Stick lit up

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
Various components
Disconnected innards
Buttons removed
Buttons and panels removed
Ready for art
Wrapped art and plexi
Trivial misalignment
Art in place
Art and plexi
Fiddily bits
Button is place
Sanwa's secrets
Buttons set
Replacing top buttons
LED board
All done
Lit up
Lit up
Lit up underside
Game time

*This was originally posted to my site on 2015-08-19.