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a friend is going to japan the day after tomorrow for 3 weeks and asked if i wanted anything. i'm gonna ask him to look for some 6 button super famicom controllers for playing street fighter 2. any suggestions on what controllers are good?

ASCII turbo controller. Nice size, same button layout, solid build, and really the only controller I ever needed (that and the cord length is proper, about 2 meters).

Get a Saturn and play Street Fighter II on that. It is the best way.

D.D.D. wrote:ASCII turbo controller. Nice size, same button layout, solid build, and really the only controller I ever needed (that and the cord length is proper, about 2 meters).

to make it short, no, this controller sucks balls and is mega weak. it will break. do not play with fighters.

Breetai wrote:Get a Saturn and play Street Fighter II on that. It is the best way.

Agreed or get some kind of converter so you can play with a saturn pad on your Super Fami.

Tell him to hit 'Hard-off' for some good bargains. Depending which one he goes too you're likely to find SNES controllers and arcade sticks falling out of their ears. Most are in the "junk" section but that only often means they havn't bothered testing them. I picked up several perfectly good controllers for pennies from their branch in Totorri.

Betagam7 wrote:Tell him to hit 'Hard-off' for some good bargains. Depending which one he goes too you're likely to find SNES controllers and arcade sticks falling out of their ears. Most are in the "junk" section but that only often means they havn't bothered testing them. I picked up several perfectly good controllers for pennies from their branch in Totorri.

Which is NOWHERE near major cities like Tokyo or Osaka. It's a few hours NW of Kyoto. Not really a spot for many foreign tourists to go. It is true that pretty much any Hard-Off will have plenty of SFC controllers, but it is NOT likely that there will be 6-button fighting pads "falling out of their ears". More likely there will be the original controllers, MAYBE an arcade stick or two, and a 3rd party pad or two.

Most Hard-Off shops are outside of the cities, into the suburbs. If the guy's friend is really into retro gaming and in Japan for three weeks, then yes... he should try to hit up a couple Hard-Offs. Otherwise, don't send your friend all over the place and out of his way just to save a few bucks on a controller that would cost him the difference in train fare anyway (plus an extra hour or two at least!).

The reason I said get a Saturn is because every version of Street Fighter on it is basically arcade perfect. The SNES version is not even close. If the friend doesn't mind bringing back a Saturn and a few cheap games, it is the way to go BY FAR. Street Fighter Zero 1 and 2 can be found for about $1 each in Akihabara if you aren't worried about the quality of the jewel case/manual. Street Fighter II Collection (double CD with Zero 2' and Super Street Fighter II X GMC) is only a few dollars. The Capcom collection disc with SFII, SFII:CE and SFII:Turbo is only $10-20. A Saturn with a couple controllers and hook ups is about $40-50 in Akihabara ($10-20 at a Hard-Off, untested, plus $5-10 train fare and an hour or two extra travel PLUS usually a 15min.+ walk from a station!). Other fighters and cool games on the Saturn are dirt cheap.

I really will never understand why someone would want to play SFII on an SNES when they have a chance to pick up a Saturn, which has the best control pad for 2D fighting games of any system.

If you REALLY want a 6-button fighting controller for the SNES/SFC, get this:


No guarantee your friend will find one in retro game shops, though. He might, he might not.

You should make him bring back Neo Geo stuff for you.

d123456 wrote:

D.D.D. wrote:ASCII turbo controller. Nice size, same button layout, solid build, and really the only controller I ever needed (that and the cord length is proper, about 2 meters).

to make it short, no, this controller sucks balls and is mega weak. it will break. do not play with fighters.

Perhaps you are brutal on your controllers - try to elaborate as to why you think they are not any good instead of trivial negative statements.
I own 3 of them and amongst 7 friends, we have played 1,000s of hours on SF2, SF2:Turbo, and KI. They're still good today.

thanks for the info. i'll see if he can get a hori pad at hard off or something

his family lives in nakano, but he specifically said he would go to hard off so there may be one near him. i used to go to machida (near yokohama) for band practice, and there was a nice hard off there for a got some official super famicom controllers for 100 yen apiece. i think they were labeled as junk, but they worked fine

thanks for the advice on playing the saturn version instead - i used to own those and i did like those, but i sold all my saturn stuff a long time ago and i'm not interested in getting one again anytime soon. i use a USB adapter to use SNES controllers with an emulator, and after playing the playstation version (street fighter collection), the arcade version (through MAME), and the SNES version, my friend and i agreed that the SNES version is our favorite. i guess we're more used to the speed and hit detection, and the lack of load times is important too. sometimes arcade perfect is not always best

grittykitty wrote:thanks for the info. i'll see if he can get a hori pad at hard off or something

his family lives in nakano, but he specifically said he would go to hard off so there may be one near him. i used to go to machida (near yokohama) for band practice, and there was a nice hard off there for a got some official super famicom controllers for 100 yen apiece. i think they were labeled as junk, but they worked fine

I don't think there is one in or really near Nakano, as Hard Offs are usually out of Tokyo 23-ku area and major areas in west Tokyo. I know there is one in Higashi Tokorozawa, not so far from the station. Oizumi Gakuin also has one, but it's a bit of a walk from the station there. There's also one in Hachioji and Tachikawa, but I'm not sure how far they are from the station on foot. Those are probably the closest ones to Nakano. None are really convenient, but since he's going anyway, then those might be the closest ones.

If you know the kanji of locations in Tokyo or elsewhere, you can search for Hard Offs here: http://www.hardoff.co.jp/ichiran.php. I've used this site quite a bit, but I know enough kanji to find what I need. If you or your friend does, then you're gold!

thanks for the advice on playing the saturn version instead - i used to own those and i did like those, but i sold all my saturn stuff a long time ago and i'm not interested in getting one again anytime soon. i use a USB adapter to use SNES controllers with an emulator, and after playing the playstation version (street fighter collection), the arcade version (through MAME), and the SNES version, my friend and i agreed that the SNES version is our favorite. i guess we're more used to the speed and hit detection, and the lack of load times is important too. sometimes arcade perfect is not always best

Hey, there ya go! In that case, I would recommend the Hori pads if you like pads over arcade sticks (I am one of the few that does). They are generally quite reliable. You might have better luck in Nakano game shops (or Akihabara) then in Hard Off, although they'll probably be cheaper if you can find them at Hard Off. Personally, I hate using shoulder pads for fighting games. I always map fierce hits to the pad and put medium hits on the shoulders, since I use them the least. I generally play 16-bit SFII on the PC Engine or Mega Drive, since I only have original SFC/SNES pads. I still vote for that Saturn, though.