I have not. Haven’t really been back to these forums in a few years, I’m afraid, so this is all kinda terra incognita to me. This thread seemed like the right place to post my request, but any “point me in the right direction” y’all could do is greatly appreciated. Thank you!
I’ll shoot RoyalFlushTZ a PM, at your suggestion. If you can suggest other places for me to post my request or other vectors to find what I need, I’ll definitely take 'em to heart.
Thanks again!
Anyone who can mod in SoCal in 2018?
Anyone within the US who can take my job? (don’t want to deal with customs or Engrish)
I’ll be short and sweet, most of the details are posted on my website 56ok.org/Ambidextrous/index.htm from there you can see what is already done and what needs to be done.
Because DB5 can’t do 8 action buttons and be full the next size up (DB25) should be good. Since when I originally posted it, I found a few things elsewhere to play games from the dreamcast to today using a Playstation 2 controller, and can get similar stuff to play back to the NES and 7800, (and assuming Genesis 6 converter from ToToTek can do 3 button Genesis and Master System, that too).
I also got an Undamned PS3-> Terminal Block adapter. So therefore, there ae 2 separate projects, which are intertwined.
I assume it’s easier to wire an electrical wire to a PCB that automatically converts sidle poresses into unique code for that system, than it is to compute conversions and build a custom chip for such a low order as 1 unit a piece.
The first necessary [piece is a Playstation 2 Dual Shock 2. That way I can output to the many systems a PS2 can be converted to. But there ae some systems adapters are just no made for. Therefore I need someone to wire a DB25 to the following controllers: 3DO (I would buy a Tototek except it does to have Daisy Chaining) , jaguar, 5200, CV standard, CV Super Action, (5 games I have require one, 2 the other) Intellivision. and Astrocade ( I assume 2600 will work with ANY of these: CV, SMS, Gen, 7800 as a default single button joystick)
The second thing I need done is a DB25 wired to both ends of the joystick, one would be the designated right-hand play, and the other would eb the standard left-hand play. Luckily my joystick is invertible by rotating 180 degrees. The other thing is a different previous guy did’t know where a certain piece went. it looks like a thick ring that first on the bottom of the joystick shaft. Currently, the stick, by feel, has clunky corners, and hopefully adding the ring will stop that. And as far a Y-ing the individual wires for a DB25, the only way it should be electrically affected is if I complete the circuit on both the left-and right-hand side. So make sure you unplug one before you plug in the other.
The last thing I need is 2 DB25->DB25 adapters.
One that can reroute the joystick to either the DP or LS or RS. I understand I lose subtlety in movement when I do this. This is mainly for a few games that don’t take the Dpad as the default input but are games that are obviously digital, the most notorious example I can think of is Metal Slug Anthology for the Wii. And the most obvious SYSTEM category is the Atari 5200, (except for a few analog games, in which case I’ll just use a real 5200 controller). All my converters understand analog pads, so I would need the PS2 LS and RS analog direciotns to be wired digitally, and would cover every system with analog controllers excerpt for the 5200.
The other thing it can do is button reassignments. If it costs just as much lair to do RCAs as it does 3.5mm holes, and their performance issues are the same, (I’ve had trouble with KY Enterprises 3.5 mm controllers.) I prefer RCA, because RCAs are easier to find working at Thrift Stores compared to 3.5mm wires, and in case a cat decides to chew a wire, I want the part to be replaceable that is exposed to the cats’ teeth and paws. It would be a lot cheaper for me, and easier for all of us if the fix was getting a new RCA cable. It should be organized to loo like a 2D representation of the fight stick and a stereotypical joypad. The reason why I feel this helpful is becase I can think of 5 games that this feature cones in handy right off the bat, and I’m not delving into my collection deep. Tuthankam, Pac-Land and Side Arms would have left fire and right fire swapped (or left walk and right walk) if the traditional “index-to-index” right hand remapping is used. (which works more often than “left-to-left”. There are WAY more than 5 games that would benefit by having your rapid fire button on your index and a secondary button on your middle.) The Activision Decathlon for the Colecovision may or may not benefit from having SOCD be independent buttons, just like the Atari Track N Field controller, and Defender for Atari 5200 might have a keypad press for hyperspace and/or smart bomb.
