Hey folks! I’ve been hunting high and low for one of these guys:
But I’m just having no luck. I’ve contacted every arcade parts company I can find in the UK, USA, and those with sites I can manage to get through in Asia, but no dice so far.
I really don’t want to buy one of those silly expensive Sega Saturn dual sticks and have to gut it, just for this panel…
http://www.videogamesnewyork.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=48&products_id=1674&zenid=4q4ihda85dpa63ulmd4u10ouc5
Video Games New York has a complete Astro Panel, but it will be expensive.
I actually have one of those guys. I was just looking for the plastic panel that goes around it. I think I’ve found one though, through Yahoo Auctions Japan!
may i ask what youre gonna use it for?
because if you want the top bezel of an “ASTRO CITY” control panel, it’s gonna be very shallow to make a custom stick out of, because the bottom half of that bezel is part of the astro city cabinets themselves… so these astro city bezels are basically just a top-half of the entire control panel assembly.
if you’re just replacing this part on an actual cabinet then, disregard what I said.
you’re talking about the Virtua Stick Pro (saturn dual stick)… that one is not exactly similar to the astro panel, so you’re not gonna be able to use that as a replacement part for an astro city cabinet. (also it is abs is plastic, unlike candy cab which is metal)
if you want to make a “custom” arcade stick out of the candy cab bezels. it’s best to use a BLAST CITY bezel, because the top and bottom part are both one unit, unlike the Astro City. The Blast City bezels are also entirely detachable from the cabinet themselves, its more ideal for custom sticks because you get both the bottom and the top parts of the bezel/enclosure. there are quite a few people here who have done this too, the Blast City bezels are ideal because there’s a back part too.
here’s the difference:
Blast City:
as you can see it is the entire top access control panel
Astro city:
just the top half
there are some auctions i see right now which are listed as “astro city” bezels, both top and bottom half… but you can obviously tell, the bottom part was SAWED OFF, it looks pretty unsettling imo.
as for sources, Y!AJ is probably the best one for these things, if you wanna try your luck, you can opt to lurk at arcadeotaku and shmups forum. I also know a guy who might be able to help source you one, he has helped me quite a lot in the past with candy cab parts. it’s gonna come from japan though, so be wary of shipping costs. pm me if you’re interested.
Hmm, I’ve probably gotten myself into a pickle then… I’ve ordered one of the sawed off Astro panels. It was under 1500Y, so at least that was cheap. I’m sure the shipping is going to be an absolute bear.
And yep, I’m trying to make a panel out of it; my initial plan is to use only the top of the panel (which I was pretty sure was plastic?) bezel and mount that on some kind of wood as a base. Thin is okay, It seems like the buttons only go about 2" down, and I wasn’t planning on having anything under them.
I looked at the Blast City and Sega Saturn units and thought they seemed a bit expensive; I suppose we’ll see what this costs me in the end. sigh
Mostly, I was basing this idea on these photos: http://richy13-arcade4life.blogspot.com/2010/05/sega-astro-city-restore-rebuild.html
And a few others I’d found around. Just having this mounted onto a wooden base is what I’m hoping for.
haha weird, i think i know who owns that blog.
but anyways, its not just the buttons you have to worry about, the joystick too.
if you got the sawed off one, and still wanna make use of it, i suggest just keeping the base since it’s metal (studier) and less work overall, you’d have to be creative about covering the back part though, if you wanna make it look and feel “complete”. worse case, is you’d be tempted to even out the sawed portion, might be a chore.
or get rid of that part entirely and make a custom wooden base, you can even reuse the hinge from the top bezel, since it provides a nice flip top access.
well, that’s just imho’s. good luck on your project 
would be interesting to see how you make use of the astro bezel too.
I’m thinking I’ll probably end up making a nice wooden base. The rear metal portion isn’t really flat enough, and I think it ruins the lovely angle that the bezel provides; ordinarily it seems like the bezel sits flat.
I guess we will see how things go! I predict after months of trial and error with making a proper lower section, I break down and find the HSS-130 or something.
Worst case scenario you can use a Sega HSS-0130 for the Dreamcast/Sega Saturn as they can fit a Astro City Panel.
But they can be pretty pricy
yeah man, try it out first, half the fun is making solutions to build a controller that suits your needs
but I may be biased, but after i got my own HSS-0130 then modding with with 1L6B (1P panel), i’d say it’s probably one of best stick you can ever get out-of-the-box, sort of.
also, Like I said, a Blast City bezel/control panel shell is probably an easier route (especially with modding in mind) than hunting down an HSS-0130. just thinking aloud.
@Darksakul - price is one thing, availability is another, even in YA!J they are becoming more and more scarce. another thing you gotta worry about is how “yellowed” some are, you never know with japanese households if they are heavy smokers or not. i’ve seen some REALLLY yellow’d out ones that go for ridiculous prices.
That’s my big issue with the HSS-130 at this point. I’ve two on eBay so far, but one seller (Japanese) won’t show pictures of the actual stick and it’s $400; the other was in HK I think and WOULD show it, but man… it looks like an SNES that lived in a smoker’s house.
My parts shipped from Buyee, so I guess we’ll see how things go! In total, I think this panel / metal lower half has cost me around $80.
So if I ever manage to get a HSS-0130 I most likely have to either Retrobright or straight up paint the thing.
The guy said “I’m sorry, the item will be shipped directly from my distributor to you so I don’t know its item’s detailed condition.”
That’s kind of… that’s kind of not how you eBay, seller.
there’s a pretty white-ish one on Y!AJ right now. currently below 10,000yen.
if you add in shipping fees and proxy costs. that’s another $100-150 added to total winning price right there… if anyone is interested.
How do you search and buy from auctions.yahoo.co.jp if you don’t speak japanese, do they ship worldwide?
There are services that do it for you. You could use Buyee.jp. That one COULD be good, but who knows where the price will end up; it’s got three days left.
You should just try to find yourself a Blast City. The Blast City control comes straight off with just removing 4 bolts from the cab. Then mod it for PS3/360/Jamma. Not only will you have a 2 player portable panel you can always connect it back to play jamma on your Blast City candy cab.
Does the control panel from an Astro City fit directly onto the Blast City Bezel without modification? ty
Yes.
The CPs to the Astro, Blast, Versus and Net City are all interchageable.