A first look at X-Arcade Tankstick MAX

[@MeSiah1S]

Damn… that’s big. 🎉 Congrats on the collaboration.

[@GlensRetroShow]

Thank you man 😊

[@RetroFett]

I’ve got their older model, and it truly is a tank. Congrats Glenn on supplying the trackball and spinners for this excellent stick! If you’re building a home arcade, I highly recommend the X-arcade

[@GlensRetroShow]

Thank you for the watch and they are a great partner 💞

[@dhultgren1]

I have the last model before this one. I added a GRS Spinner and wheel to mine, as well as put Ultimarc 4/8 way joysticks. Love the build quality.

[@quantumfx2677]

Yes, those 4 to 8 way are a must!

[@GlensRetroShow]

Nice Mods 😊

[@williammccarthy5248]

@@quantumfx2677how do you switch from 4 to 8 way? I have an older XArcade Tankstick and you have to physically change the plastic joystick ring inside the Tankstick between 4 & 8 way games. Thanks

[@TheRealJPhillips]

Had my dual stick from XArcade for over 10 years now. Got 2 solo sticks too. I skipped the tank stick and got the Atari dual stick with the track ball. Added my own encoder boards and 6 extra buttons. 👍🏾 Nice video

[@GlensRetroShow]

That Atari one was nice too I remember the close out at Microcenter

[@randymulder9105]

@@TheRealJPhillips Do they still sell the Atari single with track ball and spinner alongside the joystick. I live in Canada so Microcenter won't ship here. :(

[@lucentv]

Man, I've got an old TankStick. I wish there was a program where I could get it sent in and get it converted or something.

[@mattthearcadeguy]

I had the old arcade cab that fit the OG tank stick around 2012. It was a good solid unit.. Congrats on supplying great hardware to these units!

[@GlensRetroShow]

Thank you 😊

[@chillyd1972]

Is there a cab they make that this will fit on

[@l0rd0ct0d0rk]

I've owned two xarcade duals since around 2011 or 2012. Loved using them for 4 player games. Seeing this is pretty tempting to try and save for.

[@Pinion413]

I've had an original X-Arcade Tankstick for 16+ years, and it still works great today. I pre-ordered the Tankstick MAX when I learned about it. (It arrives tomorrow!!!) I'm really looking forward to the potential your spinners and trackball will add to an already great setup.

[@Squad2ND]

Hey, so how was the MAX?

[@Pinion413]

@@Squad2ND Pretty great overall. It feels just as solid as our OG Tankstick, with some nice updates/upgrades over the original. Sticks feel similar but the buttons have better feedback. That could also just be having brand new buttons again vs. the well broken-in ones we had. What I really appreciate is the updated trackball and the added spinners. Trackball is a noticeable improvement over the original to me. The spinners are a wonderful addition. They each use either the X (+/-) or Y (+/-) axes of mouse direction, and allow control of "paddle" input much closer to what you'd expect. I needed to adjust sensitivity settings for some use cases, but overall the spinners are a much appreciated addition. I'll likely sell my OG Tankstick.

[@randymulder9105]

Are the joysticks 4 way or 8 way or both? And if it's 8 way...do 4 way joystick games work well. Like Pacman?

[@snowsensei]

@randymulder9105 it's 8 way. 4 way games are still playable, but can occasionally be frustrating--pac man in particular. There are aftermarket mods you can install to allow you to switch between the two though

[@randymulder9105]

@snowsensei thank you. I hate pacman with 8 way! You can buy and add after...cool. Why don't do this right away?

[@ThomasGrillo]

Very glad to see they finally released an all-in-one controller like this one! Thanks for showing it. :)

[@afterglow-podcast]

I plan on ordering one of these in August along with a pair of Sinden light guns for what could be my final arcade build. Got a Ryzen 5700 system with 48 gigs of RAM and a 3060 and 2.5 TBs of NVME storage and 8 TB external drives as the heart of the system, and gifted my son my original X-Arcade Tankstick from 2001 as a graduation gift. My last machine I built was a cabinet but this time I am going with just a stand that encloses the Tankstick Max with mounts for the Sindens and inside the PC and a projector that will shoot the image on the wall.