The last thing I need is some sort of joystick holder for Atari 5200, Intellivision, CV Standard, CV Super Acton, and Jaguar games so I an access the keypad in some games where a controller moving around loose is a bad idea, which would go go to the outside of the buttons,but be reversible, and one more basket to hold my Total control 3 VMU display on my Deamcast for both my Street Fighter anniversary Stick and my custom fight stick. which would go in back of the joystick, but that depends on direction. If were finagling for dollars or hours, this is the thing I’m willing to drop most.
Also VivoVicko didn’t work out for me because he wanted simple directions, and my project is too complex to be mentioned in a 1000 word or less email. Not saying he’s bad, just saying if your joystick project is as complex as mine, count him out, and he’d probably admit that on his own if he ever sees this. And he does no phone calls, and that’s something which a project like mine look too complicated. He needs emails to keep records of the deal, to find what’s his fault and what’s mine if the deal didn’t work as expected. And I need phone calls to make sure he fully understands what I’m asking, low ping time between question and answer on the phone compared to email. There was too much to manage with him. If it can’t be described in a 500 word email, he probably won’t take it. Fair warning. I’m just fairly shooing away customers with jobs like mine, which VivoVicko wouldn’t take anyway.
By the way I’m in talks with an Ebay joystick maker named “Boss Level Controls” aka Jeff Beck. He mostly does 2600 fight-style sticks. He said he can do everything expect the PS2 analogs,(and I assume) the 5200, and maybe (for the reason that each of 16 directions have a separate actuator, and diagonals are not a combination of cardinals) the Intellivision. If we do make the agreement, there is room for someone else to do these 3 PCBs. (just the analog portions.)
One final question, if you using a pad-hack method for Atari 5200 games that don’t need analog controls, is getting Best Electronics’s 5200 Gold Mod for the pad-hacked joystick essential, a waste of money or somewhere in between? It’s essential for longevity’s sake for a fully working unaltered 5200 stick, I just don’t know for the pad hack. He’s trying to sell that to me on the pad hack. Does he even know what I’m trying to do? Looking for professional modded answers to this.
I hoped that message was typed on an actual keyboard… b/c with THAT many words, I’d imagine on a smartphone your thumbs would be nothing left but bone. Damn. There was nothing “short [or] sweet” about that post, broseph.
No wonder Victor passed…
Actually it’s probably a lot easier because it’s external relative to the actual joystick. All you need to drill i the joystick is 2 DB 25 holes and wire them up for left handed and right handed play in an “index-to–index” fashion, and then form there, if I like the default index-t-index Street Fighter or otherwise mapping, I plug the DB25 into a DB 25 Pad hacked Dual Shock 2, and from there go to over 70% of my systems. If I need a button remaking in THOSE games, and they offer in-software options, I take advantage of that. (or if not that, than, in the Xbox One, Operating System button remapping options.) Otherwise, I plug the device in and manually lead one button to one function, and make sure all the other plugs are wired in.
Why is “index-to-Index” vs. left-to-left" remapping important: I believe the default right handed arrangement that works for MOST (90%+) games are “index-to-index” meaning, in Street Fighter terms, indexes are quick attacks, Middles are mediums, Rings are Hards, and Pinkies are consumables/triple as opposed to a “left-to-left fashion”, which less than 10% of games would be optimized for, but for the ones it works for, it’s a necessity. Try playing Tutankham, Pac Land, or Side Arms on the opposite side as intended with a Beeshu ambidextrous joystick, which is mapped “index-to-index”. Those games give you trouble because mapping index-to-index make “left fire” the right button and vice versa. Even worse was the Sega Master System Joystick, which is both right-handed AND mapped left-to-left and made rapid firing in shooters tougher than it has to be, by pumping the middle finger to rapid fire. This is probably the easiest and most versatile solution. I can’t say if there’s other games where software-based remapping is needed but not there, but it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.)
