[Tech] Joysticks log. New one in the works.

Mentioned this a while back, but thoughts of renovating the Devil May Cry acrylic joystick case were floating around in my mind, but I ultimately couldn't decide what to do or whether or not I should even bother. Just a few days ago, I had a sudden itch to sample Sanwa buttons since they feel incredibly different than Seimitsu buttons despite how so many people have claimed they're about the same. Before I dive into that topic, let me present you with past joysticks I've made:

Black & Yellow

Sanwa JLF joystick, Happ Horizontal and Competition buttons. The panel art is a manipulated photo of a BMW car wheel.

Orange & White
First stick I built entirely on my own.



Had extra money laying around from that one drawing commission and I had not tried Sanwa nor Seimitsu buttons at the time so I sought this opportunity to make one hell of a pretty-looking joystick. The original idea was to make a glossy pearl white stick with chrome trim. Learned the hard way that there weren't aerosol cans that could get you a reflective black chrome finish, but I had already purchased white paint so improvising was required. I hopped on the Orange/White colour scheme and went with it pretty quickly. I decided that having printed graphics would be a fad I'd get bored of quick so this time no art was printed, and instead I opted to make something using the entire body rather than just one flat surface. This meant that I was faced with the challenge of concealing the screws that secure the joystick in place. Rest assured, I figured something out. I also sought the opportunity to try side buttons with routed holes.




Kept the wire-tucking idea. This time I hinged a section instead of hinging the entire panel. As for covering up joystick mounting screws, foam was used in place of a panel print.

This stick was later decommissioned, about a year or two later when Marvel vs. Capcom 3 released. I had access to the plastic shop at my school (OCAD) and made an entirely acrylic case. It is still currently the most refined case I've built, but also the most fragile. It's currently crumbling thanks to the lack of sturdy fasteners used to secure the frame together, but I took the risk knowing that I have never dropped my past two controllers nor have taken it outside so weight and portability was no longer an issue. Because it's acrylic, it weighs about 8 lbs.

Red/Black/Yellow

 The colour bands running along the side was a long thought-out decision. It's acrylic paint on the inside wall of the 1/2" thick acrylic. I supported this idea because it gave an illusion of depth and the paint wouldn't be touched by exterior elements. Now I kind of want to strip all that off and paint it a new colour.

Second time around making the artwork. That said, I spent many hours doing a trace on MvC3's Trish illustration and poor placement ended cut cutting off the gun I worked so hard drawing! Parts were imported from the Orange controller.

Went all out on the luxury expenses. I always thought installing an artwork for the bottom panel was useless. I still do, but I did it anyway since I still had print credits at school.  The bottom graphic was kept plain to indicate that it's not meant to be looked at as much as the top panel.

Now that its falling apart, I'm revamping the orange stick, updating its colour scheme, and bringing parts back into that case... with Sanwa buttons that should arrive soon. I had a tough time deciding between a few colour schemes. I really tried not to do anything with yellow or black again, but with the current paints I have now, I've decided on the colour scheme and it sure as hell ain't colourful. It will however look pretty darn cute with a custom Dualshock3 controller paintjob that's soon to begin. Just got to wait for the damn controller shell to arrive in the mail first!