El Kabong2 (or making my first arcade stick) - Epilogue

The journey is over. I now am the owner of my first fightstick. It's been an interesting experience. I'm proud to say that I am the owner of a (semi) custom stick that I built myself. I love the fact it feels exactly like the arcade sticks I came up with, since it uses the same parts. I like the look on my friends faces when, after clowning me at the beginning, they click the buttons and move the bat top around for the first time and get that instant look of nostalgia in their eyes. I'm already working on another for a friend of mine and have 2 more planned for myself! Of course, that's not to say everything came up roses, mind you.

First, I can't say everything worked perfectly from day 1. After a few days 2 of my cherry switches on my stick failed. Now, I'm not sure if they were old switches, or if the fables lack of reliability with Happ styled parts was starting to creep up, but I replaced them both and haven't had a problem since. From time to time I seem to have problems inputting a down/diagonal command, but that may be chalked up to still getting acclimated to using a stick. The usb cable I was using in the case failed, causing the battery not to charge for a while. And until the paint fully 'cures', the inside of my case reeks of paint fumes if I have to take the bottom off to make an adjustment.

Then there's the matter of cost. Without even adding everything up, I can easily say I probably could have bought a TE AND a SE  by time everything was factored in (parts, paint, tools, various incidentals, etc). With better planning, or if I had some of the materials already, I could have cut some of the costs down, but not all of them. Economies of scale being what they are it would be cheaper in the end to buy a mass produced product, that's been designed, tested, and built hundred times over. And if you're an instant gratification guy, you could pop down to your local Gamestop, plunk down your $150, get home and start playing that day rather than waiting for your paint to dry. Still, some like tinkering and building, so if you're in no rush time isn't really a factor. And there still is something priceless about a stick that you created, regardless on the end cost. At least there is to me...

In the end, I enjoyed the process of building my fightstick and would recommend it to anyone that has the time and wants to play a fighting game like it was meant to be played: with a joystick and real buttons. It took longer than I thought, but for me it was time well spent. There are so many options for design, parts, art, color, leds, etc that time, money and imagination are your only limits. Have at it!



Stick Update:

I decided to make a change to the art on my stick after a month or so. I always liked this abstract piece of fan art:

Who's kicking who? 

 

So I managed to get a copy of Photoshop for my computer at home. Which, I may add, I STILL don't really know how to use. But with some tinkering, I managed to pull something together. I tried printing on semi-gloss paper and matte stock. I dind't want full gloss as it may have made a reflection under the plexiglass. The result:

This really makes the white on black stand out

Personally, I love it. And, as it turns out, I seem to have another fan of teh art and the stick in general. Either that or it's just something else for her to bite...

Teach them while they're young, I say...

The only problem I had with Sophia occurred when I was off to work. Apparently, Grandma let Sophia eat downstairs with daddy's toys. When I went to play a few rounds of SFIV, I had dried up crusty pieces of zwiebeck cookie all between the buttons and on the case. She's about to be in the same boat as Germaine in a minute!