Also if the RCAs are the problem, if 3.5 mm is better, I will accept that too. The main point was that if a cat chewed a wire to the point where a control won’t actuate, the only exposed parts to the outside world are the wires, and RCA wires are a lot cheaper and easier to replace than something I don’t know how to repair easily. (Yes, I’m a mechanical klutz. I feel like a chicken with my head cut off at any typical fast food job. My hand are quick, but not subtle, the only time I think I used the analog sticks to dial it back was Super Mario 64 sneak scenes and slight adjustments, In driving video games I’m used to the tap-tap-tap of digital steering found in old school games. When I played the Xbox version of Warlords, I had trouble dialing in a position to be in, with the analog control, especially fighting centering resistance, which is why I like the 2600 paddles and the 5200 controls for analog games where your position (not the first derivative, the direction and intensity of motion) is determined by the stick,
Obviously I’m planning to use fight stick for more than just fighting games. Hence references to NES, Colecovision, and other older games. Most of THOSE games don’t have button remappers. I don’t want to fiddle witt cqick connects, which by the way are not call quick reconnects, are meant to be plugging in and out rarely. I’ve broken a couple buttons trying to take outa quick connect directly on a button. If that’s hard wired to a DB25 pin, then I don’t risk unplugging it and ruining it, or the more likely scenario, having kabelsalat wires that you have to take quite a long time to figure out, and risk removing the tags on the wires which did happen to me, so now I got a pad-hacked 360 controller thats spaghetti. Luckily PS2-> other console adpatrs isolate the system conversion from the “telephone operator” wiring. I don’t need the telephone operator to run the joystick. i can plug the DB25 into the pre wired PS2 Dual Shock 2 Pad hack adapter in a standard formation, and not have to mess with it if I want to change buttons. I’m trying to make it more user-friendly and less dependent on another call to the stick maker. An ounce for prevention is with a pound of cure.
The pint of the external box is if I don’t need it, I don’t have to use it. But If I do, and NES-era and earlier games might need this, it’s there. And if only one wire is failing due to a cat chew,I can replace it easily. The only reason I preferred RCAs to 3.5 mm is because RCAs are easier to find in working condition at thrift stores and come 3-to-5-in-a set-new as opposed to 1-to-a-set new for 3.5 mm, and are more likely find sales on RCAs than 3.5s
And if something can’t be fixed in the telephone operator box by swapping out wires, my whole joystick isn’t broken. And if I don’t touch the joystick internally, there’s less problems down the road.
I do appreciate your services and am willing to pay significant money for them, but I am not made of money and I don’t want to get this repaired over and over, wasting your time and my money. Macs are more expensive than PCs, but Macs are 99.9% a lot easier to recover if something goes wrong. I’ve heard cases where viruses permanently ruin PCs to the point of being bricks. All my old Macs work. They get obsoleted slower than PCs get broken. You pay more for that but you save in the long run. I’ve gone 6-8 years on average on my Macs as my PRIMARY computer. I even use old ones as secondaries. You pay more in the short run for quality, and less in the long run in repairs. Same with Joysticks.
The pint is the RCA are on an inpedendent island, connected by DB25, so you don’t ruin the joystick board by drilling multiple RCA holes in the joystick. Just one DB25 on both sides.
I hope I cleared this up with the obsession with some kind of user serviceable part, like a change of batteries. I don’t like tinkering with internal components unless I have to, and most stuff I don’t know what I’m doing.
The main thing short and sweet was the link to my job at the top.
And yes, I typed it on a real keyboard. That’s why I wanted to deal with the phone. I got too many specific issues I’d like addressed.
Sorry about summarizing the short an sweet portion first, and explaining in future paragraphs.
I’ve got up to $300 reserved for this project, and the joystick is partially built.
If I’m going to plunk down $300 for a joystick, I want it to do everything I can reasonably get out of it.
