Let’s make a consolidated, coherent list of suggestions to present to Razer. Otherwise this is the impression that we give:
These are items we agree upon:
Use a universal joystick mounting plate for Sanwa/Seimitsu compatibility.
Drop the Sanwa quick disconnects. Many users prefer Seimitsu buttons.
Use a common ground PCB with better placement for additional PCBs.
Use USB B or another connector that offers a more solid connection than USB A.
The button and bat compartment is not useful. We would rather have the room for mods. If this stays ditch the molding so it is an empty compartment.
Color code or label the button wiring to ease rearranging inputs.
Provide a six button face panel option that doesn’t require a separate purchase.
Bring something new to the table that makes this something other than a MadCatz TE clone - LED lit buttons/balltop, optical joysticks, on the fly joystick remapping - something! People looking to buy a new stick now have options for multi-console compatibility without modding. Since you won’t have that with Microsoft’s blessing you need to impress us.
Other requests:
Allow enough clearance to mount a Happ/Suzo stick and Happ buttons. Some users prefer American parts. This requires additional clearance but could possibly be accommodated.
How about gathering suggestions during the beta, then have a week long free for all voting for all SRK members that want to rate those suggestions? Itd be even better if we kept the suggestions categorized. e.g.
Category: Lower right storage area
Keep existing fixed storage for two buttons and bat top.
Use an empty box section like the existing cord storage, with a removable insert for the two buttons and balltop.
Remove entirely, and replace with hollow posts for third party pcb mounting.
Remove entirely and replace with tasty snacks.
Have folks vote on a 0-6 scale (0=Dealbreaker. Absolutely wouldn’t buy, 1=Definitely a strike against, but could deal if the rest of the package was awesome, 2=Dont care for, but wont lose sleep over. 3=Doesn’t matter either way 4= Perk, but nothing to get excited about, 5=Definitely nice to have but doesnt guarantee buy. 6=Insta-buy for that reason alone) average 'em up, and give Razer some useful numbers while giving everyone who wasnt picked a voice.
Actually, by amounts for the rated number of connects and disconnects, I believe USB A is rated more than USB B happens to be. Now, in terms of mini and micro micro B is rated higher than the others.
I think the only way for them to satisfy people is to have the stick made to order. being able to support all arcade hardware is impossible to a company thats trying to mass produce a stick. you cant have it all. Sanwa and seimitsu are simliar so thats possible. Their mounting plates are easy enough to keep universal along with have the same size 30mm buttons but being able to support happ/il joysticks also with their smaller buttons require a different size holes and mounting plates. Only way to fix this is to have 2 Layout plates. As for 6 button vs 8 button thats as easy as just including plugs. the cases stay universal have 8 holes on top and 2 on the side just plug which ever 2 u decide not to use.
the storage compartment is a bit pointless, having a bat top compartment is something that would make sense in a happ/il layout that has say a removeable joystick for easy storage and carry along. Replacement button spot is a bit silly i mean how often do you actually break a button that u need to always have a spare. If you have that much worry about it throw a button or 2 in the bag your carrying your stick in. Having room is the biggest plus inside a stick but then comes the companys standpoint they mean business.
Everyone wants room for pcbs and such but… Im not sure if razor is doing 360 only or will also be making a ps3 version but from a business point of view they dont want people dual modding sticks they want people to be afraid and buy the ps3 version also. Thanks to great people like toodles allowing us to have a cheap and effective way to dual mod sticks that helps people who are willing to open their stick and fix the problem of having to purchase another stick. Think about it though for every chimp or cthulhu sold that was potentail for another ps3 stick to be bought. He has taken the fear out of modding with his painless solutions.
If companies were wanting to encourage mods and dual modding they wouldnt have that warranty sticker on every stick. Everyone wants something besides a madcatz clone but were all pointing out things thats making this stick different and we dislike them which automatically reverts it to being a madcatz clone without them. Overall Simplest solution if they want the customers opinion is to have like an order online that includes what layout, parts brands, colors, and system we want it for. At that rate though i rather just be placing and order with voltech or buying an omni.
I don’t see them changing the boxes dimensions to support american or Korean parts really. Given Razers’ history I don’t see a built to order custom shop. There will be custom faceplates for button configs and art swaps but that’s about as far as I see it going.
The most important thing to bring across to them is what is needed by the community to make the stick quality and mod friendly. Not how to make everyone’s individual stick perfect out of the box. Not gonna happen. The core community will mod these sticks to their liking and the average consumer will play with it as is. It needs to be quality out of the box and edge out the TE in terms of customization. If we start making too many unrealistic demands it will just cancel each other out. We need consolidated, realistic suggestions that take into account they are a business and need to fulfill certain requirements cause of Microsoft.
So far the suggestions in the first post are great, though including two control panels may drive the price up too much. I really like Toodles’ idea about voting on specifics to make things a bit more manageable.
Just grab a thicker plexi and overlay it on top if you really want one. I bet you could do it on most sticks if you were to use a 1/4" plexi. It wouldn’t look great, but it would be tolerable.
I like to comment that we should not get too carried away with our own ideals, the stick market in general is bigger and larger than SRK TT.
In Many ways we are a minority, as the general populace is not as tech savy as the bulk of our regular forum contributors.
This is also Razer’s First arcade stick, since they are giving us this opportunity to test there product we want the final product to sell well.
Sadly that includes going to the “lower denominator” and Help produce a arcade stick the Majority of Console and PC Gamers would use.
They never will, the market is not big enough to justify the cost of the plastic molds that has to be made.
Move the stick 4 inches to the left of the buttons. The Madcatz TE is great for all things but is super cramped considering all the space you have on the thing.
In addition to however everything that comes on the stick connects to the PCB, i’d like to see pin headers, or some separate connector, on the PCB for the stick/buttons/VCC/GND/USB+/USB-. Then PCB makers, modders and the like can make cables that can connect aftermarket PCBs to the Razer stick’s PCB without the end-user needing to solder all that up.
