Delving one step deeper into the utter madness that is fighting game fandom, I started visiting the infamous Shoryuken Forums, where the hard core fighting community hangs out online.  It was there I discovered that people actually create their own templates for the face of the stick using official art, fan art and whatever other photoshop or illustrator skills they can muster to create original arcade stick templates to go on the face of the stick.  This can replace the look of the joystick from the factory.  I decided to take a crack at it and make a Capcom (street fighter) vs. SNK (king of fighters) theme stick.  I’ve always loved the artwork in these games and I wanted to capture the over-dramatic, crazy announcer feeling the games have via the text.  I chose two of my favorite characters- Gouken and Iori.

Here is what I plan to do to my Hori Real Arcade Pro 3 stick (which arrived and is awesome)  I’m still waiting on the Sanwa buttons and ball top parts in the new colors. This will be cut out, laminated, then cut again to produce a sheet that can be adhered to the joystick face.

Template (blue will be cut out)

This is a mock up of the button and joystick colors I intend to use (Sanwa parts):

Mock Up of Buttons and Joystick Colors

Since I was working with such a high res file, I took the liberty of making it into a wallpaper for your enjoyment.  This is a high res file, but it’s the right aspect to be sized down for whatever screen you are using:

Widescreen Wallpaper (Download for your desktop)

Enjoy.  I will be sure to post the finished product when I complete it!

I’m better at Street Fighter 4 than I was at SF2.  I have begun to feel the need to get a proper arcade stick.  As any seasoned fighting game fan knows, the preferred medium of play for most fighting games is the arcade stick.  D-pads on regular PS3 controllers will eventually leave your thumb sore and hands cramped.

As Street Fighter 4 finds its way into households all over the world, the more serious fans have bought up almost all of the joysticks available online and in local stores.  Now, most sticks are priced between 150% and 200% of the MSRP on e-bay and Amazon marketplace.  Most of the retailers and manufacturers were caught off-guard by the demand for these.

To celebrate the arrival of this game, Capcom teamed up with a company called MadCatz (who have a horrible reputation, actually, but apparently pulled a rabbit out of a hat this time) to make a tournament edition stick which would feature japanese parts and be of very high quality:

MadCatz TE SF4 Stick (xbox version pictured, PS3 version is identical)

This is quite a piece of kit and features Sanwa brand (arcades use these) buttons and japanese style ball joystick.  These parts are meant to take hours of abuse daily and are definitely the real deal.  But the TE joystick instantly sold out and is no longer available except on sites like e-bay for many times the original price.  Fortunately, there are other options.  In my research, I found another comparable stick that fans love, the Hori Real Arcade Pro 3:

Hori Real Arcade Pro 3

This stick doesn’t have the Sanwa buttons that the Madcatz above has, but it does have a Sanwa stick and solid build quality.  And, it doesn’t have the look of a specific game which is good because the stick can be used on PS3, PS2 and PS1 games as well as a PC via USB.  This stick is also sold out everywhere but today, for a very small window of time, Amazon had it in stock for the normal price.  So, I ordered it and should have it soon.  (It’s out of stock again now)

Unfortunately, it looks like McDonalds designed it.  The colors will have to go.

Realizing I was already down a nerdy path debating the pros and cons of various joysticks in my head, I found a reputable supplier of arcade parts, Lizard Lick.  They are backlogged due to the release of Street Fighter 4.  Sellers of original Sanwa parts for arcade machines, which also happen to fit into these joysticks, they have a good reputation with fans.  It’s possible to create any look you want by combining the parts, and you get better quality stuff this way (Sanwa buttons instead of Hori buttons) as well.  Here is one such creative mind on Flickr:

Modded HRAP 3 with Alternate Ball and Sanwa Buttons (Treaked on Flickr)

I intend to do something similar to this, but with a different button color combo.

You may think this is awfully far to go to purchase a joystick, but after a little research online, I found that the cheaper options really are not worth it.  There just aren’t good AND cheap controllers out there.  Many people break and/or have problems with sticks of lesser quality.  Even the Capcom/MadCatz endorsed “budget” sticks that came out for about half the price already have reports of cracking cases and the sticks not responding to input properly after a week or two of use.  So I’d rather do it once, and do it right.

