The Flat-Stick - Full build with the basic Pika case

One of my earliest commissions is this Tekken-themed stick. The customer had a tight budget, but for  the same price as the sub-par Venom stick he ended up with a full suite of Sanwa hardware, double-sided art, and a very solid little PC/PS3/PS4 (legacy) stick!

The Flat-Stick - Assembling the Sanwa JLF Joystick

When i ship a fully-built stick, i tend to take the shaft out of the stick to protect it in transit. It only takes a couple of minutes to reassemble with no tools required, and it's far less work than the alternative of installing the entire unit.

These are the parts required to put it together.

The Flat-Stick - Neutrik USB adapter vs. "Pass-under"

There are two ways to handle the USB cable for the Flat-Stick; either hardwired end-to-end and passed under the frame, or a two-piece solution which connects at a Neutrik connector.

The Flat-Stick - Laser-etched button inserts

I was popping some buttons apart recently and noticed that the Seimitsu PS-14-K has an enormous internal capacity, enough to possibly fit a small circle of plywood inside!

So with the latest run of laser-cut parts, i threw in some button inserts.

The Flat-Stick - Etchings and Acrylics

A new lot just came back from the laser cutter today, and on top of a couple of regular cases came a slew of experimental bits and bobs!

Here's a commission for a guy in Perth:

The Flat-Stick - Painting, and introducing the "Bigly" 400x300 stick

Bamboo plywood has many redeeming qualities; It's cheap, strong, looks good, and cuts really well. But it's literally impossible to sand, so painting it can be tricky.

If you just blow a bit of paint over the untouched wood you get quite visible grain. This can be used to good effect, and in flat black it tends to look like burnt wood. It helps that the pieces are all cut with respect to the visible grain, with the top panels having vertical grain and the side pieces horizontal.

Flat-Pack Fightstick - An affordable pre-cut kit which makes a kickass controller!

With Mad Catz going out of business, the lack of retail arcade sticks in Australia can only get worse. The cheapest option is still the PS4 Venom from JB HiFi; a gross, cheaply equipped stick which still carries a $200 asking price. For Xbox owners, the situation is even more dire.

I've posted a few how-to guides covering the DIY building of a cheaper, more solid case, but the power tools required still put it beyond the reach of many people. So finally, here's a mailable case which legitimately takes five minutes to assemble, requires absolutely no tools, and looks better than ever.

Nintendo Switch meets Gamecube

The Nintendo Switch is a good console, and a great handheld. The option to swap coloured controllers out is a great move towards customisation, and that also opens the door for custom painting hues not available via retail.

My favourite Nintendo colour of all time is known as "Spice Orange", so in lieu of living with the blue/red or grey options available at launch i went with a third option.

Gear VR Blaster - Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

With a little bit of glue, some scrap wood, and a dremel, the gun is full of buttons and all ready to be wired up!

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.