Tapper vs. Galaga and other Midway Sticks

TapperPro

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I've seen mentioned in a few threads that the Tapper tap is very similar but has some differences to other Midway sticks. Is there anyone here that can elaborate on those differences enough so that I can modify an available midway stick? Looking at the exploded view of Tapper and Galaga from the parts manuals on arcade museum they have different top plates, but all the other parts seem similar or identical. Different leaf switches are listed. Not sure if that matters. Anybody know if it's as simple as expanding the shaft hole in the top plate or can anyone give a measurement on a tapper plate? I know some people are making reproductions, but I have a Galaxian two-way and a tapper shaft that I 3d printed, so would like to make the modification on these. This is just for a joystick for emulation, not an arcade rebuild, btw.
 
The only difference is the tapper stick gets rid of the up movement.
You can see the difference in these pics. I am adding a pic of one side of a Galaga stick as well for comparison. You can probably just use a thicker rubber stopper on the galaga stick to make up the difference.
 

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Hmmmm I thought I had a pair of Tapper bases, but now seeing this, I am guessing these are from a Galaga....
 

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Paul, would you mind taking a picture of the top of the top plate. Is it just the plate hole (and lack of switch) that restricts tapper to one-way?
 
Since you printed the shaft, you could add a bump to the back of it where it hits the rubber bumper. The difference 3/16, so if you add that to the shaft, it should work just like a tapper stick.
 
Paul, would you mind taking a picture of the top of the top plate. Is it just the plate hole (and lack of switch) that restricts tapper to one-way?

I will try to get one in a bit, but it doesn't matter. The restriction is from the placement of the rubber bumpers that I showed in the pics.
 
Okay, great info. I thought maybe the Tapper pull was a little bit longer than Galaga, but it sounds like it's the same and I can just fabricate a bigger bumper.
 
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