Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
If you ’re just an occasional gamer , or if modern first - soul shooter , on-line role playacting game , and strategy titles are your style , move along . This critique is specifically for the old school colonnade gambling crowd — especially those of you who are looking to tailor-make the ultimate emulation experience with a $ 200 game controller directly out of the coin - op arcades .
X - Arcade is a company whose production I ’ve review before — a 15 - pound trackball from the company was an inductee in the 2005 Game Hall of Fame . X - Arcade makes heavy - obligation game comptroller craft from the same material you ’ll find in colonnade game cabinet . The TankStick + Trackball is X - Arcade ’s most elaborate and impressive game control to day of the month , and it ’ll bring you straight back to the Golden Era of coin - op colonnade gaming .
The TankStick weighs about 20 pounds and measure almost 30 inches across . This is not a lightweight controller — this has to sit on a desk or , perhaps , if you ’re truly serious about recreate a gaming experiencing , a custom cabinet of your own conception . And there ’s dead nothing flimsy or delicate about this machine — it has all the subtlety and finish of a Hummer . Or perhaps a Bradley Fighting Vehicle . X - Arcade game the TankStick with a tank - alike lifetime warranty . Break a substitution ? Drop the company a credit line . It ’ll send you another .
X-Arcade TankStick
Across the front of the TankStick is well more than a dozen release , arranged in two clusters around sound - duty eight way joysticks . There are two starting buttons ( for one or two players ) and a smashing bounteous Missile Command - style trackball in the middle . The TankStick also features two flipper switching on each side . The base of the unit of measurement sports six rubber feet to hold it in place , and the can of the TankStick touts a slider switch — a computer storage selector switch substitution , in fact — along with PS2 and Serial connectors and a PS2 / USB cable .
As you may tell , the equipment is built for versatility . X - Arcade promote that the TankStick works with everything from the Mac to a PC to PlayStation 2 , Dreamcast , GameCube , Xbox , Wii and PS3 — this is rightful , as long as you have the right cable ( the company sells arranger cables of all shapes and size ) , although the trackball itself is limit to mouse emulation , so it only works on reckoner .
With the inclusion of the middle - mounted trackball , the TankStick is significantly larger than theX - Arcade Dual , X - Arcade ’s previous flagship model . It ’s essentially the Hummer H1 to the Dual ’s H2 condition — ludicrously heavy .
X - Arcade TankStick
Included software program with the twist lease the TankStick dally a dozen Atari arcade classics like Asteroids , Centipede , Battlezone , Missile Command , Super Breakout , Tempest and others , but only on the PC — Intel - based Mac users will need to bring up into Windows usingBoot bivouac .
An adaptor cable included with the TankStick stopper into the serial porthole , adapting it to USB and enabling you to plug that into a second USB port on the master of ceremonies Mac — then you have full programmability over the TrackStick in game .
X - Arcade largely leaves it up to the host system to support the devices . You have limited ironware accompaniment with TankStick — a button near the programming switch let you lock out horizontal input from the trackball ( good for golf game games ) , and the programming switch lets you link button on the controller with buttons on your keyboard . This can be a sentence take in and arduous process , especially since you ’re using a exclusive red light-emitting diode on the TankStick ’s boldness to make certain everything is localize .
Built - in USB support means that the twist is recognized by software , but Mac gamers know that getting games to work with biz controller is more unmanageable than it should be . Apple has software ( HID Manager ) build into Mac OS X that confirm game controller , but does n’t offer Mac biz programmers a universal user interface for accessing or programming it . I ’d really like to see tenner - Arcade get to the pointedness where it ships Mac software to stand this gadget — perhaps even a customized version of an survive Mac USB plot comptroller programming tool , likeUSB Overdrive . As it is , the companylinksto a download for MacMAME , so it ’s at least prepared to get you started , but I think it needs to do more .
The hard - wired USB cable’s length is specifically there for the trackball — with that plugged into your Mac , the machine acts like a three - button mouse , with the elephantine trackball as the mouse itself . But you call for to use both joining to get the TankStick working in its entirety .
Where the TankStick particularly shine is using software program likeMacMAME — the Macintosh rendering of the costless arcade game emulation software , which rely on quasi - effectual ( and often illegally copied ) game ROM files for operate . That add to the twist ’s overall wonkiness , for sure . But that ’s also the market for whom this gimmick was designed .
X - Arcade advertises the TankStick as fully programmable forGameTap , the of late useable for Mac on-line service that lets you play classic arcade games . As of this writing , GameTap Lite — the service offered to Mac gamers — did not work with the TankStick , but GameTap Deluxe is expected out later this class . I ’ll retest the TankStick with that software program once it ’s out in the wild .
The bottom line
High toll , difficult programmability and huge sizing make the TankStick a game comptroller desirable for only a select few — but if you ’re looking for the most authentic coin - op experience possible on your Mac , this is right up your alley .
