Klashe
08-02-2002, 03:52 AM
Last friday, I had an epiphany. Me and my friends had just gotten done playing some street fighter 2 and X-men vs SF on the Playstation and we were talking about how much console controllers suck. They just don't feel right when you are playing Fighting games. We're old schoolers...we used to hang out in these places called "arcades." These "arcades" were magical places...a place with lots of "arcade games" which were much like the consoles we play now except one "arcade game" only plays one game. You would put something called a "quarter" into the "arcade game" and play until you died. These "arcade games" didn't have gamepads though...no. They had something wonderous called "joysticks" (derived from the latin word "joyunti stickum" which means "stick that delievers great joy and comfortable control while gaming"). These "joysticks" were the pinnacle of gaming control, extremely precise and very durable. These were what 2-d fighting games were made to be played on.
Unfortunately, with the extinction of these "arcades" the "joysticks" quickly died down in popularity and now us old schooler are forced to play our wonderous games with THIS unholy abomination...
http://shopping.yahoo.com/catz/images/92/38/catz.y.1951013382.jpg
no doubt forged by satan himself in the darkest pits of hell.
I know what I must do...I must build a "joystick" so we can play our old school fighting games the way they were meant to be played.
But where to start? How do I go about doing this? Would I have to build the circuits myself? What about the buttons, where would I get them?
I turned to the only placed that I knew could help me....THE INTERNET.
After about 46 seconds on google, i found this site:
http://wrongcrowd.com/arcade/joystickp1.shtml
Which started me on my long journey.
That sunday I picked up all the supplies i needed to start at the Radio Shack. I didn't know exactly what I was buying or why, but I listened to the web page, because web pages are never wrong.
I realized as I was purchasing solder that I would have to do some soldering, which has been a fear of mine ever since I was in my mother's womb. Waving around a red hot needle trying to melt metal onto metal has always scared me. I've never done it. But, I'll be damned if I let some life long fear that, on some night, had me cowering in a fetal position in the corner of my room, stop me from getting my shoryuken on.
I decided to mod a playstation controller because A) they are cheap (got two for 10 bucks) B) someone somewhere makes an adapter to use them on every other console and PC made.
I took it apart a looked down on what seemed to be a fairly simple circuit setup. I looked at my web page instructions and finally my fears were upon me.
So, as the almighty web pages commanded me too, I fired up the soldering iron and started melting things.
I took dead aim on the first lead of the playstation controller grabbed some solder, my wire, and dove in.
Amazingly, I melted part of my soldering iron's power cable, three buttons on my shirt, and part of my hand. The wire and lead were untouched and laughing at me.
But I was determined, and tried again, and again, and again...finally i managed to accidentally drop some solder on my lead and get the wire into it. One down, 14 more to go.
As I agressively attacked every single lead on the PCB, i noticed something...I was getting better at soldering. The iron was almost like an extra appendage, doing precisely what I told it to do. I started doing tricks with it: tossing it up in the air and having it land directly on the lead, balancing it on my chin and splicing two wires together. I was creating one thing from two seperate entities. It was amazing. I never felt so powerful in my life.
I knew how God felt.
Once I got over myself (about two days later), i went out to purchase the buttons and the joysticks. Luckily I have a warehouse right by me that sells them (www.happcontrols.com). It was time to put the prototype together.
I took an old cardboard box and laid out my buttons. Classic Street Fighter style.
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/proto_open.jpg
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/proto_cable_box.jpg
It didn't look like much, but it worked.
After the prototype completed, I moved on to building the box. I took a large pine board and started cutting...
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/pre_final_top.jpg
and popping buttons in:
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/pre_final_top_buttons.jpg
and finally with the finished product:
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/final_top.jpg
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/final_open.jpg
Tomorrow, I show it to my friends. And then NOT let them touch it and procede to kick their *** in every fighter ever made.
Projects Stats:
Total Time: 25 Hours.
Total Cost: Happ controls (Buttons/Joystick) : $25
Radio Shack (wires, multimeter, solder, barrier strips etc...) : $50
Home Depot (boards, glue, drill bits, tape, etc) = $60
Best Buy (six PSX controllers, did I forget to mention that i messed up a few times. Only used three though, swear.)
