Project: Dedicated Smash Bros Arcade Stick - Update - Seimitsu LS-64 in action!

Tech Talk
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I haven’t posted here lately but I have a very big surprise for you guys coming soon. I may have my analog stick playable soon - using a 3D printed case.

My friend is currently in the process (and almost done) making a Frankenstein smash stick which is half controller/half stick, I can post the finished result here if you guys are interested.

I’m currently at a FL regional: Tampa Never Sleeps and I have footage of me playing my pool match against mew2king and there are pictures I’ll repost on here that were taken by the photography staff of me and the stick in action.

I’ll try to post the Tampa Never Sleep stuff at the end of the weekend (or whenever the pictures of up) and I’ll keep you guys updated with the progress of my analog stick as well.

I may also end up modifying my current jlf stick as well by getting a plexiglass cut since I’m happy with my final (and currently not being used) button layout.

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Update onto my last post.

My friend completed his Frankenstein stick and the button layout is the tits man, it feels so good. Smash bros melee is his main game and he’s been showing me a lot of cool stuff that the stick gives advantages of gameplay wise that I wasn’t even aware of. Just gameplay that requires simple and quick inputs to perform like a instant ledge drop rising aerial are hella simpler because the c-stick takes override of the analog stick so c-stick buttons guarantee precise and accurate inputs. Tapping the c-stick buttons will guarantee you never accidently drift away from the ledge or fast fall to your death (since you could accidently hold the c-stick analog stick too long) and you can be at the perfect range you want to be to the ledge while controlling your air mobility since you never have to let go of the left analog stick! The c-stick buttons are housed right outside the ergonomic layout which makes all the tech skill needed a breeze to perform these inputs.

I asked him if I could post pictures but he declined temporarily because it’s housed in a cardboard/duct tape box and he wants to 3d print his case and assemble before he takes pictures. He also learned how to get through all the headaches that come with the wiring process including how to get the c-stick buttons to work which was harder than my initial research said.

We also learned something new in how the game handles input for a specific instruction (nothing that matters in-game though). In order to quit a match, you must hold 2 ‘hard press’ shield inputs - which means the hard click would need to be wired to the stick as well.

Currently his Frankenstein stick is half a gamecube controller on the left, and an arcade stick (buttons) on the right. The left trigger on the gamecube controller still works like normal, and he had a hard shield and light shield button on the right - so he ‘technically’ has 3 shield buttons: the left trigger, hard shield button, and light shield button.

In order to have access to quit matches, I’ll just have a hard press shield button next to my start button (which would be embedded on the side of the stick similar to the start location of the madcatz TE sticks) so I can quit matches with ease. Location of the shield buttons would be: hard press button next to start located on the side of the stick, hard press button on face of stick, soft shield button on face of stick.

I never found pictures of the Tampa Never Sleeps event and I honestly just forgot to upload the m2k video. You can’t even see the stick in the video anyway so it’s whatever, I’ll upload it later tonight after work. Since sfv came out, most of my focus has been on that. I went to Final Round and didn’t even bother to bring my smash stick with me. I plan to 3d print a case for my analog LS-32 stick in the near future but that will most likely happen in a few months. I have future plans as well after that but I’ll keep it as a surprise for now since it’s something I rather keep private for now.

Edit: https://youtu.be/Ifzh5-uBpHU

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Me vs Plup in Melee (top 8 at Evo)
https://youtu.be/lOWHZ7UKyEw

Me vs random player in Smash 4
https://youtu.be/enn_4CgfLco

Me competing at CEO Prologue yesterday. Not much in terms of updates lately mainly due to the fact that I’ve lost a lot of interest in smash bros. After Project M was dropped in terms of support from tournaments, my amount of time playing smash has dropped significantly - and I think my level of play in these games show that. I don’t enjoy melee or smash 4 like I enjoy PM. So I haven’t been driven to be as active in my progress with future sticks.

However, I have a lot of things finalized in what I plan to do with my future sticks. I learned a lot more through my friend going through the build process and want to have something tangible in a few months (while also being the final build). I’m most likely going to get another PCB wired to make the final stick with the revisions I have in mind.

Through a lot of testing, I’ve finally come up with something that is objectively better in every way to a standard gamecube controller - and there’s only 1 advanced technique that isn’t possible but it only works for 1 character and is rarely used to begin with anyway so it doesn’t matter. Some of the things possible on the final design are things that were previously thought to be TAS level execution, but can be done easily due to access to arcade stick buttons.

