An arcade stick thread

[randombs]

The artwork is amazing. What's the plastic on top, is it just a perspex sheet? From the reflection in the first pic it doesn't just look like a sticky-backed plastic jobbie.

Also did you replace the whole stick or just the balltop?

[Jurassic]

Cheers Nick and Billy, glad you like the artwork as well

The artwork is amazing. What's the plastic on top, is it just a perspex sheet? From the reflection in the first pic it doesn't just look like a sticky-backed plastic jobbie.

Also did you replace the whole stick or just the balltop?

Yeah I used a thin perspex sheet cut to size on top of the artwork. All the guides I've seen are American and recommend using a lami-label for the art, which seems to be some some of laminated sticker that you can get printed quite easily over there. After searching around I couldn't see anything suitable so had to come up with my own solution.

At first I tried just laminating the artwork but I did a test about a week ago and after a couple of days it had already started to bubble. The perspex was still a pain in the arse though, because it was so thin once the buttons were in it would start to ripple. So it required some trimming and slackening of some of the outer screws to get it to lie flat. Think it looks good now though and should be very hard wearing.

As for the stick I just replaced the ball top and added an octagonal gate inside. Wasn't sure I'd like the gate but after some practice last night I think I much prefer it. Time will tell though and its a very easy swap to put the original back in.

EDIT: Replaced the crappy original pics with some better ones.

[Pavey]

Did Neil's EX2 today full Sanwa, was a bit of a git to get the stick in if i'm honest, but feels much better now.





Just after i did the bottom pic, went to put the base plate back on and realised the JLF is too tall for the shallow EX2. So plenty of grinding and metal filings later and it fits

[kernow]

Sounds similar to what I had to do with my namco ps1 stick, and its still not perfect. ugh.

nice work though!

[Soundwave]

Thanks for all your hard work Nick the EX2 looks awesome

Picked up my new Hori DOA4 stick today
It's much much prettier than the standard EX2 because of the DOA artwork

Just need to get some Seimitsu bits now so I can get this one modded as well for the best of both worlds...Sanwa for fighters & Seimitsu for the shooters

Neil

[Kubrick]

@Nick. What did you have to grind to make the stick close properly? The shaft? the baseplate? or both? I'll be attempting the same mod myself on my DOA stick in due course. I've never soldered a thing before in my life but I've nothing to lose since its broken anyway.

Btw, this stick-modding **** is turning out to be an expensive hobby! I spent over ?100 on some parts earlier.

Edit: Jurassic's "TE" is probably the nicest EX2 I've seen. Lovely

[Pavey]

@John

The actual metal baseplate of the stick needs thinning down, as the base of the shaft clips it.

You also will have to de-solder the Hori microswitches, and the Sanwa baseplate (black in the picture) has to have it's two sides smoothed off to make it a square, then you will need an 8mm drill bit and a steady hand to widen 4 holes on it so it fits over the 4 pegs that are part of the stick's casing. There are also 2 upright 'legs' that hold the gate onto the base (normally), these had to go too.

Get yourself a solder sucker as the EX2's buttons are soldered to a pcb, and you could quite easily damage it if you leave your iron on there too long.

And you'll need a Dremel or a regular metal grinder drill attachment as the Ex2 has little bits of metal that prevent other than Hori buttons fitting.

[Jurassic]

Cheers Kubrick

Nick's spot on about the pcb; its apparently very fragile so its one area I'd be careful working around. After reading how tricky it was to completely replace the stick I'm glad that I just opted to replace the gate and ball-top. I don't think I would have had the patience to complete the job!

[Soi]

My wife custom made a new stick for my birthday. Don't think it will last long.

[Skull Commander]

Best cake ever! Happy birthday and enjoy it!

[kernow]

Finally did the last bit of tweaking on my sanwa modded PS1 namco stick. I am not sure if I like the JLF in this as it feels different to the JLF in a cab, it feels more wobbly and has a little more play. I don't know if its because I'm using the original sticks shaft and actuator.

It was a complete ballache to fit the JLF in due to the casings low profile. But there is a guide if anyone is interested. The buttons were easy.

http://arcadestickmonk.com/asm-namco-sanwa-mod.html

(I used this in conjuction with another guide, as I wanted to keep the original PS1 controller PCB in for use on PS2/PS3 and PC with a PS->USB converter).

Buttons and stick colours are different because I just used whatever spares I had kicking around

[Red or Alive]

Already posted this in the SFIV thread, but it might be more relevant to stick it here:

Got my TE stick in the mail today, but, for some stupid reason, there's some glue on the frontpiece, and the 'Y' button. Is there a decent way to get rid of the gunk without stripping off the lovely paintwork?

I should specify that the glue is from misplaced adhesive tape. Nothing exotic.

[Taka]

If it's just left over "tack" from something like tape, use something like sun block or moisturising cream and just work it in. After a few minutes, it should have loosened it up so that you can just wipe it off.

[Strolls]

Arcade stick newbie questions

It's propitious that this thread has risen to the top today, as I'm currently tempted by an arcade stick.

I've been playing Pac-Man on the DS a little bit recently, and I find the D-pad a little cramped. For example, I might be travelling in a downwards direction, and intend to release down in favour of right, so that I go that way at the next junction; but I find myself "releasing" the down so "hard" that I end up going upwards, instead. This is obviously fatal when are in ghosts close pursuit!

What I feel I want to do is use my whole right hand to control direction (I'm right-handed), instead of this tiny fiddly thing with my left-hand.

Is Pac-Man the sort of game for which an arcade stick is suitable? I'm inclined to get a PS2 compilation which includes Pac-Man & play it on my backwards-compatible PS3. I haven't tried Pac-Man with the PS3's dual-sticks yet.

All the sticks in the photos in this thread have the stick on the right & buttons on the left - is that normally how right-handed players play?

I'm inclined take apart a standard controller & wire it up to arcade buttons & a stick to build my own arcade controller; I've seen a number of threads & HOWTOs doing this. Should I have the joystick on the right or the left? I'm not too bothered about playing shooters or other games with buttons, but I guess my controller ought to have buttons "just in case" - so would it "feel wrong" to have the buttons on the left? Can a right-handed player use a "left-handed" arcade stick comfortably? Or should I keep the buttons on the right, and if I feel it's necessary to use my right-hand for the joystick when playing Pac-Man, just reach across them to the stick on the left?

Any thoughts?

Stroller.

[JamesS]

Is Pac-Man the sort of game for which an arcade stick is suitable? I'm inclined to get a PS2 compilation which includes Pac-Man & play it on my backwards-compatible PS3. I haven't tried Pac-Man with the PS3's dual-sticks yet.

A stick would work well with Pac-Man (it's what it's designed for), however you'd really want a 4 way rather than an 8 way stick. With a normal 8 way stick, you have the four main directions plus the diagonals. A 4 way stick physically stops you from being able to do a diagonal, which is what you'd ideally want for Pac-Man (it doesn't cope with diagonal inputs as it doesn't really have any way to work out which of the two directions you actually want).

With a decent joystick (Sanwa for example), there's a plate beneath the stick that can be rotated to change between 4 and 8 way.

All the sticks in the photos in this thread have the stick on the right & buttons on the left - is that normally how right-handed players play?

The other way round, generally. You'd be hard pressed to find a stick with the stick on the right. I think the original Pac-Man cabinet had the stick in the middle, so it could be used with either hand.