How to mod the MadCatz SE Fightstick

24

Comments

  • edited January 2010
    Thanks for this tutorial. After seeing how crappy my SE stick was, I was a bit disheartened and didn't know modding it would be this easy! Waiting for my (correct) parts to come in.

    SE cost:
    $59.99 + free shipping

    1 Sanwa stick and 8 Sanwa buttons:
    $35.50 + $8.00 shipping

    Total= $103.49
    I think TE would have cost $115.13 + $3.99 shipping
    Not a huge difference but it's all good!
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited January 2010
    The cost is spot on, but the ability to customize your stick to your own look/feel propels it WAY beyond the standard.

    Glad we could help!
  • edited January 2010
    I bought a te stick last summer when they were sould out everywhere and paid 213$ after shipping and markup. I had used a hori ex2 for a month and after going through 1 stick a week and having to return them for new ones I decided to get the real deal. I haven't regretted it since and Ive logged over 1000 hrs in battle with it. Today on craigslist I got another like new(and I mean NEW) te stick and other goodies for only 75 bucks. This stick is the bomb. The only issue is the pcb problem with the rt/lt buttons but it has an easy fix. I'm thinking of modding one with cool art and new gate.
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited January 2010
    $75 for a like new TE stick? That's not a bad buy at all
  • edited February 2010
    Meteo2,

    I thought the JLF itself is 24.95 and the buttons are ~3.00 USD each? Wouldn't that make it 25+16=41? With shipping + stick at amazon for 60 USD it would be 110 USD....

    I'm wondering if it would make more sense to just get the PS3 Real Arcade Pro. 3-SA, since that would be 10 dollars more only...

    That or get a used one, but I'm never sure how much abuse these parts can take...

    Any comments from fellow fighting stick owners?
  • rolleggrollrolleggroll Next to a bowl of rice
    edited February 2010
    Starion wrote:
    Meteo2,

    I thought the JLF itself is 24.95 and the buttons are ~3.00 USD each? Wouldn't that make it 25+16=41? With shipping + stick at amazon for 60 USD it would be 110 USD....

    I'm wondering if it would make more sense to just get the PS3 Real Arcade Pro. 3-SA, since that would be 10 dollars more only...

    That or get a used one, but I'm never sure how much abuse these parts can take...

    Any comments from fellow fighting stick owners?

    Its all preference really. Both of the SE + TE will retain the Vewlix layout which is more similar to the American parallel layout. Most vewlix layouts have the start and select buttons on the front side of the stick.

    The HRAP3 and the HRAP3-SA both have the Astro City layout which has more of a curvature to the buttons. Both the HRAP3 and the HRAP3-SA have the start and select buttons on the top part of the joystick.

    Both the SE + HRAP3 will need slight minor mods to get to an "Arcade" quality. The SE needs a joystick + buttons. Whereas the HRAP3 only needs the buttons replaced.

    The TE + HRAP3-SA are all "Arcade" quality Sanwa parts. You just buy the stick plugin and you are good to go.

    The Sanwa parts can really take a beating. I used all Sanwa Parts in a custom-built stick which I built in 2001. It still works perfectly fine. Never replaced anything and I have been consistently playing fighting games since. UPSAvatard can vouch for the quality of the parts since he also has used that custom stick.

    I personally like the look and feel of the HRAP3s. A modded HRAP3 will be equal to a HRAP3-SA performance wise. I personally think that the Madcatz have superior boards in them and the wiring feels a bit better than the the HRAPs but its not a big deal at all.

    I do own all 3 of the SEs (ps3/360/wii). I own the original TE stick (ps3) and the TE Marvel vs Capcom version (ps3). I have the HRAP3 (ps3) and the HRAP3-SE (which is the 360 version of the HRAP-SA but with seimitsu parts instead of Sanwa). And I have a couple of customs as well. So if you have any other questions feel free to shoot me a PM.

    If you still feel like reading I made a list of pros and cons.

