Ikea Arcade Stick - Mini Edition Part 3

Continued from Part 2.

To put off dealing with the wiring, i decided to set up some glamour shots of the work so far, set against my previous full-sized IkeaStick, with it's black-on-black colour scheme.

Ikea Arcade Stick - Mini Edition Part 4

Continued from Part 3.

The greatest thing about this mini stick is that the art layers are a perfect A4 piece of paper! I chucked some photo paper in my home printer, and was able to bang this out in minutes.

Ikea Arcade Stick - Mini Edition Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

With the glue dried, it's time for a test fit of the Wiimote.

Gear VR Blaster - Part 1

Despite it being quite rudimentary by modern standards, the new Gear VR motion controller adds a lot of capability as a orientation-tracked pointing device. It's particularly well suited to light-gun games, an archaic genre of game which has cutting-edge hardware to thank for its resurgence.

So why not go the whole hog, and put the controller inside a gun?

Ikea Arcade Stick - Mini Edition Part 1

It has been a long time coming, but here's the text-based rundown on how to build the Ikea Arcade Stick from a single piece of 7mm ply. If you'd rather watch the in-depth video walkthrough, head here!

Ok, for everyone else, you'll need a sheet of ply, PVA glue, two Stromby picture frames, and the clear plastic sheet out of a cheaper Ikea frame (try the damaged goods section!). We'll be using the 30x20cm version here, but the 40x30 makes a great TE2-sized stick! I used spade bits to cut the button holes, in 24mm and 30mm, a table saw for all of the grunt work, and a regular hand saw for a fiddly bit.

My Shoes of Choose - The Dunlop Volley is back, minus the Dunlop!

Despite spending far too much money on English leather over the years, when it comes to sportswear my taste in shoes is almost inconceivably simple. For fifteeen years the Dunlop Volley Classic has stood tall as my shoe of choice for everything from parkour to squash, fishing to running. I'd buy this very specific type of Volley in batches of several pairs from Payless Shoes, and replenish them annually.

Then one day, without warning, the supply dried up! Lesser Volley Internationals could be purchased from places like Kmart, but their soft sole would wear out in under a week, and the heavy, jelly feel was useless.

They also looked incredibly stupid with their smooth, bulgy toe cap.

Ikea Arcade Stick - Mini Edition Teaser!

I've had a few requests to compile a proper step-by-step build of one of my sticks, as the previous posts have all been iterative updates. Here's a quick rundown of what's gone on so far...

Ikea Arcade Stick V2 - Shiny Shiny!

Continued from Part Two.

When it comes to art, I am the most indecisive human alive. This is why I've never had a tattoo, despite spending the best part of a decade drunk.

So the styrene sheet goes down over the naked plywood for now. It will protect the surface while I decide what to do, and it still looks nice enough.

Ikea Arcade Stick V2 - Part Two

Continued from Part One.

Much has happened since last we spoke! My new hardware order from Arcade Shock took a little longer than anticipated, but work was swiftly resumed on the other side!

Prototyping - Wii U wheel with pedals and shifter

To make my Wii U Zapper work from the Wii U Gamepad, i had to create an interface board to connect the PCB to my external switches. This modularity allowed me to hook the gamepad up to just about anything, and one of the first ideas i had was to take on the arcade version of Mario Kart.