[@chadtufts6320]

I built my arcade around the Tankstick and its still like new, the setting on the back set to keyboard/mouse is the best with Mameforall.

[@therexershow]

Nice work Glen. That’s always been a high quality product and company , so they keep that going with your product. !!

[@GlensRetroShow]

Thank you Rexer :)

[@GlenBaisley]

Crazy that they never offered spinners up until now. That was always my hesitation in purchasing it but now it's a no-brainer, especially with GRS products installed.

[@GlensRetroShow]

😊

[@ToxcynTV]

Tank-Stick was my first stick. Got it for Christmas 2008 lol Its built very solid.

[@GlensRetroShow]

Absolutely is. It's built to be used and last 😊

[@jayhays8267]

One thing I would have liked to have seen is the ability to easily swap out the joystick to trigger style for games like Tron, Mad Planets and Gorf

[@RickyHarlow]

Love the durability of the Tankstick, I did change out the joysticks and buttons with the IL euro joysticks and buttons with Cherry switches and it’s perfect now. The stock ones don’t respond very well compared to the IL ones.

[@Riiiiiiiiiiiiiip]

Great honest review Glen as always!! Hopefully soon they'll be a coupon to to with it. Id like to upgrade to this Max because of your trackball and spinners. I still have my og Xtension Arcade with the original Tankstick. Had to clean the trackball a few times over the years to get that original spin back for Golden Tee.

[@jayhays8267]

I have the tank stick for my arcade cabinet and installed my own spinner. I placed my spinner under the trackball and it works great! Having the spinner placed under the trackball it does get in the way if playing "Golden Tee" but not too much playing other games. If this "max" version came out two years ago, I definitely would have got this!

[@RickyHarlow]

I placed mine under the trackball as well, and it works great, doesn’t bother me at all.

[@jayhays8267]

@@RickyHarlow I did think about placing the spinner between the "player 1" select button and the top right button (on the left side), but there were a lot of wires going around in that area.

[@RickyHarlow]

Yep there is not much room, but I think placing it under the trackball is the perfect place, using the buttons is easier. Placing it too high near the start buttons would bother me a lot, the new x-Arcade placement would put me over the edge 👍🏼

[@devincurrie4145]

Cool seeing that we can use two joystick at the same time for one player game like Crazy Climber. Can we do the same for Battlezone where pressing both joystick forward, will move the tank forward, pulling back will move backward, one side forward with other pulled back will make the tank move to right/left.

[@GlensRetroShow]

@@devincurrie4145 yes And I press down on the stick to fire

[@trencher7]

I wish the spinners could also be pushed as buttons. I loved Front Line by Taito where you would jump in the tank and use a spinner to rotate the gun and then push down to fire. Also can the trackball be used for movement for Major Havoc?

[@musicm8kr]

Great review, Glen, thanks. Have you tried Robotron, Defender, and Joust? And do they play like the original arcade games?

[@GlensRetroShow]

@@musicm8kr not defender but the controller can be set up for it and others play very well

[@vadergamer7722]

Well it's time to up grade... Thanks for the video

[@GlensRetroShow]

Thank you for watching 🙂

[@triple_lei]

Decided to splurge on this today. Got an email for a 20% off code on top of a sale. If they really were $250 before, they're not anymore... but with the code I basically did get it for $250 shipped. Curious to see how Breakout feels using spinners without a hard stop. Not to toot my own horn but I _am_ the only guy on KZbin with a "no miss" video on the 2600 version! I am also excited to try out Atari 50th on Steam again, with a single controller this time. There is a workaround to use the actual Atari 2600 paddles with USB but it isn't perfect... EDIT: Also have to say, showing those side buttons really sold me! I have a Solo from way, way back with the joystick mounted too high (I think I'll dig it out of the garage and make _that_ my Ikari stick)... and those only had the one button for the flippers. Meaning nudge was somewhere else. The best option there was the joystick for nudge, but that's still lame, and risks tilt way too easily. With a second button, I'll now be able to nudge with elegance and sophistication.