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@TheBlackHombre Glad to know you’re confident in the work you’ve done so far. Thanks for sharing the vids! I’m definitely interested in your updated layout. Can you possibly reveal it? I’m looking to order a custom top panel for a Round 1 TE to accommodate this layout. Finally graduating college so I’ll have more time for hobbies and leisure.

It’s too bad that PM is mostly tossed to the side. Definitely a solid and fun version of Smash imo.

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Got a some big updates for you guys.

I went to CEO again this year and got in touch with Gummo again and made more progress with both sticks.

JLF smash stick: added the ability to taunt (up, down, left, and right) with the 4 un-used buttons on the top of the qanba q1 case (the disabled home, turbo, select, and mode buttons)

LS-64 smash stick: had Gummo wire the joystick and buttons to a harness so I can drop everything in and out of cases with ease. I plan to have a temporary case done within a week made out of wood (I’m having my good friend help me out, he’s the one playing on a Frankenstein arcade stick currently like I mentioned in an earlier post). I’d also like to have a permanent custom case finished within 2 months. Here’s 2 videos of the LS-64 in action!

https://youtu.be/zdEW7x8XSwk

https://youtu.be/_dq6i7VDhSA

I also plan to make the final build of both sticks as well. There’s specifications that I’m going to re-do on both pcbs, due to realizing that some features were and weren’t possible on the current pcbs.

Mainly for the realization that I can have 4 shield buttons, not just 2. Each trigger (L and R) can be assigned 2 individual buttons: light and hard shield. I plan to have L trigger set to both light and hard shield for the buttons on the face of the stick, and have the R trigger set to hard shield next to the start button behind the stick. This will allow me to press BOTH hard shield inputs allowing me to quit matches, while still having access to a hard and light shield for gameplay purposes.

I may play with the idea of having a second light shield button for a really specific option select in the game that uses the light shield button to OS an l-cancel every time. However, the current build can do this already, it’s just having to OS light shield with your pinky is a bit uncomfortable but I’ll mess around with it and see what I come up with.

Edit:
Tried to make a super super temporary case out of a big Tupperware I bought but I couldn’t even get the buttons to fit in it because I was making holes with a knife. I’m going to borrow my dad’s dremel either this weekend or the following weekend (1.5 hour drive) so I’ll have a video of me playing on it soon. I’m also going to drop the temporary wooden case idea as well because after doing research on the cost of everything, it’s nearly half the amount I’d pay for a final professional case. I’m just going to get my measurements ready and place the order to have it made asap. Hopefully 2-3 month wait before I have it.

Now that this stick is close to being done, I’m super excited to get it finished. Expect consistent updates from me from now on, I’ll be moving into a new house and building a pc (currently didn’t have one) in 2 months so I’ll be able to readily post content on my youtube as well!

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Best of luck and thanks for the update @TheBlackHombre! The LS-64 is looking like a good fit. Any chance we can talk about layouts in the meantime as you’re building?

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Sent you a pm

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Is it possible to share any pictures(through PM or posting here) of your friend’s frankenstick, and some tips on how to build it? I want to try making it

Edit: NVM

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I had a long conversation with my friend who made the Frankenstein stick last night and we came up with what we believe to be even superior button layout (compared to the final layout I posted earlier on this page).

It is very similar to the old layout - just improved a tad bit. We changed the location of some buttons entirely (off of the original 8 button vewlix location) to allow both high level execution and normal gameplay execution to be done with ease. The new layout keeps in mind particular option selects top players use which throw off the ergonomics of our current button layout (my friend has been using our previously “final” button layout but he applied all the tech I’m referring to into his gameplay - which is what allowed us to revamp the layout for the future changes).

A big benefit of our revised layout is that the new layout allows us to not place any strain on the hands/wrists/forearms since we took in mind all the documented motions that cause the various types of carpal tunnel when playing on a controller or arcade stick.

I’ll be traveling to my parent’s house this weekend to borrow my dad’s dremel, so we’ll be testing the new layout next week. We’ll be showing the button layout to everyone here as soon as it’s finished and tested. In addition to that, since I’ll have a dremel to use - expect a working and playable prototype of the analog smash stick next week as well!

In news unrelated to me, the people over at hitbox arcade made their own version of a smash bros arcade stick - in the form of a hitbox.


