Seattle bands in 91/92. it didn't mean anything except they all performed in street clothes and came from the same area. but those were the big three, pearl jam's Ten, Nirvana's Nevermind and Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger. Those three albums defined the alternative sound of the early to mid 90's. As pieces of music Badmotorfinger is the better album. Kim Thayil is a better guitarist then Kurt Cobian, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready combined. Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobian aren't even in the same weight class as Chris Cornell as a singer/frontman.

lol that white guy try's to play to the crowd, and the black guy rushes him again. that's what I like to see.

word on the street is Forrest vs Anderson at UFC 101. they need to raise Anderson's stock and this is the fight to do it.

You are right I have gold but most of the people I've been waiting to play against don't have gold well this is the weekend to get em on!

I didn't like SvC Chaos.

custom soundtracks yo.

well the 1st and 4th is friday and monday. I thought you had gold Bambi?!?

from Xbox-Scene all you silver members get ready for a weekend of online debauchery!

info taken from eventhubs.com there are a few screens showing regular and filtered sprites there too. and they look good. HDRs netcode! YAY! No unlocking! YAY. 1200 MSP. boo.

Mark of the wolves is prolly my favorite SNK game. with all this activity from Capcom and SNK I think the time is right for Capcom vs SNK 3! or at least a remake of CvS2. regardless it's a good time to be a fighting game fan.

I've been a Chris Cornell fan since Soundgarden's badmotorfinger. Best album to come out of Seattle during the grunge phase. sorry to Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but it's true. Badmotorfinger puts Ten and Nevermind to shame.