A NEW PROJECT!! woot...
Ok, I'm sick of my 360 controller, sick of its shitty d-pad and its random analogue stick and mostly its lack of ability to let me EVER pull a fucking fireball, super or ULTRA in street-fighter4.... Sick to the back teeth..
Soooooooo, i decided to get myself an arcade stick.. Until.... The Price..
The rubbish "Madcatz" have hyped everyone into buying some new piece of tat, by putting a shit one up alongside a mega expensive one with a load of expensive Japanese parts in a madcatz box and calling them the Fightstick (the cheaper option) or the Tournament Edition. (The one you should buy!!)
Well at £80 and £150 notes I'm not that hyped after all.. And even if i could afford one, it seems they're not ALL they're cracked up to be after all....
Option 1, The Fightstick..
Whats good, not much, most people will see it as the younger brother of the TE and think its got the same bits under the hood, well it doesn't actually contain ANY arcade machine parts, the external controls and internal components are from madcatz themselves, and as such is pretty much a standard stick with cheapish clunky buttons, it doesn't review that well, it isn't easy to find, is overpriced IMHO and most people when they realise its not a patch on the TE then say you should buy it, gut it and put in a proper stick and buttons from Sanwa at extra cost.. WTF!!!
Option 2 : THE TOURNAMENT EDITION!!
The verdict...
Neither!
So i went looking, why bother buying the madcatz sticks just for the expensive parts if you could just rewire a standard 360 controller, get/build/make a box, buy the parts yourself from japan and bingo your own arcade stick... Just how you want it, and at about the same cost as the standard fightstick with superior parts to the TE..
A lot of googling, head scratching about how wireless, wired and the 3rd party (i.e. cheap) 360 controllers work, how and if i could rip one to pieces and solder it to proper arcade parts so the 360 sees it as a standard controller, how and where to get those arcade machine Sanwa and Haap associated Joysticks and Buttons from, so not much of a project really, more of a breeze!! Get bits, chuck in box, stir, add a bit of solder, bish bosh, done..
But seriously, I've investigated and found the information I need, I've got most of the skills (and what I dont have i can learn) to do the hardware work, and as such I'm ready to embark on my new project... A home made, but hopefully quality Arcade Stick for the 360!! And as such "so it begins"... More as I progress..
