Hey.....I BUILT SOMETHING!!! (Lots of pictures)

[Klashe]

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...



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.




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...


and popping buttons in:


and finally with the finished product:





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:



Thanks for reading this long *** story. It felt good telling it.

--Klashe

[CrawlingEye]

VERY ill.
I think I'll pass this on to my brother, who's a console gaming enthusiast.

Edit: You should paint/stain the board black, to make it even more realistic.

[[DWC]DarkWolf]

Nice! I know exactly how you feel about those god forsaken consol controllers.. They work ok for RPGs.. (the only console RPG i ever liked was Final Fantasy II for GameBoy (the old gameboy that fits in my hand, not those new crappy ones you gotta play with tweasers))But i'm not much for RPGs or fighting games on consoles. However, I do find my self getting reamed out in those terrible, new-fangled console FPS games when i play at a friend's house, and wishing for my keyboard and mouse so i could aim at something other than the ground or sky. (not that bad, but close.) So like I said, nice job and keep up the good work.

PS. I see you have Klipsch 4.1 speakers too, I liked mine, but I modded them inside and out with MUCH better wire and gold plated bannana plugs, now they are much cleaner and more accurate. If you want to talk about it, let me know.

EDIT: Fixed some spelling... Need sleep...

[Adisharr]

That was the funniest thing I've read in ages

Awesume project btw.. I'm gonna try making one out of a ripe banana and some old candy buttons.

Sure I may get excited and squish it but what the hell.. live dangerously..

[Wurm]

Thats BAD ***!!

beans Klashe!


err you could cleanup your room a little

[Casper1612]

I wish I had known, I could have saved you a heap of pain. I have a friend who builds and sells these. Check out:
http://home.iprimus.com.au/ozstick/

Considering the AU dollar is only worth about US55c this would be a bargin for you.

BTW: This is not advertising, I get nothing from him and only want to point out that these archade joysticks are avaliable.

Anyhow, looks like oyu built a good one, hope you kick butt in the arcade games.
Cheers,

[TAZTG]

Wow, thats one sweet mod. I figure now that your done with your BOX you will have time to Clean That Room. LOL

[BloodRed]

You drink Skyy??? What's up with that???

Awesome mod man, and definetly the funniest thing I've read in a while. Chihuahuas heal quickly......don't worry.

[Klashe]

Originally posted by BloodRed
You drink Skyy??? What's up with that???

I swear...It's my roomate's girlfriend's.
Honest.
Really.

[BloodRed]

Originally posted by Klashe


I swear...It's my roomate's girlfriend's.
Honest.
Really.

Yeah... sure

[Klashe]

See?
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories...6310-2,00.html



Die, controller from hell, DIE!

[Adisharr]

Originally posted by BloodRed


Yeah... sure

He keeps telling me that to.. I drink it and I'm man enough to admit it but oh well..

[Wurm]

What type of soda is skyy?

We don't have it here in Germany.. and what does it taste like?

[Klashe]

Originally posted by Wurm
What type of soda is skyy?

We don't have it here in Germany.. and what does it taste like?

Think....sprite and vodka.

At least, that's what my girlfriend's boyfriend says.

[jman311]

Clean your room young man!!