[@09Alpacino09]

Literally just want this to play Golden Tee

[@brentweigelt5365]

I love the Review Glen! I'm constantly frustrated since the beginning of mame and trying to get my original X-arcade dual to function. I honestly don't have the energy anymore to keep trying and devoting time to try and get thing to work. Every video is always its easy to do this and that. It seems like the new model of gaming is not so concerned with copywritten mame issues?

[@GlensRetroShow]

@@brentweigelt5365 thank you 😊 It is work and effort to get things to work correctly..but I hope in time I can help make things more plug and play 😉

[@brentweigelt5365]

@@GlensRetroShow The issue day one for me has consistently been existing games (hot key) still a mess in my opinion with x-arcade….

[@brentweigelt5365]

I just did the PCB board upgrade and it works great but I have to reboot to exit games?!

[@von2300]

GAME ON BROTHER!!!

[@nrnoble]

What bothers me about this controller, and nearly all other controllers with spinners, is the placement of the spinner. If you look at arcade spinner games such as Tempest, the spinner is placed somewhere where it can be used by the right hand. In this video you see Glen is forced to play Tempest with this left hand and his gameplay looks awkward. It is not possible remap Player 2 's spinner to be used with Player 1. Also notice the spinner is placed directly above other buttons, forcing the spinner hand to rest, or hover, on those buttons. Not a good design for spinner games.

[@GlensRetroShow]

Yes, you could definitely map the spinner to the opposite spinner. That is why on my iiRcade Ultimate Control Panel I made the joysticks removable so they won't interfere with the spinners.

[@mwelle1]

I remove the upper right most button on the tankstick player 1 side and put Glen's Disc of Tron spinner there. Then I drill a hole with a 1-1/8" drill bit to the right of the two buttons on the bottom and restore the 6 player ("Street Fighter" layout). I do the same thing on the player 2 side, but put the plain vanilla GRS button hole spinner in the upper right, drill the hole in the lower right, put the button in and rewire.

[@ragingtyga]

if only they made this in a single player with trackball and spinner config. It would make a great multipurpose Accessibility controller

[@brianph9656]

Awesome video. 👍Definitely interested with connecting to a Mister. Would a GRS switcher be possible or needed if wanted to switch between 4 and 8 way for joystick games?

[@GlensRetroShow]

Yes.. you would need to change the joysticks but yes you could Here is an example kzbin.info/www/bejne/moC2dn-KeJxmocUsi=jSsVrbHj8ean7k-m

[@brianph9656]

@@GlensRetroShow Thank you Glen 👍

[@brianph9656]

@@GlensRetroShowjust preordered one of these Tank Max devices. Looks awesome. I did buy a set of the ikari warriors sticks a few months ago so if those can auto change 4 to 8 and back, I def will install them.

[@brianph9656]

@@GlensRetroShow❤

[@markbridgeman7678]

The shipping cost to the UK is so expensive. They need an EU distribution hub.

[@learnMax]

Could I add a GRS Arcade Flight Stick to this for Tron emulation ?

[@principalcarranza]

Glenn, I just got the tankstick and would like to upgrade the buttons and trackball to rgb. Can I swap the trackball to your rgb one?

[@Loffer-v7k]

Can you use your wheel if you remove the spinners? Or is the Joystick in the way?

[@StitchJones]

Which MAME did you use to map the buttons. I spent almost an hour working on trying to figure out what to do, no matter what button I tried to map, it would select any. I did get the up and down to work and the player 1 button for quarters. I am really frustred right now because I waited almost 3 weeks for this and want to use it this coming weekend at a party.

[@reddog0069]

HOW DO I MAP THE SPINNERS ? I’m trying to play Arkanoid and can’t get it to work. 😢😢😢 What front end are you using ?

