The Crafty Modding Thread

Have you ever took your gaming obsession and turned it into something more? Have you ever modded your case for your Xbox 360? Add an artistic flair to your PS3? How about your controllers? Well post them right here in this thread!

~Saka

Well, I'll get this party started I guess! :D. I'd like to share one of my favorite hobbies. As a fan of a lot of arcade-styled games, such as Street Fighter, BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, Don Pachi, Deathsmiles, and Tohou, I like to create and mod arcade sticks with art for at-home usage.

I got into modding my arcade sticks last year, when I bought my first arcade stick, the MadCatz Fight Stick Tournament Edition (TE). Through the shoryuken.com forums, I found out that you can swap out art and such on the TE, and I was really interested on how to mod my TE. I've read through the forums, and researched thoroughly enough and made my first few art mods.

My first one was one for Karin Kanzuki, from the Street Fighter Alpha series.



After that, I had another idea for art, so I created art for the upcoming (at that time) BlazBlue : Continuum Shift, and created Mu-12 art. At this time, I was really hooked on the idea of making my stick look really nice.



Got bored with the art after a while, and swapped it out for a "The IdolM@ster" art with my favorite Idol, Chihaya Kisaragi. It also matches my PSP case.



Probably after a month or so, I have learned that I could increase the size of the art on my TE, as well as dual-mod it to make the arcade stick work on both my Xbox 360 and PS3. After a month or so, I have saved enough money to buy the plexi from tek-innovations.com to increase the area of artwork available to me, and as well as dual-modding the TE with a ChImp to make it work on both the 360 and PS3. I also swapped out the buttons, and changed them from the Sanwa OBSF-30s, to the Seimistu PS-14-KNs, to add art under the buttons.



I created quite a few and different art for my TE.

First off, is my Sakura and Karen themed art. I wanted to keep it simple and reminiscent of the Street Fighter Alpha series, but also visually stunning, and I got this. Custom dust-washer courtesy from tek-innovations.com, and a Sanwa Black Mesh Ball-Top



I also ordered Side Panel Plexi, to add art to the side where the start/back[select] buttons were.



Secondly, I created a BlazBlue one for Noel Vermillion. I wanted more of a sexy element to it, and of course, to stare at dat @$$.



Side Panel :



Thirdly, I asked from a special artist on the shoryuken.com forums, d3v, to help me create another Sakura and Karin themed stick. d3v, thus created this art for my stick. This art came to a shock to me at first. It was simply, just gorgeous. Many thanks to d3v for "Sakura X Karin : Beach Girls". Custom clear-etched dust-washer again, courtesy from tek-innovations.com.

After a while, I wanted to build my own stick, and my first DIY stick was made out of tupperware. I used a PS1/PSX controller and used its Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and created it for use on the PS1, PS2, and used a converter to make it work on the PS3.

Before :



After :

Seimistu LS-32 Joystick w/ Sanwa L.Blue ball-top
6x Sanwa OBSF-30s
2x Sanwa OBSF-24s for the Start/Select buttons on the back.
Art from Black Rock Shooter



Bottom :



After my first custom, made out of tupperware, I went back to the shoryuken.com forums and I bought a wooden case for a new stick. The case came from satek, a case builder based in Texas. Thanks for the case!



After a while, I finally got this finished. Here is my IM@S stick! Yay!

MC Cuthulu Board w/ PSX cable & PS2 to PS3 adapter
Seimistu LS-32 w/ Sanwa Black Ball Top
Sanwa OBSF 30s x6
Sanwa OBSF 24s x3






I also do a lot of art on Photoshop for other people's arcade stick on the shoryuken.com forums. People commission me to create art for them, and I basically do it for them for free. It's fun, and I learn more and more about Photoshop every time I use it.

I hope you guys enjoy my hobby. I dedicated a lot of time and money into this, and to me I enjoyed every second of it.

~Saka

You are amazing. My jaw is on the floor.

It just so happens that i'm planning to buy my first stick ever, next month *for SSF4* would you mind making a custom art for it? I will provide the required pic if needed+ i will appreciate it.

For sure! I don't mind doing art for people here! :D. Just make sure you *snip* that quote of yours, the thread is running out of space as is! *Laugh*

Jesus. If you get one your gonna own the shit out of me 3. Btw. how much does a fight stick cost? $140?

Actually, Wal-Mart is having a sale. They are selling Vanilla SFIV and a MadCatz Standard Edition Arcade Stick for $30. That's a steal right there. The only thing is that the Standard Edition (SE) Sticks have knock-off brands for their buttons and stick, when the Tournament Edition (TE) have authentic Japanese brand.

The TEs are also on sale on the MadCatz website and they are selling at around $100 if I remember correctly.

I'm probably going to buy an SE because I want another stick to add to my collection. :3

Well I'll be damned. I finally found something to buy for black friday......or is the sale now? If it is how long till the sale is over?

And whats the diff?

It's on sale now.

here's are pics of the difference between a TE and a SE :

SE :


Here are pics of the TE and it's different variants, starting from oldest to the newest. The only difference between all of them are visual, but everything else are the same on each variant of the TE.

TE :


TE Round 2 :


TE MvC2 :


TE-S :


*NOTE*
The TE-S is the only one that is full-panel (Art extending to the ends, instead of the art only covering up to the border) and it doesn't have what I call "wings".

Impressive work dude.

I was planning on getting this one here



I beleive it was made /or called *Hori*?

Hori Real Arcade Pros EX3s (HRAPEX3) are good too. They are pretty cheap too. Little harder to mod though, but not too hard.

Nice.You should make me one.

Ghetto-Tupperware style, wooden box, or custom TE/SE? :D