Manufacturer: Xgaming
Price: $129.95
Requirements: PC, Mac, or gaming console

Those who experienced the classic arcade games of the 70s and 80s remember excitedly manhandling the joysticks and franticly beating the large buttons on the arcade machines. Many times the excitement of the game was amplified by getting so physically involved, with the spastic tap-tap-tap of the buttons and clunking of the joystick movement as a player used his entire arms to strive for the high score.

Over the years game controllers have evolved to require as little space and physical involvement as possible, with everything fitting into the player’s hands and the physical requirement only being the wiggling of fingers and thumbs. While there is nothing wrong with this evolution, the tactile experience from playing games has all but disappeared.

Even worse, trying to play the classic arcade games with a handheld controller creates frustration from control problems because the games were not designed for modern handheld controllers. Try playing the cornucopia of 80s maze-games using a directional-thumb-pad and the problem becomes obvious.

The X-Arcade controllers fill this void. These controls duplicate the classic arcade with real joysticks and large buttons, all reintroducing the tactile experience and subtleties missing from handheld controller gaming. The X-Arcade controllers can also be used with modern games, giving a more solid experience to modern gaming on your Mac, PC, X-Box, Game Cube, or PlayStation.

Hardware Overview

The X-Arcade 2-player controller is a large, solid unit measuring 24 inches wide, 14 inches deep, and 6 inches high (including the joystick height and connections on the back). It is made of 1/2 inch cabinet board with a black melamine surface, making it solid and giving it the required weight to remain stationary during gameplay.

The controls are equally solid and taken directly from the arcade. With 2 large joysticks, 8 buttons for each player, 1 and 2 player game start, and side-mounted “pinball” buttons on either side of the unit, this controller is designed to match almost any gaming demands.

Installation

As delivered, the X-Arcade controller comes with the main controller unit and an adapter unit for the specified platform. The Mac and PC units include a USB adapter, but specific adapters are required for each console. The adapters plug into the X-Arcade controller cable and then into your computer or console. No additional drivers are required for computer installation.

Configuration

For computers, the X-Arcade sends keyboard commands as feedback from the game controls. Configuration with games and emulators is simply a matter of changing the game’s keyboard settings. Games that normally don’t work with other hand-held controllers work with the X-Arcade as long as the game has keyboard setup options.

The controller has 4-modes: one setting is the default, and the other three are programmable. All are accessed by moving a slide-switch on the back of the unit and pressing a button next to the switch to verify the setting change. Our games worked perfectly using the default setting, but the programmable setting might be useful for others needing greater customization.

Configuring games to use with the X-Arcade is similar to most controllers, but instead of configuring controller settings the keyboard settings are used. Open the keyboard control settings in your game and activate the X-Arcade controls when prompted to setup the corresponding game actions.

Setup for MacMAME, MAME, MAME32, and X-MAME, and other emulators was equally simple, using the General Input settings to configure all games. Individual games can also be setup differently as needed.

As shipped, the X-Arcade joysticks are 8-directional, but some gamers may want this limited to only 4 directions. This constraint requires opening the controller and flipping a part on the joystick hardware.

Results: Excellent

After using handheld game controllers for so long, the solid and tactile feel of the X-Arcade took a few minutes to get used to. The joysticks offer resistance and self-center upon release, but are surprisingly sensitive to directional movement. The large arcade buttons make many games easier because of the ability to “rapid-fire” using the entire hand.

One of the most noticeable differences while gaming is auditory feedback. The X-Arcade delivers solid clicks and other sounds as the joysticks and buttons are used.

The 2-player X-Arcade offers a feature that the one-player unit does not. Some of the classic arcade games (such as Robotron: 2084) use 2 joysticks for control, something that is very difficult to reproduce without... 2 joysticks. These games are played perfectly with the 2-player controller, with one hand on each joystick.

There are no complaints about this product, and its purchase is highly recommended.