    Modded Madcatz SE

    Cons:
    - Retails for $50-80
    - Add $25 + $18 + tax and shipping for a stick & buttons.
    - Kinda small (meaning little room to set hands/wrist
    - Slanted wrist-rest then flat surface. (preference though - I like that slant)
    - light-weight meaning it might move around in your lap if you are getting violent with the stick.

    Pros:
    + knowledge gained from modding the stick is always a plus.
    + Customizable parts (lol) with your choice of Seimitsu or Sanwa.
    + Fairly cheap. Not that big of a commitment.
    + Start and Select on the front side of the stick (not in the way)

    Neutral:
    - Vewlix Layout


    Madcatz TE

    Cons:
    - Retails for $99.99-$159.99
    - Most of the versions of the TE look ugly. (opinion)

    Pros
    +Arcade quality out the box. Stick is Sanwa JLF, buttons are the OBSF-30s.
    + Lots of arm / wrist / finger space.
    + Good Weight. Won't fumble around on your lap if you get violent.
    + Comes in 5 different designs (that are easily obtained at least)
    + Start and Select on the front side of the stick (not in the way)

    Neutral:
    - Vewlix Layout


    HRAP3

    Cons:
    - Retails for $89-99
    - Have to replace buttons (so $18-24)
    - Start and Select buttons are on the top side. (this is a problem because accidently hitting start and pausing the game in a tournament results in a DQ for that round.)
    - Troublesome to replace buttons (not hard at all, just not as easy as the SE or TE)

    Pros:
    + Probably one of the first mainstream sticks to become available.
    + Solid rounded / curved body as opposed to the SE + TE rectangular and flat shape.
    + Weight is good as well. Won't move around so much.
    + Really attractive default color scheme (opinion)

    Neutral
    - Astro City Layout


    HRAP3-SA

    Cons:
    -Retails for $110-129.99
    - Start and Select buttons on the top

    Pros:
    + same as HRAP3.
    + no need to replace buttons
    + silver faceplate is shiny.

    Neutral:
    - Astro City Layout.
  • edited February 2010
    I just bought my PS3 SE stick and should get it soon. Your tutorial looks great. I have one question about modding it though. I intend to switch the art on the fight stick box with my own variation and I saw other people also added a new texture to the stick and buttons. How do you do that?
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited February 2010
    Glad you're looking to mod your fightstick N.R., it is well worth the effort!

    When you say texture, do you mean graphics below the buttons, or physical texture to the top of the buttons?

    I know some buttons have translucent plungers, allowing you to place a small circle of a graphic inside of the pushbutton. As for the exact pushbutton types that allow this, I'm not exactly sure. There are a few different translucent pushbuttons on lizardlick.com, but I don't know which of these are compatible with the MadCatz SE Fightstick.

    Any input, Rolleggroll?
  • edited February 2010
    Thanks for the answer. I did refer to the physical texture on top of the buttons. I've seen a couple of impressive looking designs of these when casually googling for modded MadCatz SE sticks.
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited February 2010
    Hmm, interesting. If you find any guides with any such mod, I'd love to see it!
  • DC
    edited March 2010
    I have a Mad Catz Street Fighter IV TE PS3 stick. I hate the square restrictor. How and where can I get a circular restrictor? Or should I get a stick that's has a circular restrictor built-in?
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    DC, the Sanwa GT-8F 4/8-Way Restrictor Plate should work on the stock Mad Catz fight sticks.

    You can find it here: http://www.lizardlick.com/pages/joysticks.shtml
  • DC
    edited March 2010
    UPSLynx, you mean the Sanwa GT-0 Round Restrictor Plate right? Sanwa GT-8F is still square.
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    DC - good eye, I did grab the wrong gate. My apologies.

    You don't want the GT-0, as it is for JLW sticks, and is cornerless. If you want 8-way operation on the stock stick, grab the Sanwa [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GT-Y Octagonal Restrictor Plate.[/FONT]
  • edited April 2010
    thanks so much for this guide!
  • xu
    edited April 2010
    Does the stoke joystick ball (that comes with the MadCatz) fit the Sanwa joystick?

