SFIV is coming and I can't wait. In commemoration of such an event, I've decided to mod my joystick. This is the first time I'll be attempting something like this (and I'm a little nervous since I haven't really done any electronics-related stuff since, oh, High School).
I'm going to do one first, see how that turns out, and then hopefully do another for my brother.
This is a three-fold process. First I'll be pulling out the old buttons to make way for some new Sanwa OBSF-30 buttons. These are much quicker reacting than the stock and a little bigger.
Next I'll be gutting the stock Hori stick and replacing it with a Sanwa JLW-TM-8 balltop joystick. This will be a little looser than the default configuration and hold up better over time. Apparently, there are different "gates" you can get (the plastic part that locks the joystick in place) and I'll be going with a square gate. The only real difference here is that a square gate will lock to the corners when you move the stick, whereas an octagonal gate won't. It's strictly personal preference (I'm used to square, so I'm sticking with square).
And finally, the piece-de-resistance, I'm going to take off the boring cover panel and replace it with some SICK new artwork courtesy of Yukiko.
Now, if all that goes well, I'll probably have the confidence to do another. Imagine THESE twin babies, one with blue buttons/ball-top and one with red!
For anyone interested, I'm getting the parts from Lizard Lick (http://www.lizardlickamusements.com), which has good prices and cheap shipping. The total price of this project will probably come in just under $50 (which is not bad, + joystick that'll be about $90... a retail stick with Sanwa parts sells for about $140).
I know this seems a little obsessive of me, but frankly, I had a good time learning about what all this stuff does, and it'll be a fun time getting my hands dirty in some electronic work again.
Plus... it's gonna look/perform so sexy.
Now, I'm just saying, if anyone wants to buy me the parts to mod that second stick... my birthday is riiiiiiiight around the time SFIV comes out... I'm just saying. = D
Addendum: What looks better, my initial design, or this slightly reworked one?
This mosaic is made up of 101 other hadoken pictures, spanning every game I could think of that featured a shoto, from the original Street Fighter and its iterations to some really obscure shit (SF: Mouse Generation? SF: The Korean Drama??). It took quite a while to assemble. Click the image for a larger version with a full list of references.
