Hey guys, before I start I want to apologize for the low quality iphone pics. It's all I have, so that's what you get. I also want to thanks the guys over at SRK, CAG's Arcade Stick forum, other sites that helped me out (which I will be linking to at the end of this blog).

So this is a Xbox 360 Arcade Stick project I've been working on for the past few weeks. I'm making this blog not as a how-to guide, but as an attempt to get people interested in sticks and the art of building them . If you are interested; please post in the Arcade Stick forum, we'll get you started. I worked hard on this and hope everyone enjoys it. It's a great time to have one of these babies with Street Fighter HD Remix out and Street Fighter 4 on the horizon.

Now theirs three main steps in building a stick. First, the wood work. Basically making the fine cuts, drilling holes for the buttons and gluing together. Second is painting. The coats of primer, spray paint, protective top coat and wax. Lastly is wiring, which is soldering an opened controller PCB to the push buttons and joystick. Every step take a lot of time and patience. But every doable if your willing to learn.

Their are short cuts. Their are places to buy preassembled and painted empty boxes. At this point all you need to do it install the buttons, joystick, artwork, hack a controller and wire it up. Also, you can start out small and just mod a store bought stick. Like buy a Soul Caliber IV stick on clearance and view an online tutorial to learn how to switch out the buttons. Most people start out this way, including myself. Their are even some solderless mods you can do out there!

I really shouldn't say this stick was cheap in the title. I used very expensive parts. The same ones that are in the $200 sticks. So compared to those, I built this at the fair price. Theirs no cutting corners for a top tier arcade stick. Here's a few more pics:








Not the cleanest inside job, but it works.

Good solution for being able to use a headset with my stick.




Home button on back.











Here is a very useful and detailed step-by-step builders guide:
http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick.html

A fantastic must read painters guide:
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthre...light=painting

The best place for Jap arcade parts:
http://www.lizardlick.com/

And CAG's very own arcade stick forum:
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/...d.php?t=192322