The Joystick thread

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BOOMY
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The Joystick thread

Post by BOOMY »

Ok so I will have a lot of joystick ramblings over the next few weeks, I may as well segregate them here instead of polluting the mvc3/ssfiv threads. May as well have an official stick thread for when the q4 raf comes out and other such business too.

First item on the agenda. I am getting a Madcatz TE this week; its currently in the post on its way to me. The standard white.

Image

Now its time to get some coloured buttons and artwork.

Tek innovations have this product for various sticks.
Image
"The Regular TE Plexi-Cover fits snug inside the Bezel while sandwiching your art between the metal panel."

and custom dust washers either printed or etched
ImageImage
The etched ones look fucking schmick, but I can't think of what I would put on mine just yet. Maybe even just the capcom logo or something.

And of course there are the various colours of sanwa buttons/balltops. If you know some links to the kind that have a black ring but with a coloured button, then hook a brother up.
Ball tops: (there are also metallic, clear and clear bubbled balltops out there, i'll link them once I find them)
ImageImageImage
ImageImage

Buttons:

ImageImageImage
ImageImageImage
ImageImageImage

Now... onto my customization

I was thinking of using some art along these lines (I am still fiddling with the size/amount of characters/background texture but this is what I knocked up in a few mins using an existing pic from the ssfiv thread. I am thinking of having only the original 8 world warriors + the bosses so they can be much bigger)
Image

With the top row of buttons dark blue, bottom row light blue and ball top clear blue. The 7th and 8th button will be filled in with button covers, though I'm wondering if I should cover them permanently and get a 6 button plexi(and of course use the stock plexi when I want to use 8 buttons). I was also thinking a similar config of buttons for a megaman themed background similar to the cover of this book
Image

Another config I had in mind was yellow buttons and ball top with pacman themed art. Perhaps just a pacman maze redone to fit the TE dimensions. Or an all black background with a line of dots with pixelated pacman obviously following...perhaps some ghosts and fruit on the line too.

Image

Due to the flexible nature of the TE stick all these mods are as simple as buying affordable replacement parts and slotting them in place; no soldering, no mess, no hassle. Though another joystick project I have had on the backburner for a while that has been plagued with procrastination(due to the retarded nature of the hori ex). I figured since adding sanwa part to it will be big job anyway I may as well go the full monty. I have created this wooden frame to rehouse my HORI EX2 (which btw was an absolute CUNT as my mitre box is extremely old and over used and I didn't have access to a drop saw at the time of being madly inspired to make this thing; you can see how shit my mitre joins are...but I will fill them up with putty and sand the shit out of the whole thing and it will still look nice I think)

Image

Inside the frame will of course go the Hori PCB and ontop will be a metal plate with the buttons that will sit on the inner frame, and fall flush with the outer frame. I have a friend who will be able to laser cut this for me, I just need to send him the file in illustrator. I will therefore get him to also cut in the shapes of the shoryuken command symbols (forward arrow, down arrow, df arrow, fist) just to snaz up some of the empty space. Now the next part will be difficult to explain without a visual aid, but beneath the cutout holes for the shoryuken will be a metal plate of a different colour (either black or brass). I will then take some acrylic resin and layer it in the inlays until the resin is flush with the top plate. The end result will be 'glassy' clear acrylic resin filling the cutout inlays with a black/brass colour beneath them.

And obviously underneath the whole thing will be another metal plate and some rubber feet.
This pic will give you an idea of how the hori is put together how my plate although bigger than the original plate, will fit both the buttons/pcb but also fit flush in my frame
Image

In this next pic you can see that the brown board at the top, is where the LB, back, Xbox, start and RB buttons are.
Image
This next part is true stoner carpentry so excuse the idiocy you are about to read and my gibberish explanations...
I plan to cut this part of the stick away from the rest of the plastic. So, attached to my pcb and buttons will hang some wires and a piece of plastic with the brown board still screwed to it. With this, I can mount it within my wooden frame so that it faces outwards to one of the 'walls'; about 5mm away from sitting flush against it. If you are still following, I will then drill holes in the side of the frame. I will get some dowel to fit the holes and glue the dowel to the buttons with aryldite after sanding them flat. The dowel is basically just a wooden extender so you can access the buttons through the drilled holes. To the end of the dowel I will attach my own wooden buttons that I will carve myself. I will drill a larger hole from the outside but not go the entire way through; the result being a hole that the dowel sits in at its deepest point and at its shallowest will snuggly fit the wooden button and let it sit so it protrudes from the edge of the frame; and can be pressed like a button.