Building something myself: priceless.
Casulaties: Three burned fingernails, solder on carpet, one spilled cherry, and two slightly bruised chihuahuas (i KNOW they were laughing at me).
The warzone:
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/warzone.jpg
Thanks for reading this long *** story. It felt good telling it.
--Klashe
Unfortunately, with the extinction of these "arcades" the "joysticks" quickly died down in popularity and now us old schooler are forced to play our wonderous games with THIS unholy abomination...
http://shopping.yahoo.com/catz/images/92/38/catz.y.1951013382.jpg
no doubt forged by satan himself in the darkest pits of hell.
I know what I must do...I must build a "joystick" so we can play our old school fighting games the way they were meant to be played.
But where to start? How do I go about doing this? Would I have to build the circuits myself? What about the buttons, where would I get them?
I turned to the only placed that I knew could help me....THE INTERNET.
After about 46 seconds on google, i found this site:
http://wrongcrowd.com/arcade/joystickp1.shtml
Which started me on my long journey.
That sunday I picked up all the supplies i needed to start at the Radio Shack. I didn't know exactly what I was buying or why, but I listened to the web page, because web pages are never wrong.
I realized as I was purchasing solder that I would have to do some soldering, which has been a fear of mine ever since I was in my mother's womb. Waving around a red hot needle trying to melt metal onto metal has always scared me. I've never done it. But, I'll be damned if I let some life long fear that, on some night, had me cowering in a fetal position in the corner of my room, stop me from getting my shoryuken on.
I decided to mod a playstation controller because A) they are cheap (got two for 10 bucks) B) someone somewhere makes an adapter to use them on every other console and PC made.
I took it apart a looked down on what seemed to be a fairly simple circuit setup. I looked at my web page instructions and finally my fears were upon me.
So, as the almighty web pages commanded me too, I fired up the soldering iron and started melting things.
I took dead aim on the first lead of the playstation controller grabbed some solder, my wire, and dove in.
Amazingly, I melted part of my soldering iron's power cable, three buttons on my shirt, and part of my hand. The wire and lead were untouched and laughing at me.
But I was determined, and tried again, and again, and again...finally i managed to accidentally drop some solder on my lead and get the wire into it. One down, 14 more to go.
As I agressively attacked every single lead on the PCB, i noticed something...I was getting better at soldering. The iron was almost like an extra appendage, doing precisely what I told it to do. I started doing tricks with it: tossing it up in the air and having it land directly on the lead, balancing it on my chin and splicing two wires together. I was creating one thing from two seperate entities. It was amazing. I never felt so powerful in my life.
I knew how God felt.
Once I got over myself (about two days later), i went out to purchase the buttons and the joysticks. Luckily I have a warehouse right by me that sells them (www.happcontrols.com). It was time to put the prototype together.
I took an old cardboard box and laid out my buttons. Classic Street Fighter style.
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/proto_open.jpg
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/proto_cable_box.jpg
It didn't look like much, but it worked.
After the prototype completed, I moved on to building the box. I took a large pine board and started cutting...
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/pre_final_top.jpg
and popping buttons in:
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/pre_final_top_buttons.jpg
and finally with the finished product:
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/final_top.jpg
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/final_open.jpg
Tomorrow, I show it to my friends. And then NOT let them touch it and procede to kick their *** in every fighter ever made.
Projects Stats:
Total Time: 25 Hours.
Total Cost: Happ controls (Buttons/Joystick) : $25
Radio Shack (wires, multimeter, solder, barrier strips etc...) : $50
Home Depot (boards, glue, drill bits, tape, etc) = $60
Best Buy (six PSX controllers, did I forget to mention that i messed up a few times. Only used three though, swear.)
Building something myself: priceless.
Casulaties: Three burned fingernails, solder on carpet, one spilled cherry, and two slightly bruised chihuahuas (i KNOW they were laughing at me).
The warzone:
http://www.darksavior.net/~klashe/warzone.jpg
Thanks for reading this long *** story. It felt good telling it.
--Klashe