Looking at a Dempa XE-1 ST. Does anyone have any experience with these?

[aitsu124]

So, I'm looking to get a microswitch joystick for my FC, which would possibly be used on other systems as well with adapters. The seemingly best ones I've come across are the XE-1 line sticks from Dempa. But, I'm not quite sure how arcade-like it is. The joystick seems to be (the four- and eight-way switching looks great), but I'm not sure about the buttons. I'd like to switch the buttons to Happ-type if they're not arcade like, and if possible switch out the red ball on the stick itself for a smaller black ball, similar to what Vs. Systems have.

I'd probably get the ST1 model: http://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/shopping/suruga-ya_148003260001/category/2161   as the Pro FC version is more rare and expensive, and I don't need many turbo features as I don't really use it.

Does anyone have of these to clear this up? I did find a couple images of the internals here: http://gxemu.blog67.fc2.com/blog-entry-185.html  but more would be helpful if possible.

[satoshi_matrix]

Seems really expensive. You might be better off simply building your own stick with quality parts and an NES controller padhack.

[aitsu124]

Not good at all with that type of stuff, plus I'd like it for my collection, as Dempa's a pretty interesting company. Still, I'd of course like to know how arcade-like it is since it is so expensive.

[P]

Besides 4-/8-way it also looks like you can change the angle of A and B buttons. And I guess the 4-way restriction is mechanical unlike the Capcom Power Stick Fighter's electrical 4-way restriction. But that also means it couldn't be a real Sanwa or Seimitsu joystick I think. Usually they require removing screws before you can adjust the restrictor gate.

It looks like a good stick though, and Dempa Micom controllers are popular and often seem to have movable or adjustable parts like this.

I think the big red ball looks neat.

[aitsu124]

Based on the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxc38oJQ5gg  the stick sounds a bit stiff when it clicks, not true arcade quality, but it's still hard to here. Hard to make a judgement about the buttons.