Custom Arcade - Part 1

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lordofultima

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Edited By lordofultima

I know, I know what you're thinking -- I already have an arcade stick on its way. It's easily modifiable to top-of-the-line Japanese parts, looks slick, and is compact. But even the impending arrival of that couldn't stop me...stop me from making my own arcade stick.

I can make an excuse like yeah, it'll be good to have two arcade sticks around the house, for all those WILD Street Fighter parties I never have in my basement - but really it's more of a guy thing. Countless middle-age men pick up a long-running hobby like working on a piece of junk in their garage or something. This is sort of like that I guess.


Eewww.
Eewww.
So it used to look like that. I know, pretty gross. It was a shoddy Pelican arcade stick that worked for the Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube. Happ competition buttons are guaranteed for 10,000,000 presses, where as I probably got about 300 out of the fierce punch on this stick before it stopped functioning. Awesome. So I took a lot of pleasure in gutting this, and I then proceeded to rip off that crappy plastic graphic all over the stick. I don't want that ugly-ass pelican on my stick, no sir.

So I definitely didn't want those spaceship curves all over my stick, either. So my plan was to use my circular saw to cut it into a neat rectangle, leaving a bit overhang for a grabbale lip or something. Well, after I found out that all of our tools pretty much "vanished," I was forced to use a hack saw and give it my best shot. After two days of that and sanding out the rough edges by hand, I got the sides relatively straight.


Diagonal Shot.
Diagonal Shot.
If you run your finger across the edges, you'd be able to feel the slight waves of my sloppy job. But I plan on covering this up with a rubber lining of sorts, so when it's complete you won't be able to tell. For now, electrical tape would have to do. So yeah, I'm definitely not going to leave it in its particle board finish, as I plan to get a couple sheets of aluminum for both the top and bottom. Luckily I still have my metal sheers which should make cutting it to size relatively simple, but I'm going to have to get a drill to put holes in the sheet. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the sides, the only real idea I have is getting more aluminum and plating the side walls as well. Maybe a cool tread plate or something, make it nice and textured, I don't know. If you have any ideas feel free to throw them out there.


Cord compartment ftw.
Cord compartment ftw.
So as for hardware, I plan to use my sort-of broken Xbox 360 controller to wire everything together. That'll be the fun part, much much later. But as for buttons and things, I'm going for a sort of east meets west vibe. Happ competition pushbuttons (convex) and a Sanwa JL-8 joystick with a bat top -- all black hardware. It'll look pretty nice against the simple aluminum finish. It'll also be good to have a choice between two different feeling sticks (since I plan to replace the SFIV fightstick with all sanwa parts). But yeah, parts are below, have any suggestions, let me know what you think.


Bat, man.
Bat, man.

Happ Competition Pushbuttons
Happ Competition Pushbuttons
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lordofultima

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#1  Edited By lordofultima

I know, I know what you're thinking -- I already have an arcade stick on its way. It's easily modifiable to top-of-the-line Japanese parts, looks slick, and is compact. But even the impending arrival of that couldn't stop me...stop me from making my own arcade stick.

I can make an excuse like yeah, it'll be good to have two arcade sticks around the house, for all those WILD Street Fighter parties I never have in my basement - but really it's more of a guy thing. Countless middle-age men pick up a long-running hobby like working on a piece of junk in their garage or something. This is sort of like that I guess.


Eewww.
Eewww.
So it used to look like that. I know, pretty gross. It was a shoddy Pelican arcade stick that worked for the Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube. Happ competition buttons are guaranteed for 10,000,000 presses, where as I probably got about 300 out of the fierce punch on this stick before it stopped functioning. Awesome. So I took a lot of pleasure in gutting this, and I then proceeded to rip off that crappy plastic graphic all over the stick. I don't want that ugly-ass pelican on my stick, no sir.

So I definitely didn't want those spaceship curves all over my stick, either. So my plan was to use my circular saw to cut it into a neat rectangle, leaving a bit overhang for a grabbale lip or something. Well, after I found out that all of our tools pretty much "vanished," I was forced to use a hack saw and give it my best shot. After two days of that and sanding out the rough edges by hand, I got the sides relatively straight.


Diagonal Shot.
Diagonal Shot.
If you run your finger across the edges, you'd be able to feel the slight waves of my sloppy job. But I plan on covering this up with a rubber lining of sorts, so when it's complete you won't be able to tell. For now, electrical tape would have to do. So yeah, I'm definitely not going to leave it in its particle board finish, as I plan to get a couple sheets of aluminum for both the top and bottom. Luckily I still have my metal sheers which should make cutting it to size relatively simple, but I'm going to have to get a drill to put holes in the sheet. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the sides, the only real idea I have is getting more aluminum and plating the side walls as well. Maybe a cool tread plate or something, make it nice and textured, I don't know. If you have any ideas feel free to throw them out there.


Cord compartment ftw.
Cord compartment ftw.
So as for hardware, I plan to use my sort-of broken Xbox 360 controller to wire everything together. That'll be the fun part, much much later. But as for buttons and things, I'm going for a sort of east meets west vibe. Happ competition pushbuttons (convex) and a Sanwa JL-8 joystick with a bat top -- all black hardware. It'll look pretty nice against the simple aluminum finish. It'll also be good to have a choice between two different feeling sticks (since I plan to replace the SFIV fightstick with all sanwa parts). But yeah, parts are below, have any suggestions, let me know what you think.


Bat, man.
Bat, man.

Happ Competition Pushbuttons
Happ Competition Pushbuttons
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Manachild

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#2  Edited By Manachild

you sir, are a bad-ass..

nuff said...
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#3  Edited By Rowr

good luck, keep us posted.

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EightBitWarrior

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#4  Edited By EightBitWarrior

Sounds like a lot of work..... but would feel awesome to complete a transformation into a cool arcade stick.

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#5  Edited By Manachild

if i may ask, what made you choose the bat joystick over the lollypop style?

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Linkyshinks

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#6  Edited By Linkyshinks

Awesome stuff Lord. That's going to look and feel great once your done with it :D . I would remove all graphics. I would also go with a ball joystick, but each to their own preference.

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lordofultima

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#7  Edited By lordofultima

The fight stick already has a ball top, I don't need two of them. east meets west guys, that means American buttons that are convex and a bat joystick that is from a Japanese manufacturer. The bat also has a distinct classic feel, which takes me back to the pizza hut days. It's still the same feel as any other Sanwa, just appears to be American-made.

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Manachild

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#8  Edited By Manachild

the idea of modding acrade sticks interests me but scares me at the same time. I want to try doing one as a hobby but i think i might get a cheaper stick to try it on to avoid possibly messing up my HRAP3 

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deactivated-5d7bd9e4bef30

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This is pretty awesome. Excited about how this will look when you're done.

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GweedyJ

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#10  Edited By GweedyJ

you took apart my stick!?!?....could of called me so i could of kicked it once or something.