Gp2x Stick Replacement Petition


Epicenter

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Petition URL: http://www.petitiononline.com/gp2xstck/petition.html

There are few people who would be able to tell you with a straight face they had experienced issues with the GP2X's control stick. Some would say they found it to be an annoyance, while others would call it a major issue, and others, nearly unusable. The device is truly not designed for use in a gaming environment, as it exhibits precision that is poor at best, making many types of games very difficult to play, emulated or not. The most affected by this are likely fighting games where combos must be entered as very specific and perfect sequences of button pushes. The stick takes a very noticable amount of time to swing from one side to the other moving in any given direction; while a replacement cap like the MK2's or DaveC's cap greatly reduces the amount your thumb must move to produce these sudden movements, it is really not enough to allow proper quick, twitchy movements like those necessitated by difficult shooters (arcade titles spring most readily to mind) or twitch-reaction movements required in gameplay situations like Sonic 3's 3D special stages.

While it has become clear GPH did not fully recognize the amount of gaming that would be done on this machine, and seemed to be more convinced it would be used as a multimedia playback unit, this fault has made itself known very well, and hurts the reputation of the GP2X. It discourages new purchases for fear that the system won't be playable-- I know, I agonized over the purchase decision for a while! It stunts development-- I personally worry that when I release games for play on the GP2X that they will be too difficult to play with a stick and that only people who have done a tricky and labor/time-intensive modification to their unit (e.g. adding a D-Pad) will be able to enjoy them fully-- I will be installing a D-Pad as soon as a decent kit is available (e.g. Radek's) but I will have to make things much easier for everyone not using one due to the difficulties they might face. This greatly complicates the development process. A superior control mechanism would be nothing but beneficial for the development for and growth of the GP2X software community.

The three types of solution that spring most readily to mind are a directional pad (which could be of a non-patented design, dissimilar to Nintendo's-- note Sega, Sony, Nokia, and other companies' directional pads that do not step on Nintendo's toes). This is the most obvious solution.

The second is a microswitched stick similar to the mechanical design used in arcade systems, where small movements in multiple directions (even 16!) are precise, rapid, and require no large swing of the stick to accomplish for a great degree of control in free-roaming games like shooters or precise button-pushing exercises like entering complex combos into a fighting game.

The third would be a stick similar to that used in the GP32, a 'click-stick' as it is often called, resembling that of the Neo Geo Pocket Color, a rather famous method of control that worked quite well.

I have created this petition since after speaking to Craigix briefly about the probability of a more reasonable stick design in future revisions, he seemed to feel that the MK2 stick (which is just the MK1 stick rotated 45 degrees to relieve diagnol bias, which I never felt was the worst problem to begin with) was enough to make it 'fine'. I do not believe the true gravity of the situation is apparent to GBAX or GPH. The GP2X is an excellent handheld capable of incredible things, as we have all seen. It is made only more frustrating to see such a shortcoming as a control stick to ruin the experience for so many people. If you feel the way I do, and would like to see this change occur to benefit the users of the machine, the community, and future development for the growing GP2X platform, please sign this petition with your preferred method of control.

Thank you for your time.
 
Let me tell you, I think the stick is just fine: I just wouldn't use it for fighting games at all. While if I wanted to I could probably play the fighting games just as good in the arcades (I've done 100% combos in the King of Fighters series =), I would be too scared to do so for fear of breaking the stick because I would have to use my fingers and not my thumb. I wouldn't say it is inaccurate and unusable: I would say it is just too delicate and the deadzone too big.
 
Shikaku - you have got to be kidding! Try playing any shoot'em up game on Mame and tell me you have the amount of control you need. This occurs on most games I've tried.

I play Noiz2sa, and my high score is 5353360 on endless insane stage (in the normal version). Play that, I dare you =)
 
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I bet they won't bother changing the joystick anytime soon. GPH and Craigix are probably formulating a plan to release a better joystick/dpad in maybe 1-2 years. That way, more people will waste their money on a mediocre-control handheld. Then when the better version comes out, many people will replace theirs. That is how they will leech money from us.
 
I bet they won't bother changing the joystick anytime soon. GPH and Craigix are probably formulating a plan to release a better joystick/dpad in maybe 1-2 years. That way, more people will waste their money on a mediocre-control handheld. Then when the better version comes out, many people will replace theirs. That is how they will leech money from us.
Any no other companies do that ?

Oh is that a DS Lite sitting next to me ?!?!?

:D
 
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While some of the issues can be lessened a bit with programming trickery (resulting in Noiz2sa being a bit easier to control than a shooter in MAME or GNGeo2x), it's quite a hassle and the payoff usually isn't much more than just a small improvement. It really does put an undue burden on developers-- the input code for Stargazer needs adjustment all the time and I'm still not happy with how it works with a stick-- it doesn't seem to bother other people as much as me, but how can I judge how other people will experience a game if I can't tolerate my stick, or have to use a different self-installed control scheme than them?
 