My other solution to the LB, Back, Xbox, start and RB buttons is to just cut a 'window' into the top plate and screw them beneath it, so you can still access them. But this will look so crappy IMO as it wont sit flush with the top plate.

Phew... that was a post of gamehed proportions. Perhaps actually laying all this info down for myself will help cull my procrastination.

If anyone has any other fighting stick/pad business they wanna discuss, do it here...or don't, I won't lose any sleep.

May as well recap from the other thread too
QANBA Q4 RAF. $165 from a bloke in melb; released before the end of march. Fixes the stick height of the Q3 but isn't wooden
Image
get a qanba q3 for $145 from this bloke. its the same guy who had a display with them and was selling them at shadowloo showdown
http://www.ozhadou.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=5423" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
he also has different coloured buttons and metalic/clear/coloured balltops if you feel like pimping it out.

or you can get this stick for $136 inc post http://cgi.ebay.com.au/XBOX-360-JOYSTIC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 736wt_1054
I dont like this one because the start button is HUGE and right next to everything; its trouble waiting to happen.

or an sfiv 6 button pad for $65 inc post
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MadCatz-Street-F" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 019wt_1054

or just get one of those fight pads with the microswitch nub for $97 inc post
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Marvel-vs-Capcom" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 546wt_1054
Last edited by BOOMY on 28 Feb 2011 06:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by BOOMY »

Fightstick templates to load your own artwork onto can be found here http://unkool.com/games/sf4-fightstick-templates" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is also this panel builder to make your own custom top panels and place any sized buttons in any place you wish and then get it cut to a mad catz TE or hori HRAP sized plexi http://www.tek-innovations.com/arthobbi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... der&act=te
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by jizzlobber »

ooh i've been looking for a nice template like that, thanks for the link!

I am making xbox1 controls for my arcade cab, gotta do it the cheap way, I bought 2 ps2/3 arcade sticks from target for $30 ea (looking for a cheap stick, get one of these, really good quality for the low price), i'll take the buttons and stick out to use in the cab, then i'll wire it up to the pcb from 2 xbox pads :D

probably wouldn't cost a lot more to buy that stuff from http://www.ozstick.com.au" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
but fuck it

also... are 8 buttons really necessary?
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by BOOMY »

What PS2/3 stick did you get? Find out if it accepts sanwa/semitsu clip in buttons or if it will be hard to mod it to use them. I know it seems very anal, but trust me it's like your first car; you think "sure this thing runs great" till you drive a REAL car. I thought 'I'll be fine, they are just buttons" with the buttons on my Hori EX...but trust me they aren't just buttons. you NEED sanwa and if you don't get sanwa you will regret it later; especially when you compare your home setup to an arcade cabinet or a TE stick; you will be able to feel the corners you cut price wise. If you don't get sanwa/semitsus you will be in ignorant bliss at first; you wont know any better. But look at it this way; a year on and not only are my hori buttons noticeably unresponsive/slow compared to what I'm used to in the arcade/at friends houses but they are now starting to BREAK and I can't replace them without re-soldering; on the other hand a sanwa/semitsu button just clips right in if you want to replace it.

And don't fret - buttons are like $3 each. Even if you have to waste some time converting your stick to accept sanwa/semitsus go to the effort. The guy who sells qanba sticks (check the link i posted above) has buttons, sticks(as in just the joystick bit no buttons, pcb or housing), balltops, microswitches, xbox pcbs etc. etc. Shoot him an email and I'm sure he will have a whole bunch of shit to advance your project along. Regardless he will be a good guy to speak to in terms of advice; he helped me with a few queries regarding my HORI EX mod project.

I'm sure you've already had a poke around but there are some very useful products on this page for your project http://www.tek-innovations.com/arthobbi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... cts&cat=12

8 buttons...IMO unnecessary for any fighting game. I don't like using short cut buttons; I like it to play like the arcade version. However considering the TE stick can be assigns to the dpad, left or right analog stick; i can see myself using it for all sorts of stuff. Especially things like 'shank' which don't have dpad support (but should).

