Long time lurker, first time poster.
My son and daughter (3 and 1.5) both like Street Fighter and fighting games in general cuz their old man plays it. I wanted to build them a joystick that is nearly indestructible, and the Madcatz TE line was that. Problem was that the wife does not normally approve of such expenditures.
C’mon woman! Let a man have a hobby!
Then Madcatz went out of business. I knew it was now or never if I wanted to buy parts for it, so I bought them as quickly as possible. This is the result:
http://i.imgur.com/5R74KI9.jpg
Since this is (was?) my joystick, it is actually powered by a Brook Universal Fighting Board. It will remain in there till I build my new personal stick and will be replaced by a much simpler board. I’ve personally used them in an arcade machine build that I did for my office and they work fantastically for PC gaming, which is all we do in my house. All the parts are Sanwa. The new plastic parts are all Madcatz, get them while they are still available on amazon. There is a custom 3lb spring from Paradise Arcade (I got some big, meaty hands that knock the stick around). It will be downgraded to a 2lb spring or stock once I build my new one.
My next stick will either use an IST Make a Stick Pro, or a Foehammer Stealth. Considering I got questioned on the cost of everything by the powers (the wife, despite it being practically free with all the bonus points I stored up on my Amazon card for the Madcatz parts and chips from focus attack), it will probably end up being the IST.
Anyways, thanks for listening to my tale of being whipped, and finding an excuse to make a new joystick. Comments are appreciated. 