Good day. I’ve been working on a few projects of my own, and this is the most difficult one, yet most rewarding one. I was keeping it to myself, but figure I could get further and with better quality with outside help and ideas.
Basic principle - we know the Street fighter buttonlayout - we know the PSX/2 variant 8 button. We have games like Tekken with 4 buttons in a square, games like SNK ones where the buttons are layed out in a line, VF with 3 buttons, and the MK series with its 5 button layout.
I know its not just my idea to make a controller which can replicate all these simultaenously. Previously I ‘curled’ my buttons and added an extra button south/west of the short button for SNK games - hower it was still difficult to play MK, and still didn’t feel right. so I decided to dedicate brain power to solving this. The requirements.
No ‘removalable’ parts.
Quick reconfiguration.
Durable.
As Clean looking as possible.
Very Durable.
I’ve come up with plans for a prototype, unfortunatly, I don’t have the upload power at work, so I’ll try to ‘explain it’ as best I can.
When you drill a stick you typically do two holes, one over the other with a certain distance between them. the first change for this design invovles changing this mindset. Instead - FIVE holes are drilled.
Typical setup
== <- top of box
_
( )
_
( )
== <- bottom
My concept
_
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
==
So basically the drills will partially overlap each other. Already this will allow you to move buttons around. Doing this alone allows a reconfigurable setup, but its not …honestly good looking. Functional though. Simply use a hinge on the bottom of the box and thumb screws to seal the top, so its very easy to to open, yet still secure. The final drilling will look something like this:
o o
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
##
===========
where the o are tumb screws and the ## are screws from the hinge. whe nyou want to reconfigure, just open, untwist plastic ring on pushbutton, pull button up enough to move to the proper slot, put back in and twist. Any unwanted buttons can just be placed at the very top hole, or , an extra cut can be made on the top button, which would allow for the button to slide thru - the button ultimatly being left to lay there inside the box. edit stupid forum is fuckin up my text drawings
“But Unreal - my box will look busted”.
Here is where the thinking started popping up. How do we fill those holes? I’ve got a workign solution, but I’m listening and hopiung on here I can find either a better option or something easier to produce than my idea.
Turn the board over and with a really sharp pencil, use it as a stencil on a piece of paper. Use this to cut out filler pieces. Each piece should be designed to fill in a small area. Each button will have a specific one since some buttons will not have a ‘top’ or ‘bottom’. A box as short as possible needs to be made, this box will be attached to the underside of the top board. Put the pieces where they belong on the board. Attach springs, various websites sell them, I’m stil ltrying to find just the right one, to each piece. Attach the box to this. You’ll have to toy with the tension to get it ‘exact’.
Voila.
Paint and play. Simply press down when transferring the button, and ‘hopefully’ it will spring back when the btuoon is later moved to another sonfiguration. Let me know what you think, horrible idea, wayts to improve, etc.
- :bluu:
