Now give me some credit, I have been to my fair share of Big Lots…
The Zippyy (and yes there are two y’s, don’t ask, I don’t know) is an LS32 knock off maybe people find acceptable. The best deal on the site for ball tops (IL sticks at 10-12 are the best deal over all) are the Pink or Black Topped Sticks
You can put 20 gram Zippy switches in these (or whatever you want, Cherry’s, Omron’s etc) and they feel is excellent.
We have had a few people tell us they like the feel of these stick better than the name brands.
Gotta be honest, armi0024…
As soon as I get some disposable cash – ie, I deal with living expenses AND have spare change --, the Zippyy is something I’d be interested in seeing as I’m a “Seimitsu fan” (despite the fact that I complain about their build issues – too many screws to remove to disassemble prior to mounting – as much as I do about the performance of the JLF which is overrated IMHO). The brand’s been good to me and doesn’t seem to have the idiosyncratic performance quirks that the other manufacturers’ products do. The LS-32-01, in particular, has been the most versatile and perhaps easiest control lever for me to use, period… that’s out of every joystick I’ve ever used in my lifetime going to back the Atari 2600/Odyssey 2 days.
Is it right to presume the Zippyy is compatible with the LS-32 microswitches and the SS Mounting Plate? I probably wouldn’t bother swapping in an LS-32-01 PCB seeing as A) it’s more money than getting an adapter harness, and B) I’m a guy who likes to use as much original hardware as possible. The only issue I foresee is the extra wiring bundling inside a joystick… I’m more likely to use the Zippyy in a Mad Catz TE case or Hori HRAP case unless the common ground wire doesn’t interfere with the control lever fit in the Dreamcast Agetec case. (Love that case.)
I take it that the Zippyy (short) shaft also has the same spec as the LS-32? I’m asking since I mod JLF-CD kits to fit all my LS-32’s. Trying to extend stick life by avoiding as much metal corrosion as possible. Weird that Seimitsu makes shafts for all its joystick line except their most popular model! On the other hand, like the handle-less joysticks, it’s butter to me – means I can personalize the stick with whatever colored JLF-compatible shaft I’d like in addition to buying the style of/color balltop handle that appeals to me. (I really gotta stop buying balltop handles… Nah. I’ll get the “bling” when I want it. Seems like there’s still around a dozen colors/styles I’d like to get.)
Speaking of ball tops… the new anodized ones have been shipped and it looks like we are getting small order of the limited edition Sanwa Gold and Silver(pearl) ball tops…
On another note… the new foams arrive Monday so everyone who got some in the first batch, and one person it looks like we missed will be getting a full set of foam washers and two or three new ones to test out!
im curious…i will be in hawaii during august for vacation in honolulu of course and i was wondering if there were any modders in the area and if there is a paradise shop i can personally visit?
We run the shop out of our home, but people coming to Hawaii are always welcome to arrange a visit.
There is a Hawaii Gamers League, that is active in modding and has an office over on the Honolulu side.
Email Susan the dates you are in town. We also long overdue to have an arcade party…
I have to admit, Hawaii is one of the few places off the North American continent that I want to visit before I drop dead.
Australia’s another.
They look like they could be nice places to live but I’ve heard stories about $5 gallon milk, too.
Where do you get milk for $5? coupon? 
Almost everything over here is $5 for a gallon, milk, gas…
I miss living in Hawaii, but I don’t know if I could go back to live again. Once you get used to the idea that you can drive for hours and see something new, Hawaii seems so small. But I really miss the Big Island, and kinda Oahu, though I’m sure it’s not the same Oahu I used to know.
I would like you make a small octo gate for sanwa jlf,to break that horrible throw…
and stop speaking about Hawaii,i want a Kona beer now…unfortunatly it’s not findable in France.
Time to go grab a Kona Firerock!
We are working on some solutions that should be out in a month or so.
Have you tried Kowal’s actuator? That should effectively change the gate size.
Heh…
Kona.
The Trader Joe’s mini-market outlet in the 48 Continental States (sorry – no Hawaiian or Alaskan locations according to their website) has the Hawaiian Kona coffee in stock as well as Kona cookies.
I’ve had the cookies… Once.
** Not because they were bad but because they were TOO good! **
Ate the whole box within a day…
(The chocolate hazelnut cookies Joe’s stocks are pretty damn good, too. I also avoid those for the same reason as the Kona’s. Hell, I store away from ALL of Joe’s cookies! Too good! For a store with healthy alternatives, they sure stock a lot of damn good sweets and chocolates! It’s a minefield for people who like/crave that sort of stuff.)
Might try the Kona coffee someday. I’m not bad about coffee in particular; I can take it or leave it. It’s chocolates and sweets I have to be careful about!
I’m cursed with belonging to a long line of chocaholics…
There’s no clinical treatment for it other than going cold turkey if you dare!!!