Another consideration I have been thinking about is whether to go for a USA or JAP style stick (that being a circle or square gate and teardrop or spherical balltop). I think square is the go for me. The gate on my hori is really shitty and inaccurate compared to my memory of the dreamcast stick's gate; as far as my memory wishes to believe the DC gate was an extremely accurate square so therefore doing the dragon punch motion is literally a strict 'Z' shape; you could really feel the corners.
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by Rorschach »

Slightly off topic but I am going to sell both of my arcade sticks. One has never been opened and the other is in mint condition. $120 for the unopened one, $100 for the used one. I'm having them shipped in from Japan in a month or so if anyone is interested. They are both Hori EX-SE sticks.
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by BOOMY »

Thats not off topic at all mate. See the thread title :up:

The Hori EX-SE have semitsu buttons stock don't they?

I wish I had known before I order my TE and I would have been right on top of that. That is a fantastic price. Hit up cloud(incase he has ignored my ramble zone :) ), i believe he is in the market for a stick at the moment and if you don't sell it to one of us you'll get up to double what you're asking on Ebay Australia if you offer cheap shipping from japan
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by unfnknblvbl »

I still have my old Megadrive Arcade Stick II somewhere. Beast of a thing. I should find some sort of adapter for it from somewhere.
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by BOOMY »

Speak to the qanba guy. From what I know about you, you would be competent enough to wire it up to an xbox 360 pcb (there fore also making it PC compatible). Though I do believe MD to PC converters are certainly out there if you wanna go the easier path; http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.ph" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ucts_id=69 but you may be able find something cheaper or closer to home
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The Joystick thread

Post by selfish »

While I have no interest in games of this kind, I wholeheartedly endorse threads involving gamers constructing things, and talking about the quality of the buttons they press.

I wish I had a use for those kinds of buttons in my day-to-day life. Like, a doorbell, or I dunno, something I'd get to push more often.

Can you explain the bit about joystick shapes for us dumbfucks?
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by BOOMY »

Shapes? you mean the shoryuken bit? I am getting this symbol cut into the metal plate http://ih3.redbubble.net/work.1933828.4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ken-v3.jpg and doing my fancy art degree crap to make it look like spiffy glass inlays.

Also I just got the start motor on my volkswagen replaced and incidentally got a starter BUTTON installed. Now I just need a coin slot and to convert it to sanwa start button with the toilet man on it
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The Joystick thread

Post by selfish »

No no shapes around the joystick, and the ball vs teardrop debate
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by BOOMY »

That Jap sticks look like the one I have. The american ones look like the sticks on skill testers in intensity norwood.
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Re: The Joystick thread

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fuck knows what this vid is but the preview pic show you
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The Joystick thread

Post by selfish »

Oh you should've just said the good kind or the gay kind. What about the shape around the stick itself, I'm imagining borders around where the thing can move, like the 8 directions on the cube sticks but not?
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by jizzlobber »

BOOMY wrote:What PS2/3 stick did you get? Find out if it accepts sanwa/semitsu clip in buttons or if it will be hard to mod it to use them. I know it seems very anal, but trust me it's like your first car; you think "sure this thing runs great" till you drive a REAL car. I thought 'I'll be fine, they are just buttons" with the buttons on my Hori EX...but trust me they aren't just buttons. you NEED sanwa and if you don't get sanwa you will regret it later; especially when you compare your home setup to an arcade cabinet or a TE stick; you will be able to feel the corners you cut price wise. If you don't get sanwa/semitsus you will be in ignorant bliss at first; you wont know any better. But look at it this way; a year on and not only are my hori buttons noticeably unresponsive/slow compared to what I'm used to in the arcade/at friends houses but they are now starting to BREAK and I can't replace them without re-soldering; on the other hand a sanwa/semitsu button just clips right in if you want to replace it.
this is the one
Image

sure it looks kinda shitty in that pic, but it really does feel nice to me, i'm going to be playing shit like metal slug and wonderboy so I don't need the best.
someone at aussiearcade.com.au (great site, you should check it out) opened one up and says it's sanwa imitation, I can confirm they are clip ins... but i'm not putting buttons in it, i'm taking buttons out of it to use in my own unit.
probably a stupid thing to do, but I HAVE to do it the cheap way.
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by BOOMY »