So if you want to discuss specifics over the phone, PM me your phone number. I won’t share.
I get it…you’ve got a lot you want to accomplish. I also know that you’re pretty incapable of a post under 4 paragraphs. That’s fine, as it’s pretty obvious that you’ve got a lot to say.
However, you’ll get more interest from prospective modders here if that multipost smorgasbord was:
What you are asking for is nonsensical. No one wants to do what you request unless you make it worth their time.
I am refusing to do any service and I am no longer offering services.
Glad that i’m not the only one who thinks so
Thanks. Have we met? Lol
To expand on everything @tripletopper said, let’s back up.
First of all, I don’t give out my number. There’s no reason you need to talk to me rather than type everything out. I can read. I don’t need to hear your voice and vice versa. Conversely, you don’t need to type out everything you could possibly think of in a long, drawn out manner. If I were on the phone while hearing this, I would hang up. You write as if you’re deciding what to do while writing instead of having your shit together in the first place. Very frustrating to read and discourteous for anyone that has to read it.
Much like your posts.
Second, I keep a record for both parties sake. If you say you wanted something, and I don’t deliver, you can’t prove that over the phone. Plus, if we talk over the phone and send a transcript or summary of the call as email, then what’s the fucking point of the phone call? This is my side gig. I don’t want to spend 8+ hours a day dealing with one customer just in phone calls and emails.
I do what I do based on experience. I have learned already from people that came before you that you’d be a headache. I know other people who have already passed on working with you and others who haven’t broken the news to you. I would rather save my sanity than make pennies which is what this would amount to. $300 is not work modding 20 pcbs for 20 consoles. I believe I’m allowed to pick and choose my jobs, correct? I’m under no obligation to do yours or anyone else’s work.
Btw I have emails that explain all this. I don’t know if you forgot, which is also why I like to keep records, and I find that ironic. Don’t be salty I didn’t want to do your work. No need to trash talk me, and then look foolish by doing exactly what it was that made me not want to work with you. I don’t need diarrhea of the mouth to do what you want me to do. Mod a stick to work on several consoles. Which consoles and how. You could have sent me a list of which consoles, a picture of the stick, explained you wanted it modular in about 1 short paragraph. 2 or 3 smaller follow up emails and boom, maybe we’d be in business. Instead I got about 10 emails the same length as your post above and then this post trashing me. Have fun finding someone to help you. Even if you edit it, I have screenshots, and I’ll warn whoever I see decides to take on the job if I like them, lol.
Don’t try to paint me as the difficult one when I do the same thing any professional would do:
Work in writing
Professional courtesy
Agreed upon terms and conditions
Nice try not tagging me, lol
Hello @vicko. I’m not saying you’re the difficult one.
First of all you name the price. I said $300 was just a starting point to get the ball rolling. If more money is necessary to finish the job, I’ll pay for the portion of the job I can do now, I’ll save $25-50 a month and when I get enough to ask you the do the next phase, I’ll ask and pay for that and so on until we’re done, either by me not wanting anything more or by you not willing or able to continue. I didn’t necessarily says I’d be finished with $300.
Second the job has gotten at least 50% shorter. I have written that to you in the previous letter, if you bothered reading them. With PS2-> other console adapters and chaining console converters (which does work), I can more efficiently spend my money by not wiring the following systems, and I’ll name them here: Xbox One, Switch, Xbox 360, PS3 x 2, Wii Classic, Wii U Classic, Undamned PS3->One-Wire-One-Signal standard, Original Xbox, Game Cube, Dreamcast, Is what I have now, for another $100-200 I can get Saturn, SNES, Genesis 6 Button (which should also cover most of Genesis 3 button, Master System and Atari 2600), Turbo Grafx 16, N64, NES, Atari 7800 (which also covers all of Atari 2600) I don’t you can beat the average price of $20 for an adapter for wiring an adapter manually, so I save you time and me money on all those systems.