(Cold turkey has only worked well for me in the case of sodas… I just don’t need them and get along fine with buying only when I occasionally eat out. I don’t have them at home…)
P.S. – I haven’t had macadamia chocolates much – 3-4 times my entire life – but they are easily “up there” with the specialty chocolates I’ve had. Definitely better than chocolate-covered almonds, IMHO. Preference towards milk chocolate, of course…!
I try Kowal’s actuator,but to be effective at best you need his short shaft too.
That not easy to mount on an arcade stick,and i will be a pain to mount on a Qanba.
I realy think the best solution it will be to have a short octogate,easy operation to have a stick near to Seimitsu lS-58 and can be silent mod.
Just saw the pic of the anodized balltops -> man they look really nice. I’ll be picking up two of those!
On more thing though: when will the Uila’s be back in stock? I’ve been waiting for 4 months now, and my arcade cab is nearing completion, so I really want/need them!
Uila’s are coming in, and we will have a new lighting system launching before Evo.
We are very excited about the new anodized parts, if these look good, we will have a very diverse set of colors and will start etching parts.
One other fun new piece we are adding are the new Sanwa Ball Tops. One of our suppliers grabbed a few for us
Now that I see another picture of the new Sanwa balltops, they look even nicer.
Had I known you were getting them in, I would have waited to buy 'em from you.
(No worries on balltops, though. The aluminum balltops look nice. I’d buy a “naked” clear-glossed balltop handle from you. I’ll wait to see what other color/pattern paintjobs you’d consider but aluminum on its own has an interesting polished look to it. The reflective, almost mirror-reflection of the “naked” polished “silver” aluminum skins that you see in full-color pictures of World War II fighters like the P-51 Mustang, P-47 Thunderbolt, and P-38 Lightning are good examples of this. Navy fighters (F4F Wildcats, F6F Hellcats, F4U Corsairs, British and Japanese carrier-based fighters) don’t appear like that in old photos… they had to painted for anti-corrosion’s sake since they spent almost their entire lives in salt water which the educated among us know isn’t great for most untreated, uncoated metal… or at least every metal alloy I’m aware of.)
Didn’t know you would get them, though, so I got them from AS…
I had to get one of each. (I don’t repeat on patterns or colors unless they’re red… and even then it has to be for a special reason.) I’m reserving the gold one for one of my next joystick purchases for which I’ve already designed the art. I figure to put the silver top on my VLX by the end of the week and it’ll stay there unless I find another more suitable home for it (alternate joystick).
I initially wasn’t going to get the gold top and thought about going with two silver tops but A) the LE nature and B) my own aversion to repeating myself plus C) the fact that I had an art pattern already designed which could USE a gold piece made the gold top purchase easier to swallow.
(Not a huge fan of gold color in general. Hard to find cloth or other material that it goes well with…)
125 (a-piece) TOTAL of these balltops, folks… Once they’re gone, that’s it!
Sanwa’s pretty good about keeping LE arcade part runs limited AND out-of-print.
There were those other Sanwa LE balltops a few years back (green star, lollipop swirl, chrome) but you don’t see them anymore unless someone’s willing to sell theirs at an inflated price.
They may do gold and silver balltops again in the future but not in this pattern.
I’ve seen solid gold and silver balltops along with swirl versions offered online before (you have to buy 500 or more pieces from factories to get them) but ***never ***before in a banded pattern like this.
Paradise Arcade Shop is the only other American parts vendor I’m aware of that’s carrying these balltops… You’ve all been warned. Unless the economy’s really, really bad and nobody hears about these, I doubt any vendor is going to have them in stock two-four months tops from now.
Haha, thanks George. We have a very direct line into Sanwa, so if there’s something you want, just ask!
We actually may still be able to get these if anyone is interested…
If I order the Omron Silent JLF kit, would it be possible to request the Gold actuator instead of Red?
Awesome Ball Tops
OMG, it’s been a while since I saw those at Akihabarashop’s website!
The star balltop might be oversized… Not sure I remember that correctly.
I can’t see the third balltop clearly enough in the photo but color obviously looks off-white slightly yellow like bones… it almost looks like it has an image of something on it but I think it’s basically a Pearl swirl pattern. That image might just be an artifact created by camera flash or lens.
I dub the second one, the “lollipop swirl” and the fourth, “moo-moo ball”.
(Sorry, but there are a BUNCH of farms in Ohio no matter where you live! LOL)
I thought at the time I saw these that there was also a chromey black balltop.
Gotta hand it to Sanwa: out of the major parts producers, they make the best mass-market balltops and their plastic coloring is the best mass market-wise. When they produce good LE product, it’s really good!
I dunno… My preference leans towards the meshballs (where are you, Vermillion???), Pearl swirls (the butteroj stuff was very nice), and metallic looks or metallic with light pattern overlays – Pearl swirl or banded like the Sanwa LE gold and silver. I think the best looking metallic balls tend to be silver and darker/black colored. For some reason, the other colors look cheaper to me and generally don’t get pulled off well.
By end of the week, I should be able to comment on the Sanwa LE “banded” gold and silver balltops.
Now that I think about it, the banding on them kind of makes them look like miniature versions of the gas giant planets in our solar system…