The Naoto Stick
Following Evo 2015, I decided I wanted to get more into modding my sticks, just cosmetically to start. I vowed to buy a stick at 2015 and mod it before 2016, but I also wanted to start by modding my existing Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Tournament Edition 2 stick, which is a pretty nice looking stick, really, but I wanted to make it my own.
So, when I got back from Evo, I dove in, getting some art commissioned while shopping around for parts to replace. I eventually settled on some Naoto-themed artwork (considering how important P4A was to my love of fighting games, it seemed fitting), blue LED-backlit buttons, and a clear blue balltop. Definitely a more unified design than the very colorful P4AU stick art.
Everything came together in the course of around three weeks, and I finally put it together this week. I think it looks pretty rad. Please enjoy the images.
Commissioned Artwork: hibachifinal
Artwork and Plexiglas Cutting: Tek-Innovations
Stick: Mad Catz
Stick Parts: Arcade Shock | Mad Catz
![P4AU stick before changes](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-001-pre-changes.jpg)
![Various components](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-002-components.jpg)
![Disconnected innards](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-003-innards-disconnected.jpg)
![Buttons removed](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-004-innards-no-buttons.jpg)
![Buttons and panels removed](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-005-innards-no-buttons-or-panels.jpg)
![Ready for art](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-006-ready-for-art.jpg)
![Wrapped art and plexi](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-007-from-tek-innovations.jpg)
![Trivial misalignment](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-008-trivial-misalignment.jpg)
![Art in place](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-009-art-in-place.jpg)
![Art and plexi](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-010-art-and-plexi.jpg)
![Fiddily bits](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-011-fiddily-bits.jpg)
![Button is place](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-012-button-in-place.jpg)
![Sanwa's secrets](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-013-sanwa-secret.jpg)
![Buttons set](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-014-buttons-set.jpg)
![Replacing top buttons](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-015-replacing-top-buttons.jpg)
![LED board](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-016-led-board.jpg)
![All done](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-017-all-done.jpg)
![Lit up](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-018-lit-up-1.jpg)
![Lit up](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-019-lit-up-2.jpg)
![Lit up underside](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-020-lit-up-underside.jpg)
![Game time](/media/sticks/naoto-stick-021-game-time.jpg)
*This was originally posted to my site on 2015-08-19.