[@GlensRetroShow]

You have to make sure the emulator you're using actually supports mouse. Even though it may be mame. It may be a version of meme that does not have the spinners or trackballs turned on A lot of times you can go in the menu and go under advanced configuration and make sure mouse and multi-mouse are turned on

[@djbneozen]

Is this the exact same size as the original tankstick? I have an arcade cabinet for the first tank stick and I would like to buy this but only if it's the exact same dimensions.

[@trer24]

Can you attach a GRS Arcade Spinner Steering Wheel to the spinner?

[@RobEspinosa-n2v]

Do I need to change the spinner to play Tron? That part wasn’t clear.

[@GlensRetroShow]

For the original Tron game You can use the joystick to move your character, the spinner to rotate your arm or turret and then one of the buttons. It's not the most convenient way to play Tron, but you can't play it. The fact that it does use my spinners you could always pull out the optical spinner and replace it with a GRS disc of Tron push pull spinner in which case then you can press down or pull up on the spinner

[@Miguel-yu3we]

Is it necessary an old ps2 keyboard to reprogramming buttons with the Max? I hope it be possible by only usb port.

[@Paddy_G]

Nice review. Wish you had gotten into detail about the hardware specs such as the joysticks (are they 4-way? 8-way? Switchable?) and buttons (what type of switches?), and how to open the controller to gain access to the guts. What type of encoder is it using, like an ipac? How easy is this unit to mod? I think that info would have been more valuable in a review video than spending so much time on demonstrating game play. I do appreciate your review though, as it put this product, and your products on my radar. It seems odd to me that in today's world they still include a PS2 connector. Is anyone still using that? I mean if someone really needs it, they can get a USB to PS2 adapter.

[@anidea5646]

Does this newer model work with the switch?

[@mathewfoley1531]

Does it come with software and all the games

[@juanelpito]

La salida es xinput?

[@apuks]

Tsticks makes 3" trackballs?

[@GlensRetroShow]

Yep 😊

[@HeavyInstinct]

I don't get it... How is this a GRS trackball? Looks like the exact same trackball they've always had right down to the connectors. They already had an extremely high quality product of their own that is still available for a great price. Doesn't even make sense that they would want to change it, unless they wanted an LED backlit model which this obviously isn't. Plus when I go to the thunderstick studios website, I don't see any 3" trackballs available. Only two different 2" LED backlit models.

[@Eddylive]

Possible to use for Golden Tee?

[@andy6576]

Definitely! And it plays great.

[@FhargaZ]

Mine has taken so muchn abuse from the children and adults that the name fits 😂 I changed the logic board to the Zerolag and the joystick to 2 Industrias Lorenzo EUrostick ones for the fighting games and has been running perfectly from Rpi 1, to 3 to 4. The only regret was not getting the one with the trackball for some games and that for adults you will have more space. Thinking about buying that one or getting a spinner.

[@GlensRetroShow]

@@FhargaZ well it seems like it's had a good life there. You know the old saying a tortoise not played is not loved

[@RobEspinosa-n2v]

Can this be used wirelessly?

[@GlensRetroShow]

No. This is USB connected

[@etharp1980]

Can anyone confirm if this will work with Nintendo Switch?

[@EightPieceBox]

It only took them 20 years to add spinners, but they can''t get rid of their ugly logo. They make good stuff though. Is your mic inside the box? *thud*

[@GlensRetroShow]

Lol 😊

[@mwelle1]

How hard is it for them to add a 4-8 way restrictor that can be changed from the top like Northcoast custom used to sell or this guy makes?: www.printables.com/model/490135-happ-joystick-restrictor-plate-and-inserts/related

[@xcom6466]

The artwork on this CP is horrible imo. It would have been better in plain black. Hopefully, there are options when purchasing it to change it.

[@HeavyInstinct]

There aren't. But there are third parties that will print custom overlays that are meant to fit on the tank stick.