Lookin’ for a 6button layout… Was seeing if there were other websites with better deals than what Arcadeshock.com and Massystems.com offers.
Unless someone is willing to sell you a cheap used stick, not gonna happen…
The good news is that even the quality MAS stick parts (the Happ parts manufactured by iL) are cheaper than the Sanwa and Seimitsu parts. The iL/Happ parts generally sell for around half of what the Japanese parts go for.
IF you can solder and build your own control box, you’re set. Next up is getting a logic board/PCB for whatever system(s) you want to use those joystick for. Modding a MadCatz SE or TE joystick box, let alone any of Hori’s joystick controllers, is not going to work because they just don’t have the depth to fit the parts.
About the only mass-market joystick controller box these iL/Happ parts will fit into is the SF2 joystick made by Nubytech… It’s basically a mass-market MAS controller. Pictures of it are here at http://www.streetfightercontroller.com/
I saw these at GameStop/EBX/Electronics Boutique 5 years ago.
(Didn’t really care for them myself, was into other things at the time and didn’t see the need for a joystick back then. Stories circulated on the web even back then about their cheap build parts and problems with the circuitry for multiple systems. Today’s multi-system PCBs are much more reliable. Prefer the Japanese-style parts myself.
(In spite of the Nubytech problems, they can be brought up to excellent quality… just as a Tekken 5 or similar style Hori stick can be modded to HRAP Pro level easily.)
Good luck finding a Nubytech… they’re collectors’ items! Especially the ones with full-Happ parts.
Keep an eye out here at the Trading Forum and on e-Bay or Craigslist. Occasionally, someone does sell a used Nubytech.
Kyle,
Everything I’ve seen recently is 8-button layout. That’s what usually gets sold now unless it’s one of the cheaper XBox 360 joysticks.
That’s pretty much all ArcadeShock has in stock for MAS sticks.
Yeah, I’ll second the Nubytech recommendation. I have two of them. They’re the only commercial stick I can think of that included plexi for swapping out the art. I bought my second one here for $60 shipped with all Happ parts because the guy basically didn’t want it. They normally go in the $100 range modded like that.
Also, recommend the Nubytech; I own two as well.
Mod it yourself to save you some money though; super easy mod and well worth it.
Times like these are why I hate Amazon.com and its marketplace –
$110 for a used joystick… No box!
Three times that amount for an unopened, mint joystick.
Wonder from which deep corner of a warehouse they found those “unopened” joysticks? The space next to the Ark of the Covenant???
Well I bought a 6-button blank case from MAS for $50 local pick-up (didn’t feel like building my own this time). Just put all my own stuff in…
Not gonna lie, it was a bitch cutting the plexi by hand!
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?p=7432283#post7432283
I’m going to call Mas Systems and do a pick up for Six-Button Case.
So for $50, it did not come with the art and acrylic panel?
No acrylic, no bottom panel, no paint on the sides. It does come with a modified SSF2 control panel layout, I think it was lami-label. It came off pretty easy. I made a bottom panel out of mdf, real easy. I tried painting the sides, but went with the vinyl sticker stuff on instead.
Here is the panel (pictured with the plexi).
As skeptical as I am at this point about a new joystick design, you’d think somebody could scrounge up enough orders to do at least 300-500 MAS sticks…
It’s gotta be cheaper than the Sanwa/Seimitsu sticks even for a limited run, right?
What a used MAS or Nubytech goes for now ---- $110-$140 ---- is what a new-run stick would cost!
Capitalism… Gotta love it!
Imperfect as it is, it’s better than the alternatives.
Red Octane Stick.
That’s another alternative to the Mas stick if you wish to have the American/ Happ/ IL layout.
QCFGaming.com sells HAPP/iL cases for like 30 bucks. The parts to go inside would be around 20$, so if you could get a cheap PCB and you can build it yourself you could probably make one quite cheaply.
Clembo,
That’s an excellent suggestion!
It’s cheap enough that I might look into it it for a first-time build-from-the-bottom stick!
(That’s for a MAS stick if I choose to do one in the next year… I’m still looking at another JLF/LS-32-01 stick with a customized art theme in hte future… I’m looking towards a custom wood case instead of yet another Hori or MadCatz case mod.)
The MDF ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-density_fibreboard ) is not as initially sturdy as Maple or Walnut but is a much more enticing alternative for a first-time stick builder. Wood, at any rate, does have to be varnished/finished/sealed if you want to make it moisture resistant and keep it from getting saturated with water. Considering that fact, MDF doesn’t come off badly at all.
Sounds like it is a cheap set-up and everything else – maintenance, pre-prep for art and MDF fiber preservation – is up to the ultimate stick builder.
That last bit is my main concern but this really does sound like an excellent alternative to slugging it for used sticks… Very viable stick foundation.
Face it, with the reports about the faulty circuit boards in both the Nubytech and MAS sticks people are probably going to have to buy a Cthulu or MC Cthulu/soldered 360 pad to get use out of a Happ/iL stick. Even building with the UPCB from ground up is still cheaper than upgrading a used stick that IMHO isn’t worth it unless it has the Competition parts installed to begin with… Considering most competitions are on 360 or PS3 and computers pretty much mandate USB I think the UPCB makes the most sense.
cheapest one will depends on the seller, 2 months at craigslist I saw someone selling one for $60 which had a small crack in it and highest I saw was around $120-$140…
I’d think the QCF box plus an online parts order and Cthulu/MC make more sense than buying a used controller that has sub-arcade quality parts.
Hardest thing would be drilling holes for the stick after coming up with a template for the artwork.
Everybody at least wants artwork for the top paneling, right?
Meh I just painted my QCF gaming stick solid black. Then again I’m lazy and don’t much care for looks (though I at least gave it a good paint job, i don’t want to be repulsed by the thing).
The QCF cases come predrilled btw, I’m not sure if you were implying that they werent.
Thank you kubebot.
I will ask them for painted Case.
Doing the Custom Acrylic will be hard for me. :sad:
Double-checked…
Read it right the first time.
You DO have to drill holes to mount your stick in the QCF Happ case.
Eh, not that big a deal.
Yeah the acrylic was tricky with the curves at the bottom, let me know if you need help. BTW, my dimensions for the initial cuts were 14.5" wide X 10" tall. I went to home depot and picked up a $11 huge piece of plexi and was able to make 2 full panels out it (messed up on the 1st one).