    I don't want to have to buy a joystick ball if the old one fits.

    Btw, great video.
  • xu
    edited April 2010
    I meant **stock** joystick ball.
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited April 2010
    You're both very welcome! I had a lot of fun putting together this guide.

    The stock joystick ball will fit on the Sanwa joystick, but there is no actual need to buy a joystick ball. The Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT-SK Joystick comes with a ball included. In fact, when you purchase, you choose what color the ball is at no additional cost.
  • xu
    edited April 2010
    @UPSLynx, actually they changed it to where the joystick no longer comes with the ball.

    But thanks for the info and your help.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited April 2010
    Bat top, thats how you kick it old school hommie....
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited April 2010
    Ouch, $5 for a ball top to the joystick? That sucks.

    Thanks for the heads up xu, I had not yet seen that.
  • edited April 2010
    Nice Work & thanks for the nice post... lynx.. :D
  • edited April 2010
    so I am thinking of taking the plunge and getting this stick and modding it. I keep hearing that want to make sure to avoid getting "square" gates for my stick.

    Question: The JLF-TP-8YT-SK that you recommend, is that an octagon gate? Is that what 8-way means on the product description?

    Please excuse the noob questions and thanks in advance =)
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited April 2010
    The JLF-TP-8YT-SK stick comes with a square gate, and to my knowledge, that has not changed. In the product description, it says square gate with 8-way orientation - that means that the square gate can still go in 8 directions, which is up,down,left,right and all four diagonals.

    Octogon gates can be purchased for a decently low price on Lizardlick, and are easy enough to install. The gate just snaps into place.

    Square gates aren't all that bad. I've been playing on a square gate since I modded my stick. I play charge characters mostly (Chun Li, Guile), and I haven't found the square gate to hinder my input of commands. I've actually found that forward sweep motions are actually quite simple with a square gate, as you don't need to translate the stick down at all, but rather just slide it across to bottom of the gate.

    To be safe, order the stick with an octogonal gate. You'll want the Sanwa GT-Y octogonal gate, which runs $4.95 on Lizardlick. Try the square gate, and swap to the octogonal and see which one best suites your style of play.

    Have fun with the mod!
  • edited April 2010
    Thanks for the clarification
  • edited May 2010
    The SE stick modded like this now feels like perfection for me.

    Only thing left now is to print and apply my new artwork.

    Great article and video!
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited May 2010
    Glad it helped you out!
  • edited August 2010
    Will the JLW version work as well? The only reason is because Sanwa does not make a circular gate for the JLF version.
  • rolleggrollrolleggroll Next to a bowl of rice
    edited August 2010
    Matt wrote:
    Will the JLW version work as well? The only reason is because Sanwa does not make a circular gate for the JLF version.

    Two answers: A very complicated yes & a simple no.

    JLW on SE-stick three problems.
    1) Mounting plate
    2) power connector
    3) orientation of the power connector

    1a) the JLW Could work with the SE stick if you were to replace the mounting plate. You could use the MadCatz SE mounting plate that came with that crap stick and mount it onto the JLW. You can also just buy the correct mounting plate for $3-5. Either method will work.

    2a) The JLW's use this weird 2-prong power connector. You would have to find a 2-prong connector into a 4-pin connector, or an adapter.

    3a) the position of the 2-prong is not in the best place (i think its facing opposite of where the power connector is on the SE. You can easily fix this problem yourself by re-orienting the connector.


    Why not opt for a JLF with an octagon gate? Its the closest in feel to the circle gate. its not the same of course, but the jump from per se an american happ p360 to a jlf w/8-way is not that bad.
  • edited September 2010
    I plan to buy the same controller (PS3 and all) and I plan on buying the same parts he bought (Different colors, though). Does the JLW stick come with the bottom part, and such? Also, can anybody make me a good art for my stick? Thanks :D
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