Customer Reviews

X-Arcade Tankstick

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was looking on eBay for a full sized arcade machine for my house when I realized it would be thousands of dollars for one machine. I learned what MAME could do and began doing research on how to set up my own box.

I now have spent a couple hundred dollars and have thousands of arcade games! The Tankstick is the foundation to this entire system. It works great! I have spent hours playing golden tee on the trackball and beat so many games that I feel that the tankstick has paid for itself, in potential quarters.

Whenever I have a party people flock to the machine and have street fighter tournaments or whatever game they choose. I've spilled drinks on it and it still works fine, little sticky though. There is supposed to be an easy way to clean it, I'm just lazy haven't done it yet. The lifetime warranty helps give piece of mind when there's people holding drinks over it or when I'm out of the house and my roommates have people over.

One last thing... you can SLAM these buttons without a care in the world. I don't know if you've ever heard of the old school game Track and Field but you have to mash on the buttons real hard to get good scores and these buttons have taken a licking!

This is a solid product backed by a solid company. I was just actually surfing their website and a chat window popped up randomly with some dude asking me if I had any questions.. WHOA!! I asked about how to clean it and he directed me to a link and gave me specific instructions! Thought I was hallucinating and I hadn't even smoked yet today!

There are alternatives to this product but I promise, this product will not let you down. I've seen the plans to build your own and they are complicated. If you're planning to make your own you should still pick one of these up to play with in the meantime, cuz it's going to take you a while.

Cant say enough good things about this...

I'm currently building a MAME cabinet. I have added up all the parts for building a joystick and trackball combo. THIS IS CHEAPER!!!

The lowest price I've been able to come up with is 150. that's for 2 joysticks, 20 buttons, and an ipac4. (plus wire, connectors, ground chassis)

The setup I was initally going to use was going to cost $212 before shipping. I wanted to use the USB joysticks and get an ipac2 instead. Although I love projects, I'd have to add in all the specialty tools I would need to miter through the wood cleanly.

I'll be buying this today!!

I bought this to play Future Pinball and arcade games on. This controller is awesome if you are into video pinball simulators like Future Pinball, etc. The buttons on the side work for the flippers, and you can use them for the tilt/nudge feature. The trackball acts as a mouse, and moves the cursor on the screen when you are not gaming. Two of the buttons on the side act as mouse left and right buttons, and as a result cannot be programmed on the controller. But if the software you are using allows you to remap buttons, this is not a problem. To program each of the buttons, you hook up a keyboard to a connector on the back of the controller. Then it's pretty much a simple press of a button on the controller and hold, then press the button on the keyboard you want to map, then done. When the keyboard is hooked up to the back of the controller, it functions on the pc as well. So with the controller and keyboard hooked up together, you lose no pc functionality. When I first set the controller up, I tried it with Missile Command. Let me tell you that it was a real kick in the pants playing MC with a true track ball, Centipede rocked also! Any of the older gamers out there, who spent hours in the arcade and blew through your allowance playing those great 70's and 80's arcade titles, will absolutely LOVE this thing! As for the price, yes it is kinda steep, but just think of all the money you spent at the arcade, it seems like a worthy investment. The parts used on this controller are the real deal, nothing feels cheap on this thing. If you price out how much all of the buttons, sticks, and trackball cost separately, this is a bargain! If you make the jump, you will be satisfied!

I haven't been able to build a cabinet, but I thought purchasing some of the pieces might prompt me to it. The above review really made me decide to go ahead with the purchase, it's a lot of money for basically a game controller. But it's awesome, and just the feeling of playing some of the old classics with a true arcade stick again makes it completely worth it. I agree with everything stated in the above review, go ahead and buy it - you won't regret it.

I ordered parts for an XArcade joystick (buttons and joystick), but the joystick never arrived.

After sending one email to the company, they rushed a joystick by priority mail, no questions asked. It's a solid joystick too. Very strong, yet very sensitive.

Overall, I was very impressed.

Bought myself a Tankstick for Christmas direct from the xgaming.com website. it's been great fun playing all the favorite arcade games I remember, with a real controller. The trackball provides the authentic experience with Centipede and Missile Command, while the dual joysticks are perfect for Robotron and Battlezone.

You don't have to set up MAME and find (illegal) ROMs in order to get a lot of enjoyment from the Tankstick. The included PC game CDs contain legal PC versions of most of my personal favorites: Tempest, Centipede, Missile Command, Battlezone, Robotron, and Rampage.

The full list of included games is Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Millipede, Missile Command, Pong, Super Breakout, Tempest, Warlords, Gauntlet, Joust, Defender, Robotron, SmashTV, Rampage.

It can be a bit difficult to find a comfortable arrangement for positioning the Tankstick in a typical living room. It does need to be on a fairly solid surface since you will be banging on the buttons and twisting with the joysticks. Best arrangement I've found so far is to put it on a solid coffee table in front of the TV, then kneel on a pillow behind it. Eventually I think I will get one of these (Xtension Arcade Cabinet For The X-Arcade Tankstick) for proper stand-up play.

I have used the X-Arcade Tank Stick for MAME gaming for years. It is a perfect arcade stick. I may buy the much larger full cabinet someday, but for now, this is great.

Well built, lots of fun. Soon after receiving the controller we built the cabinet. We play a new arcade game every night!

I needed this. I loved walking into the arcades in the 80s and the 90s so this was a dream come true. solid gaming no problems and no complants.

Great Product, Great Company / Customer Service

Works great, easy setup, good quality. Would recommend to anyone looking for an authentic arcade experience.

Only negative to note is that the joystick switched were adjusted poorly out of the box and had to be re-adjusted, and the cable routing was a bit of a mess. Not a big deal, but a bit annoying.