I don't really mind the stick that much personally. It works well enough for me. A d-pad would be preferred, though (which is why I'm planning on buying Radek's mod) so I signed it anyway. Couldn't hurt.
 
I bet they won't bother changing the joystick anytime soon. GPH and Craigix are probably formulating a plan to release a better joystick/dpad in maybe 1-2 years. That way, more people will waste their money on a mediocre-control handheld. Then when the better version comes out, many people will replace theirs. That is how they will leech money from us.


You love to get your hate speech into any topic you can. Really - I wouldn't mind buying a second GP2X, mind you it has MANY corrections (scanlines, joystick, build quality, screen hard-shell protector pre-installed, etc), mainly due to the fact that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I have no problems supporting GPH, and that I would love a better-developed version of the GP2X.

No handheld is perfect. Nintendo released the DS lite two years after launch... do you see anyone crying foul? But you automatically create some conspiracy theory (I use the term theory lightly, because your idea is not based on all the current facts of the time, and has not been proven to be plausible based on all the information available to you.) about how GPH is out to leech our money, and how they are so damned evil.

You know what - if you dislike the GP2X so much... why don't you leave. You sit here and insult the community, you insult the developers, you praise whatever you invested your money into, and you cannot fathom the fact that the console is a mere half a year old, and has a very good base of applications - whether or not it is emulators doesn't matter. There are quite a few good homebrew games that have been made, and you wouldn't know that - cause you don't own a GP2X, and haven't played them.

You state that the console sucks because it is all emulators. Well - first off, it is not all emulators. Secondly, I don't give two shits if you don't like them. It is only in your opinion that this console is bad, saying that it "is bad," would be an absolute statement, that you're in no position to make. Unless there is a majority of community that agrees with that idea, then you are the ignorant one.

You'll get no where if you preach what you don't know - and all too often you'll get called out for it. You've been proven an idiot time, and time again. Just shut the fuck up, get your fat ass up, and get some fresh air. Come back if you can actually consider both sides of the argument, or have a well educated, well informed response to share with us.

Because as of now, you're a trash-talking child, with no insight or experience relating to this topic other than what others have said.



Anywho - back to the topic. I am open to two options (the first that came to mind.)

A GP2X revision, with better quality components, and what not... fixing multiple problems.

An official replacement, where I would be more than happy to pay for the parts and labor of fixing/replacing the stick.

...and then there is the fabulous idea of doing it myself with Radek's soon to be kit?

Anyway, the stick isn't horrible in my mind, but I cannot say no to a new one! :D
 
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I find the stick absolutely fine. I can pull off Dragon Punches easily in SF2, and have blasted through much of Gradius on hu6280, and 1943 on MAME. Guess I just have a higher tolerance? Distinct possibility. All those years of squishy Atari joysticks on my c64... :D

Are the people on this thread using the MK1 stick? Maybe the rotation fixes things more than you think? The dead zone can be a bother, but when actually playing a game I hardly notice it.

However, for the good of those who have problems, I've signed the petition. I probably wouldn't want a D-pad, but if they can make a stick much the same but with a slightly smaller deadzone, I'm all for it.
 
Tell you what, I could have a go at putting the microswitched HAT off of a CH Flightstick Pro in there, I will use Radek's controller circuit to adapt the 4-way to an 8-way logical output.

Or you could, or you could commision an engineer, or ask someone knowledgeable about hooking up the darn thing.

I suppose I could design a microswitched controller with as few as ~3 or 4 parts and the stick the only moving part.

The material could be plastic, nylon, aluminum (or aluminium), Steel, etc, the part that holds the switches can be milled easily and the stick made on a lathe without problem.

This would solve so many problems at once, the shaft and cap can be one piece and go very close to the face of the GP2X or be just a Nub with a grippy pattern because unlike the current stick we are just pressing a microswitch (or two for diagonols) so a mini nub would be AWESOME.

This microswitched Idea is great because of the precision of having the stick ride directly on a high-quality microswitch.

I am going to pull out my Mouser catalog and see what they have in micro microswitches.


However, for the good of those who have problems, I've signed the petition. I probably wouldn't want a D-pad, but if they can make a stick much the same but with a slightly smaller deadzone, I'm all for it.
Take out your stick, dis-assemble it and shim it a bit, deadzone is smaller.
 
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I bet they won't bother changing the joystick anytime soon. GPH and Craigix are probably formulating a plan to release a better joystick/dpad in maybe 1-2 years. That way, more people will waste their money on a mediocre-control handheld. Then when the better version comes out, many people will replace theirs. That is how they will leech money from us.

By the way, how's the XGP Kids' control stick working for you? OH, that's right, it wont be out for a couple more years, to go with all the homebrew and original.... OH, that's right, there's only the development kit for it. Who knows, you could design pong for yourself. Then you could play with yourself in a whole new way.


On topic, I am signing also.
 
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