So, there you have it.  A top quality arcade stick which can be personalized and repaired with real japanese arcade parts.  What madness drove me to go this far, I do not know.  But it is a fun project.  Thank you to my wife for putting up with this latest obsession and actually noticing the Amazon page briefly showing “in stock.”

Waiting for Brawl

Two big news items for today.

1. The inaugural DC Photowalk was held yesterday in Adams Morgan, Washington DC. The walk was held by Jeff Revell of PhotoWalkPro. Despite easy access to DC and a familiarity with the area the walk was held in; I missed it, so by natural law Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski (the “photoshop guys” who I watch all the time and would love to meet) flew up from Florida to attend and walk with everyone. I’m an idiot.

2. Super Smash Bros Brawl came out for the Nintendo Wii at midnight last night. See picture above. This was a big gaming event if you love Nintendo.

People always ask me, “hey, what board games should I play?” Not really, but my friends and I have aquired quite a number of games that I feel are far above and beyond the likes of trivial pursuit, life, monopoly and the like. And I felt I should share them with all of you. If you are looking for some more interesting games to play with friends, check these out. Especially if you have a kid… these games take some thought! I think all of these are German designed games; most good thinking games seem to come from Germany for some reason. If you’d like to buy these games, check out online stores like FunAgain.

1. Carcassonne – My personal favorite. Place tiles together in turns to make a picture of a medieval town. The way you place your tiles and pieces will affect your score. Build cities, roads, monasteries, and more. Place your knights, farmers and builders on the city you are creating, piece by piece. Start with the basic game. There are many expansions, but I only recommend “Traders and Builders” as well as “Inns and Cathedrals” These two expansions really enhance the core game without making things a hellish nightmare of complexity. The rules can be a touch confusing the first time, but there are many great web sites with clarification available.

2. Settlers of Catan – A great game that is easy to learn. I can also recommend the cities and knights expansion which adds some interesting elements after you’ve mastered the basic game. This game is about building settlements and cities on an island nation for points. You can either make a pre-discovered map or allow exploration and discovery of tiles as roads are built towards them. A wonderful game with many ways to play… enjoyed by everyone we have played it with.

3. Puerto Rico – This is a fairly simple game to learn where you take different roles such as builder, prospector, trader, captain, etc each turn to produce crops and construct buildings. This is a great game with a lot of strategic management. Each player’s turn directly affects you, so the game stays lively. Grow sugar, corn, indigo and coffee and then ship them out for points or money in order to be the fastest to settle Puerto Rico! There are 3 ways to win the game and the strategy element is sharp. This game is uncluttered by tons of expansions like some of the others.

Try these out if you’re looking for something new and deeper than traditional American board games.

* This is a legacy post from my old blog, which I have re-posted with an edited timestamp to reflect the original date.

It was with great pleasure that my friend Jared and I went to see Richard Garriott “Lord British” speak at GWU tonight about game design. We are long time RPG genre fans and also Lord British fans in general. He’s such a kooky guy (in a good way.) He is a household name around here, where we frequently refer to Richard Garriott’s sofa, Richard Garriott’s desk, Richard Garriott’s cereal, etc. Lately you’ve probably heard of his latest massive online game Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa which released this year. His accomplishments include essentially creating the computer role playing game genre, building the first successful massive online game (Ultima Online) and owning, as well as living in, his own castle with secret passages and trap doors throughout.

Garriott had been experimenting with creating games for Teletype machines on paper tape (held in his hand above is an original copy) as a teenager. Players would make a move and wait for the machine to type the next line, 40 characters at a time. He did this for entertainment and threw most of the tapes away, preferring to create new games rather than edit old ones. This philosophy has carried over into his long game design career.

Richard was an avid pen-and-paper gamer. He even chose to write about his level 26 wizard, Lord British, for an English paper in junior high school (above.) This later became the story for his video game. 19 years old and working at a computer store, Garriott spent his nights writing code on his personal Apple II computer and created the computer role playing game Akalabeth.

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