Third the reason why I prefer phone calls is I can bring up one point at a time and they can ask a question with a lot less ping time, and I can answer it with a lot less ping time. The reason why I type long email is because I’m on Social Security Disability, giving me lots more time, and ping time on short emails is horrendous and takes longer. (Social Security can explain a few other things about me too. I didn’t play the autistic card until it became necessary.) And Yes, I did say VivoVicko prefers emails so he has a record of whether I asked for it specifically, or if I just assumed it, and also if he promised a price for something specific, and I either don’t need to or change it, we can adjust price and labor accordingly.
He wants a written record. I wanted understanding of my complex job, becuase when Street Fighter 4 came out for Xbox 360, I got “sort of” burned. I did get a working Xbox 360 fight stick, but that was the only system it would work with, and adding other PCB would have been tough with the setup I have received. I’ve been burned before, That’s why I want to write lots of speciifics.
So check the last 2 letters I wrote you where i said my job was shortened. If I did not say that in my previous letter, then Vicko has every right to get mad. But I do believe I said the job was shortened. And if I didn’t say in previous correspondence that either $300 was a starting point, or that the job gotten 50% smaller since the 4 months I waited, I apologize, but I’m pretty sure I mentioned at least one of those points, maybe both.
If I did say those things, the best apology you can give is talking to me. And I got a thing that would fulfill both of our requirements. You want a searchable text record. I want low ping times. How about an instant text chat? Since AIM went out of business, I don’t know who offers text message services that give me quick ping time, and give you a written record. Just try to find one that is Macintosh compatible, because I’m using a Macintosh. Find one that lets you select all, copy, paste, and save to whatever you use for your personal purposes. I consent to having my text chat copied for your personal use and I’ll keep a record for me if it’s okay by you.
As I’ve already said, your job is not complex. You are. I don’t need a 2000 word essay to say “modular stick that works on every console known to man.” I’m still not doing the job even though it’s “easier.” The job might be, but you’re not someone I want to work with. I don’t make exceptions for emails for anyone unless it’s someone in person locally or someone at an event for those reasons. You might have 1000 questions but that doesn’t change the fact I don’t want my shit all over the place. I don’t need to explain my system to you, and you can ask millions of times and I’ll just keep saying no.
Why do you keep switching from “you” to “he” to “Vicko?” Shit like this just pisses me off lol.
I don’t need to apologize for shit. Good luck and for the love of God, drop it.
Hello, Vicko, (this time I’m talking straight to you:)
I can tell you the emails where I wrote what the things where I said the job is over 50% shorter and that $300 might not be enough, and I’d pay before I get the work done. I’ve just been screwed too many times (by other people, not by you) by a lack of conveying information. My joystick in 2009 was an example. Just because I’m long winded doesn’t mean I’m impolite.
And if you want a text record of what we say, and I need a quick back and forth, what’s wrong with the text chat compromise, where you can control A for Select All, Control C for copy, and control V to paste in an email you can mail to yourself? Conversations would be shorter if we texted. I can’t tell if you’re getting the point if I don’t have the quick conversation. Texts are 1-2 sentences each at most. plus I can stop, read, and if you say it in a different way, I know you got it.
And yes I know you got it most of the job concept with your words “modular joystick system that works with every system known to man.” Now I don’t have to endlessly harass you about points you’ve missed because you’re too busy complaining about length and not reading the content.
There’s a couple other points that weren’t addressed, but since you’re not interested, you’ll have to find out the old fashioned way of reading previous emails. .)
Also, for the rest of you reading along: Am I being mean? Is Vicko being mean? Both? Neither? Anything either of us is doing wrong?
I think the following gif best explains the issue at hand:
Me, Vicko, or both?
Thank you for proving my point.
Any modders in London area? I have a large-ish project I want commissioned.
Anyone know of modders / builders in UK / Europe? I saw that B15sdmdesigns is no longer accepting projects 
Hi, is there any modders in the Manchester UK area? I need help with the te2+ stick
How much will this cost? I’m interested on the directional keys