what company makes custom arcade sticks?

[GameFreak]

This applies to PCE and TG16...
  I've been thinking of this for a while....
-I'm looking for a quality arcade joystick with 6 buttons for a tg16 and or PCE.
I used to see youtube vids about a year or two ago, where people would order custom arcade sticks for their genuine arcade machines. So why not PCE & TG16?
I want one (or two!) for a PCE or TG16. With really nice quality buttons and joystick.
I want something nicer or equal to the, 6 button "Hori Arcade Fighting-Stick".
Is anyone in the U.S. that makes these? Maybe a group buy if you guys are down? I would put down at least $70-$120 if it was arcade quality.
If you guys know any decent company names that makes custom arcade sticks in the U.S. , PLEASE...PLEASE... let me know, please!
-Thanks!

[m1savage]

In that price range, you can make a real nice one yourself using either Seimitsu or Sanwa buttons and sticks. No other mass produced PCE joysticks I've tried even come close. 

[GameFreak]

I was thinking that. But I am one of those idiots that cant replace lasers or caps. I didn't want to start something I couldn't finish. It seems somewhat easy but I can't find info on joysticks that are not digital. The 6-button part seems easy though.

[PunkicCyborg]

heres some good info to make your own

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=5037

this is a step by step page to make your own, it even has stuff about how to hack the PCE controller
http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/introduction.html

Other then the official sticks and the hori and XE-1, this is your best bet.
It's super easy to wire up the stick and buttons, the controller hacking is a little trickier but not bad. Building custom sticks is a really fun project actually. It might be easier to stick with a 2 button stick though, then you wont have to hack up a ave 6 pad and your cost will be lower.

[m1savage]

The PCE pad pcb's are fairly easy to solder to. I'm currently working on one that (in theory) wouldn't require any soldering by someone else. Don't want to say to much more yet until I do some more testing, but if it works out it may be fairly inexpensive to make.

[spenoza]

It would be nice if someone would hack the controller logic and release a small programmed chip so that we don't have to hack up an existing pad to do this.

[grahf]

Well the ICs are just off the shelf parts anyways, and NFG games has schematics for the controllers already. The issue is that you need a handful resistors for all of the directions and buttons, plus one to three ICs (depending on whether you want turbo, 6 buttons, etc). Once you factor in shipping, it might end up cheaper to just hack an original controller instead of sourcing all the parts. Especially because you can sometimes find beat-to-hell worn out controllers for cheap sometimes.

I think a good starting place is taking a joystick from another system and replacing the components. A lot of joysticks will take Seimitsu or Sanwa parts without any/much modding.

[GameFreak]

I like the idea of opening up a pad (d-pad controller) and building something custom with quality buttons and quality joystick.

But, similar to what Elabit said...
It is a price risk if I screw up on modding a 6-button controller pad (avenue or hori 6 button pad..).

I really want the 6 button set up since some games use 3 button and a few others use 6 button. It seems like more of a waste to put all that work into a 2 button set-up even though it's cheaper to risk the mod. I dont care about slow-motion  :-"  ...or turbo....but I want 6 buttons arcade style.

Don't make me rip open an avenue pad 

[SignOfZeta]

There are PCBs out there that you can use for multiple vintage consoles. I *think* there is a six button PCE one, but I'm not sure. If not, you're going to have to sacrifice a Avenue 6. Don't feel too bad about it though, there are lots of them to go around.

As for paying someone to do it...well, $120 is probably the minimum for a quality stick. You're going to need a stick and 8 buttons (two smaller ones for Select and Run) and that's going to run you probably $50 right there. Then you'll need your PCB or sacrificial PCE controller. If you use a custom PCB you'll also need a cable for it. Then you need a case, there are LOTs of different ways to make a case. Then the guy making it will, presumably, actually want to make some money off the deal...unless he's BlueBMW who apparently just flies around like some sort of altruistic retro gaming superhero doing jobs for next to nothing.

Then there is the matter of the Madkatz Tourniment stick and the Hori Real Arcade Pro. With the release of these sticks at decent prices and them being really common, we've basically gotten to a point where it does't really make much sense to build a stick from scratch anymore. Just buy one of these and hack it to work with whatever system you like. You can get button plugs to cover replace the buttons you don't need.

[BlueBMW]

My buddy picked up one of these not too long ago.  I'm trying to get him to sell it to me so I can make it into a PCE arcade stick.  It seemed really sturdy when I used it at his house.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_rdc=1&_trksid=p4340.l2557&item=300549287205

[SignOfZeta]

My buddy picked up one of these not too long ago.  I'm trying to get him to sell it to me so I can make it into a PCE arcade stick.  It seemed really sturdy when I used it at his house.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_rdc=1&_trksid=p4340.l2557&item=300549287205

Wow, I've never seen that before. Its pretty bad ass looking.

I chuck the sticks and buttons though. Those things are garbage.

[PunkicCyborg]

I got some Seimitsu sticks and Sanwa buttons recently and they are really nice. It took a little wile to break in the sticks but are super nice and awesome for shmups. I bought them from http://www.lizardlick.com/ who shipped them quickly and they have great customer service. A lot of people like http://www.akihabarashop.jp/ too but lizard lick was a little cheaper after shipping.

[bartre]

honestly, i think the best option is the Cthulu MC board.
basically, you build a stick, whatever parts you want, and then wire the buttons and such to it.
plus, if you use breakaway cables, you can have an arcade stick that works on just about everything.

link:
http://www.lizardlick.com/Toodles-Cthulhu-for-Multi-Console_p_542.html

[GameFreak]

That piece of hardware seems really cool and simple. Im guessing you lose the slow motion and turbo feature though? Playing tg16 with a sanwa joystick would really make all the difference in most games.

[spenoza]

honestly, i think the best option is the Cthulu MC board.
basically, you build a stick, whatever parts you want, and then wire the buttons and such to it.
plus, if you use breakaway cables, you can have an arcade stick that works on just about everything.

link:
http://www.lizardlick.com/Toodles-Cthulhu-for-Multi-Console_p_542.html

This board has support for modern consoles, but I don't see any nod to older consoles.