Good XBLA Joystick Solution

I've come up with a minor hack to improve the Hori DOA4 joystick making it near perfect for XBLA games.

Unfortunately, I don't have a camera at the moment to take a good picture, but I'll do my best to explain.

The problem with the Hori DOA4 joystick is that it works in a "square" configuration instead of the expected "octagon" or "circle" configuration. The square configuration makes for plenty of unintended directional frustrations in games like Pacman or Street Fighter 2.

The problem with Hori's design is that the bottom of the joystick is round in a square template. There is a plastic cover on the bottom of the Hori joystick that has the square "template" that needs to be removed. In it's place, some washers are needed as spacers on the 4 screws. This gives the stick a bit more freedom, although it doesn't fix the "square" problem.

I've concluded that the bottom of the Hori stick needs a square bottom in order to change it to a "circle" configuration, just like the MK2 joysticks below...


I pulled off the round plastic "spring retainer" on the bottom of the Hori stick, and found a square nut to put in it's place. The square nut has to be big enough to almost touch the joystick switches. This makes for a more circular feel when moving the joystick because the square nut can not go as far into the corners as the round "spring retainer" can.

Wow, this is really hard to explain without pictures. I'll see what I can do. I know it will help more people than myself. I'm loving a more accurate Pacman and Street Fighter II experience.