Yea kind of. The american one is more like the cube kind and the jap one is a rounded square (so when you do f, d, df it clicks into the corner like a Z motion)
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The Joystick thread

Post by selfish »

You will show me in person, one day
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by BOOMY »

Jizz I know the stick you mean, it is all over ebay with different knock off SFIV artwork from hongkong sellers. I have used it, response wise it is to be desired but you don't sound too bothered but that (though you will). Get some spares; it will inevitably fuck up. My friend (the notorious bongochamp from the ssfiv thread) had one and it lasted about 6 months. I don't want to rain on your parade, but please take precautions to avoid disappointment

Selfish, I wouldn't have a US stick to show you. But the US stick is similar to how you remember arcade machines being when you were a kid in australia. The jap one is like any stick I've shown you for SFIV which if you feel out the gate it has quite a bit of room to move in and its square not circular with 8 notches on it
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by BOOMY »

Jizz, Just thinking bout 8 buttons and your setup...I can't think of a single arcade game with more than 6 buttons unless its a special controller game. You could just have 6 button setups and save the 4 buttons as spares. Then you don't have to buy anything new.
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Re: The Joystick thread

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selfish wrote:You will show me in person, one day
http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/restrictors.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is a litle wordy but does the job of describing things decently.
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by selfish »

seraph that link was exactly what i was looking for, thanks
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by Pariah »

I think i've got the largest collection of arcade sticks on this forum [13 at last count] most of the are high end the lowest end stick i own is the DOA stick for the X360 which i modded with sanwa parts...

my favorite two sticks would have to be

the virtua stick high grade...one which is in mint condition and has pretty much never been used the other which is dual modded [i do all my own modding and wiring :)] and my joystick of choice when playing

the other stick that i love most in my collection is an amazing condition ASCII optical joystick that are pretty fucking rare these days...

a shot of the optical PCB on the left along side a Sanwa flash [optical] PCB

Image

:btw: the arcade stick that feels most like an actual cab is the virtua stick high grade...it feels dense solid as fuck and is a pleasure to use...yes yes i own the T.E sticks and shit and yes i rate the VSHG better than it easily...when the T.E were the shit to get i must admit i liked em at first..but over time its clear to me that the VSHG is the better product in terms of feel and reproduction of that arcade cab feeling

sticks im ordering in the future is the MK arcade [already preordered it]

also i plan to build my very own custom MCA Arcade stick... :) as a true throw back to my roots of playing on the arcade cabs with MCA parts..

lastly...my favorite stores to buy shit from

http://www.etokki.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

&

http://www.akihabarashop.jp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
[img]http://i30.tinypic.com/5as8eq.gif[/img]
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by Dj Flextacy »

I picked up the Tekken 6 with Hori Stick bundle and art book for 80 at jb hifi today .. pretty nice looking stick, very sturdy and light.. previously i only had a firestick pro for the original xbox/ps2 which was also great, my main reason for getting was for ssfiv, mvc3 as i hate the 360 dpads, funnily enough out of 5 360 wireless controllers i have only 2 have decent enough dpads, the others don't work half the time, especially with diagonals.
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by Nicster »

Anyone playing the new Apache Air Assault? I've played it on a PC and Xbox and I prefer it more on the PC because of the joystick factor, weird how some games are like that....
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Re: The Joystick thread

Post by BOOMY »

Actually talking about analog flight sticks, I have 3 or 4 at my old home in adelaide(they are unfortunately serial port so I cbf arsing around to get them to work with converters and software). They are free for anyone who wants to pay for the shipping. I dont remember the exact models but they range from microsoft sidewinders to logitech 3d-something-or-anothers; they all are massively analog and have like a kajillion fire buttons on the head of the stick.

ON A WAY BETTER NOTE... I got my T.E. stick this weekend. The a,b,x & y buttons are their respective green, red, blue and yellow and the rest are white which is different to the stick pictured in the advert. It is fucken massive, bigger than the xbox itself, it feels like sitting down at a sega blast city cabinet. The buttons are amazing; I can't believe I was getting by without this. Training mode is SO MUCH MORE FUN as you can just push each button ONCE and really hone your timing. Before I had this I thought it would just be an improvement on accuracy but now my opinion is that it is ESSENTIAL to having a more FUN experience. I <3 sanwa denshi! :nana: :nana: :nana:

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