I had mixed feelings on seeing the video initially because I wanted to be the person to make the go-to arcade stick for smash bros. I felt as if the ability to do so was taken from me (especially since they’ll be profiting from it) but I know it’s nothing personal like that.

I’m curious to see the future progress of their stick, I really liked their idea of having a shift button for their shield buttons - which allows one shield pushbutton (L or R) to do both light and hard shield. I may play around with the idea as well with my revised button layout. However there are a lot of things with their button layout in general that directly conflict with what my friend and I have discovered that have a big correlation with the development of carpal tunnel.

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https://youtu.be/UM-NKXS1m2I

The Hit Box take on things for those interested.

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When you press the F5 button one too many times cause of the hype

http://i.imgur.com/pyFY72V.gif

hopefully the case will be up and ready soon

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It should be! My friend and I are working on it and he should have a printed plexiglass with our final button layout on it by the end of the day. I’m going to try to have everything ready by the end of the day or tomorrow.

If things take longer than anticipated, I’ll just transfer everything into a Tupperware case for a week since I’ll be able to cut proper holes with the dremel I have.

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Honestly, I wouldn’t worry about the Smashbox being the go-to Smash Arcade Stick. There’s a lot the box does right, but there’s also a lot of that design I feel like could be improved on, and I use the hitbox for other fighting games.

I’ve been slacking on keeping up with this thread, but I’ll never stop it from giving me e-mails. Honestly, if the LS-64 works out well I’ll probably have to ask about getting one. I haven’t been playing a lot due to lack of interest, but for some reason I feel like having a stick for Smash would peak my interest again.

I’m going to backtrack to see what I missed, but just in case I miss it, what’s the current layout you have going?

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Until then my F5 will be jackhammered

Also, I’ve been wanting to ask about restrictor gates. Wouldn’t square gates mess up the analog values, considering how the ration between the corners and the sides is somewhere around 1.4:1? Just curious

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I’m going to try to keep everyone updated as often as I can - which is something I could have done a lot better before.

This post has the latest button layouts I’ve come up with, however I’m currently testing a layout that I believe is even superior to this one. I’ll be sure to post it as soon as I’m ready with it. My friend texted me today saying the laser cut panel will ready this Friday instead of today, sadly. We can still try it in person, however, when I dremel a panel later tonight since we have a printable cad file to use.

The LS-64 is naturally a circle gate, the entire joystick casing is 2 big pieces that connect together - with all the internal parts working inside. Because of the nature of case it’s housed in, changing the gate to square isn’t possible. I’m curious in attempting to 3D print a new bottom piece that restricts the joystick to a similar fashion of a square gate.

This post will give a better idea of what I mean.

Also expect some news later tonight, I will try to finish dremeling the panel tonight but if I’m not able to finish it. I will be sure to make a post with the news and my best ETA.

Edit: My dad’s dremel has been sitting in a garage for years. Apparently whenever he used it, he used it while holding the release button (I’m assuming) so I’m not able to replace the drill end of the dremel :confused:

My friend has a small drill that supposedly can do the job, so we’ll try again later tonight.

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http://i.imgur.com/pcyc4Ni.jpg

Seriously though, what you’re doing can very well push the entire metagame forward. You should really be paid for all of this work

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https://youtu.be/Aj5C1VlOwl8

Got everything ready for the case but didn’t realize I didn’t have screws to mount the joystick. Oh well, I’ll get screws tomorrow and have a full video of me using it then.

Until then, here’s something to hold you over. a video of what the joystick looks like in game. Note at how much precision the joystick offers me, doing rotating up tilts is super easy and I still have full control of all my directions including jumping with the analog stick if I wanted!

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Haven’t done anything else to the stick yet, I had an emergency that required me to leave the area last weekend and I’m going to Metrocon this weekend so I’ll most likely get to working on the stick on Monday. Most days of the week I’ve just been busy at work.

I tried messaging 2 case builders about making me a custom case for this as well, but I never heard anything back which is a shame. I’ll keep trying otherwise I’ll make something out of mdf for it.

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Guys

I just found this

https://www.arcadeshop.de/Seimitsu-Joysticks-LS-64-Analog-Stick_718.html?osCsid=de2ubialflb3j43ilq9ck7vbm3

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@MeililsCharm
You know once Paradise Arcade releases Project Magenta, analog joysticks will be available to anyone with a JLF.