I was wondering about it not just because that it has a bat top, but it has a bat top, and was marketed to an American audience, most of whom only had experience with Happ parts at the time.
can you crack it open and take pictures of the internals?
I’ve always wanted to see what they looked like on the inside. Fortunately I think it will take Japanese buttons, but the case looks very shallow, you might be able to mount an IL Compact in it, but you’ll probably have to drill out a hole in the bottom for the shaft to pass through.
Isn’t that stick like 1.25 inch thick? From memory I think my palm is thicker laying flat. Sanwa jlf needs 1.5 in. Min, korean needs like 2 in. and a happ needs 2.9 inches.
I’ll take it apart soon and post some pics. I vaguely recall I tried to do it before, but either the case wouldn’t come apart or I didn’t have the proper Torx screwdriver. I have the Torx bits now, so that won’t be an issue. We’ll see if it comes apart or if the back panel is stuck…
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6526/shadowblade1024003.jpg
The outside of the stick.
http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/2205/shadowblade1024015.jpg
The thickness of the case at its widest point, about 1 1/4 inches.
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2139/shadowblade1024016.jpg
You have to take out these nine screws, plus pry off the rubber feet and take out those additional six screws to get the back cover off.
http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/3148/shadowblade1024019.jpg
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/491/shadowblade1024022.jpg
The PCB. It doesn’t look like it’s common ground. Notice the button wires on the top left all have separate ground wires going to the PCB. Not that you’d want this board anyway. The wire harness connects to the PS2 cable.
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/7439/shadowblade1024049.jpg
The front of the PCB.
http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/2366/shadowblade1024023.jpg
The joystick has a metal square gate. Those wires running into the shaft are for the autofire button on top.
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2525/shadowblade1024029.jpg
The joystick uses levered microswitches. They feel very hollow and cheap. There’s no branding of any kind on them.
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/7152/shadowblade1024027.jpg
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/5902/shadowblade1024037.jpg
The joystick mounting hole. Looks like 30mm here but I don’t think that’s too accurate.
http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/6576/shadowblade1024043.jpg
A Sanwa bat top is big enough to fit inside the hole.
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/264/shadowblade1024055.jpg
Joystick mounting area. Looks like about 2 1/4 inches between the posts.
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/4979/shadowblade1024046.jpg
The joystick after being removed.
http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/6010/shadowblade1024020.jpg
The buttons are held in by two small tabs, just like on Sanwa buttons, but smaller. Oh, and big globs of glue.
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/669/shadowblade1024052.jpg
One of the knockoff Sanwa buttons from the Brawlstick fits perfectly into the hole, so 30mm Japanese buttons should fit. The holes are too big for Crown or Happ buttons it looks like.
Colour me surprised, microswitched joystick & buttons (albeit terrible ones).
It’s going to be a bitch to fit any stick in there though.
That’s really odd. The joystick IS essentially a K Style stick. I still don’t think you could cram a Fanta in there. If you wanted to K-stick it up you could always toss some cut down gersung switches in there.
Still, that’s an insanely low profile for a stick. The only thing I’ve seen come close is the Neo Geo MVS stick. It does it by mounting the spring for the joystick above the body of the case, which is both crazy and really interesting.
I found some pictures on Joystick Vault where a guy modded the Shadowblade with a JLF. He had to dent the bottom panel with a ballpeen hammer. So even a JLF won’t fit without a shorter shaft. Maybe one from FocusAttack or kowal might work. Obviously, that means Happ/Fanta is out of the question.
I have a Myoungshin Fanta on the way from eTokki (not for the Shadowblade, it’s for a custom HRAP3 panel I got from blklightning21). When I get it I’ll take some more pictures with it and the Shadowblade for size comparison.
Did you ever finish this mod? I’m extremely curious. The Shadowblade itself is trash, but I’m diggin the design. From your pictures it will accept 30 mm buttons and the pics on joystick vault make it seem the the OBSF-30 buttons were a bit too long. I was thinking that Semistu’s PS-15s should fit snuggly. My problem is now that i ned to buy a shadowblade (like 40 bucks) and gut it. i know it’s a difficult mod and i know that i should buy some other stick or make my own. I am really too obsessed with the metal case and the design on that thing. I want it!
I never seriously considered modding this thing. I was curious so I took it apart to see if it was possible. Too much hassle, IMO. Fitting a joystick in there will be the hardest part. You should be able to get a Shadowblade cheap on eBay, since they never sell.
I noticed that they never sell but douche bags on eBay want like 40.00 for them when they are probably only worth about 20.00. In any event I’m going to cough it up because I really need to do this. would you be willing to sell your SB?
Sorry to sound like an ass, but I don’t really want to box it up and ship it and all that. A lot of the listings on eBay say “or best offer” so you could try bringing the price down.
That’s alright. I get it, keep an eye out. My post should be in the new stick thread when i get around to it.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
enb141
22
mistercollections and Mizkreant I’m also building a Shadowblade mod if you have used any other parts and have some good news about your project please let us know.
I going to tell you right now, unless you really, really know your stuff I would not even bother. Just stop now and plan out a project much much more feasible.
Modding a stick like this, if you do not know 110% of what to do, you are ending up with a pile of broken parts.
Sticks like this at best is a difficult challenge, at worst is impossible to mod
enb141
24
Darksakul, I’ve made a stick before buying all their parts using a plain wood box but to be honest I didn’t liked the appearance of the stick so that’s why I bought this one because to me it is the most good looking stick I haven’t seen, most of the sticks that I can see in the “Check Out my new Stick” are just boxes with art prints but nothing seems to be as cool as this one.
By the way I’ve seen other guys modding this difficult stick and other guys saying go and forget about this one but unfortunately or fortunately I’m one of those guys that want to mod it, the reason is because to me this is my creation and this challenge makes me feel really good.
As an example back in 2005 when apple said that they were going to move from PowerPC to Intel I was one of the first guys to build a hackintosh I know it’s easier and cheaper and less time consuming to buy a mac but the fun part is to make it to work something that is not intended for that use.
That’s the way people like me want to mod this hard piece of shit but to me it will be my beautiful creation.
building a custom is a different breast that modding one of these budget sticks.
Customs are easy as in you make sure everything mesures right and fit where they should.
Modding a Shadowblade for example is at best extremely challenging. You don’t have the clerance or mounts for a Sanwa JLF and you want to install a Korean, Happ or IL joystick inside that means even more under the top panel clearance.
enb141
26
Yes that’s correct that’s why It needs to be modified. I’m also thinking about making changes to the stick that comes with Shadowblade (changing buttons, reduce the distance to the push buttons of the stick)
By the way I’ve bought the Sanwa JLF and the Seimitsu LS-58.
