Just wanted to show off what I did in the dark months of winter. I wanted to build a fight stick which could be used for ‘everything’. This included a Neo-Geo MVS, a Commodore 64, a Xbox360, a PC and original arcade game pcb’s using a Super Gun. Thus, several things had to be taken into account if the stick should work across all platforms. In order to realize this, I used an Akishop PS360+ board, a Neutrik USB/Patch plug for the consoles/PC and a 15-pole midi plug for the Neo-geo MVS, the C64 and the arcade boards. All cables were wrapped in cable sleeves to keep everything clean and tidy. A carbon-look just adds something extra right? A total of around 100 cables were inserted into the stick…
The stick has been build using several layers of 20 mm MDF wooden boards, 3 mm stainless steel plates and 4 mm lexan platic boards. The joystick is a Sanwa JLF TP 8YT, the buttons are Seimitsu PS 14 KN 30 mm (arcadeshop.de) in MVS Neo-Geo inspired colors. RGB LEDs have been mounted into all buttons using a Sparky PWM SMD LED Controller PCB. The LED’s are Paradise Arcade Uila LED PCB S Flash. The controller and LED’s have been bought from focusattack.com. The LED’s can be programmed to light up in different colors depending on the number of buttons that are being pressed simultaneously.
The stick was primed 3 times, then 4 layers of paint were added and finally 4 layers of varnish were applied. This was done to make the finish of the stick as durable as possible.
As there is no galvanic separation between the ‘Ground’ and ‘Signal’ lines on the Akishop board, I had to buy a 12 pole 2 rotary position switch on Ebay. The switch changes the ground and signal for the buttons and joystick when it is turned. I bought it from a guy from the Ukraine who described the switch as ‘USSR Military Grade’ for the amount of 3 US dollarss – and it is indestructible! Turning the switch on the back of the stick lets me shift between the consoles and the old arcade hardware.
I also made a little joystick adapter for the Commodore 64. The cable from the fight stick can be plugged into the adapter so it also works on the C64! It’s just so much better using this stick than the Competition Pro and ZipStik joystick I’ve used previously for the Commodore 64.
I even had custom dust washers made for the stick with logo and everything…
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Hi, it’s amazing how this turned so beautiful and with open possibilities. Could you explain for example if I already have a PS4 fightstick, could I mod it for arcade too? I mean all the cables go to the inner board, should I split all the cables in two, duplicate them to a DB15 plug?
Thanks fernando. It should be possible to simply split all cables and route them to a DB15 female plug (15-pole midi plug).
This thing looks rad! I’m getting into arcade games recently and want to buy a super gun but would need a db15 controller to use. Could Ii just mod a current one I have to a db15 port? Thanks again
Hi Joe, if you have a controller/fight stick for e.g. the PS4, it should be possible to connect the wires to a DB15 port and connect that to a Super Gun. In my experience, it is important to have a galvanic separation between the ‘Ground’ and ‘Signal’ lines of the PS4 PCB board and the Super Gun. Otherwise, some arcade boards cannot recognise the controller inputs.