Megadrive arcade stick conversion?

o1s1n

I have one of these sticks. It never gets used because once you've played games with decent arcade stick and buttons, these feel like junk -



I'd love to mod this with arcade parts. Anyone out there with the know how reckon it's possible? Finding parts to fit would probably be an issue...I'm sure a lot of hacking would need to be done to get the bigger buttons through.

pdbhp

Well I have one of these bad boys and would also love to change it into an arcade stick that I could use on XBOX.
I've wanted to so this for a good while now but I really don't have a clue what to do about it. Even if I had all the parts I'd still be stumped about what to do .

Myrddin

Crack it open o1s1n & throw up a few pics of the innards.

o1s1n

Here we go, some pictures. God this stick is a lot dirtier than I remembered



I found a thread where someone was thinking about doing the same. He reckons a seimitsu may fit, but went with a mini Hori one from a tekken stick so there's no 100% clarification on that. But anyway, he got the Hori one working..reckons the stick change is a much easier project than the bottons -

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1283

It's back from 2005, so unfortunately the images with it are long gone.

Okay, took the bottom plate off to take some quick photos. Suprisingly enough, the plate is steel. Good heft to it.







Unscrewed the stick base...no wonder it's so crap, not a micro switch to be seen.



It works on the same rubber pad principle as the standard Megadrive pad! Sega, you cheap bastards!



The stick basically has a concaved dome shape that corresponds to a dome on the little board I screwed off. -



The next step would be the 'screw off the main PCB and have all the buttons fly everywhere' one..so I'll leave it at that for the moment. I am guessing the stick could be modded anyway without going near the main pcb and just using those 5 wires going to the joystick board.

Yreval

Having known someone who modded one of these into a six-button Playstation stick, I can confirm that it is indeed possible. She had to use 24mm buttons (instead of the standard 30mm buttons) though, and even then it was a bit of a tight squeeze.

I'll try and find a pic or two soon.

o1s1n

You serious? Wow, that's great to hear! Pics would be fantastic. Thanks a million

Myrddin

Well I can't see the button mechanisms, but the d-pad just looks like it's pcb based as opposed to microswitches. It would indeed be possible to mod it, but some pcb hackery would be required & if the buttons are the same, it wouldn't be just a matter of dropping in proper ones.

You'd need to find the circuit on the pcb that the existing button presses, break the circuit, & connect either side of the break to an arcade microswitch to activate it...though all that depends on it being pcb activated in the first place.

Yreval

Finally found a pic:

o1s1n

:eek:

Thanks for that! Really interesting mod. That's pretty much what I was looking to see.

So I take it the whole original button/stick casing was removed under where the overlay is? I never thought of doing that.

K.O.Kiki

Holly is probably top modder up North IIRC
I've seen that stick; it's tiny!

At a glance, I'm guessing that the art is under a piece of plexi, which provides the plate necessary for mounting the buttons too.
The stick is likely Seimitsu LS-33 or Sanwa JLF (smallest possible sticks).

@pdbhp:
Bring that stick to a Saturday XGC session & I'll give it an appraisal.

pdbhp

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

@pdbhp:
Bring that stick to a Saturday XGC session & I'll give it an appraisal.

Thanks Kiki I'll bring it with me nest time I'm about:D