Competition Pro USB - where to buy?

[Dunny]

I've been looking around for one to attach to my Amilator laptop, but cannot find one for sale anywhere. If anyone has one for sale, or knows where to get one, I'd be grateful

[ptyerman]

Haven't seen one for sale for a while, it seems they stopped making them from what I can gather.
Lotharek has a work in progress of a joystick listed on his site, it may be worth contacting him and see if its going to be a similar thing.

EDIT:
Found this one but there is only 3 left. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Original-S...4AAOSwjRpZXSSY
Price is a bit high too, but its been selling well by the looks of his sales!

[Dunny]

Woah, that is expensive. Might be able to justify it though if they're scarce now. Actually they have a shop in germany where it's 35 euros (or thereabouts) which is 32 quid in real money... But I am unable to choose a shipping country of England or the UK

That's frustrating.

[ptyerman]

Yeah, shortage of them have hiked the price. I don't understand why they stopped making them when the demand for them is obviously still high! You can get the DB9 type no problem, just no USB version any more.

[Swevicus]

USB version sucks (I have one and I've only used it about 8 times in as many years).

[Jope]

I converted all of my USB ones into Atari ones.. Better get the Atari model and an active atari -> usb converter.

[spudje]

If you have db9 based joysticks, you could also consider a Keyrah to use them with a PC/RPi/etc.: https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/...keyrah-v2.html

[ptyerman]

Originally Posted by Swevicus

USB version sucks (I have one and I've only used it about 8 times in as many years).

You must have a bad one then. I have both the DB9 version for my Amiga and the USB one on my PC and they both rock! Suppose it would suck if you needed analogue control, although for that you should use a analogue stick.

[Dunny]

Yeah, I just want one for digital control of WHDLoad games on my laptop. Plus it's black and red, and so is the laptop...

The same place sells them on Ebay but for 10 euros more. So sod it, I bought one.

Now I need to refine the FS-UAE config and get those WHDLoad games to work - there's tonnes of problems with them.

[Mick_AKA]

Don't know if they sorted it out in later versions, but I got one of the black and red and one of the blue and silver USB Comp Pros and they were both laggy as hell.
Mine have been sat in a drawer for years, keep meaning to just convert them to Amiga sticks.

[Retro-Nerd]

Older CP USB sticks had 12 polls/sec. Newer are probably not better.

[ptyerman]

I've not noticed any lag or problems with my USB one, but I don't use it very often anyway, it's my Amiga one that is used quite often.
When I do use the USB one it's for simple platform type games, UAE or other emulation, so that's probably why I haven't had problems. Most of the stuff I do on PC is either mouse and keyboard or I use a analogue stick.

[Korodny]

Like somebody already mentioned, the Competition Pro USB updates the host computer about the state of the stick some 12 times per seconds - any other USB gamepad or joystick (adapter) updates about 100 times a second. Depending on what game you play, you will notice that lag a lot: stick movements will simply get swallowed, occasionally. Speedlink did never fix that problem.

And while it looks like a real Competition, the plastic is a lot more fragile. My original competitions are at least 25 years old by now and the softener has completely evaporated from the plastic - but if one of my antiques and one of Speedlink's clones would fall off my desk, I'd still bet money on the oldtimer looking better afterwards.

In the very first edition of the USB stick, the mounts for the switches below the fire buttons were too big (so the switches would fall down after a while) and the snap ring holding the actual stick together was to weak (meaning the stick would get loose after only a few hours of playing). I've never seen one of those up close, but I've seen the inside of a 2nd generation stick: They 'fixed' the problem of the mount being too big by squeezing a small plastic piece between the mount and the switch...

The USB version is crap. Schoenfelds version with the 9 pin plug is slightly better (since it doesn't suffer from the USB version's lag), but still no match for a real competition IMHO.

If you can, try to get your hands on a 2nd hand Competition from back then, and replace all micro switches with new ones (preferably branded ones, I recommend Cherry). Or build your own stick, using quality Arcade parts.

[spudje]

Originally Posted by spudje

If you have db9 based joysticks, you could also consider a Keyrah to use them with a PC/RPi/etc.: https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/...keyrah-v2.html

Does this suffer from similar lag issues (using a DB9 joystick on a PC/Pi), or is it performing better than the USB Competition Pro joystick?

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Korodny

Like somebody already mentioned, the Competition Pro USB updates the host computer about the state of the stick some 12 times per seconds - any other USB gamepad or joystick (adapter) updates about 100 times a second. Depending on what game you play, you will notice that lag a lot: stick movements will simply get swallowed, occasionally. Speedlink did never fix that problem.

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=...1&postcount=44

Last year they finally did! :-D

[Korodny]

Originally Posted by Jope

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=...1&postcount=44

Last year they finally did! :-D

Yeah, but they also increased the price... And they didn't fix any of the other issues this thing has, like cables breaking. The build quality is abysmal, I'd still recommend to stay clear.

I'm still searching for something to replace my original Competition Pros, leaning towards building a stick myself using Sanwa Arcade parts. Just looking for a decent case I could use, not sure I'd be comfortable with something like this.

[Pyromania]

@Dunny

I happen to have a brand new unopened one.

[Dunny]

What's the model number? And how much to ship it to Blighty?

[MikeRichmond]

I found mine on Amazon. Speedlink model is the best USB version. https://amzn.to/2vfa1PZ

[Dunny]

I have the SL-650210-8K (Koka Edition, black). If there's a better less laggy version I'd like to get my hands on one for my Amilator setup.