MAMEWorld Forums - Hardware - Re: Cheap Joystick or Game's Preferences?

> So I have been working on my MAME cabinet and for the most part, I have it up and
> running. It's a single player, 8-way joystick, 4 buttons, not including player 1
> button.
>
> I got a large selection of games on the cabinet right now, but I have a question. I
> noticed while playing MS. Pac-Man, sometimes she has a tendency to hang on corners
> and stuff, I haven't noticed or had this problem with any other games.
>
> I am curious, do you think this is because the game was designed for a 4-way joystick
> and I am using 8-way? Or maybe it's just a cheap joystick? I only paid maybe $17.00
> for it.

It's almost certainly a 4-way/8-way issue. Games that used a 4-way weren't specifically programmed to handle input from the diagonals, so it's a little random how they react to it. Ms Pacman tends to hang as you've seen. Donkey Kong is pretty touchy, too. Mario will stop dead on a ladder if you stray a little from straight up and down. I've been playing 4- way games on an 8-way for a long time, and I've learned to be very precise in my movements. It doesn't beat using an actual 4-way, but it is pretty usable once you get used to it.