Less Than A Day Old And Stick Already Modded...

[Loccy]

First night of GP2X ownership, and after a night of getting completely destroyed at my favourite old games I got into the office this morning determined to sort the stick out using whatever I could find.

Consequently, I present to you my mod, which represents the culmination of about ten minutes hard work

The games I'll be playing are mainly the classics, and my main problem with the Mk2 stock pad thing is that it's not one thing or another. You end up using it like a D-pad (for the record, I HATE D-pads) because the top of the pad is so flat, but unless you really mash down on the thing you can't move the underlying stick enough. In games where you need to be able to switch rapidly and accurately from diagonal to non-diagonal, and back again, often in totally the opposite direction, it is virtually impossible to reliably perform the direction changes needed.

My intention was to make the stick more like the sort of thing you used to get on 1980s LCD game, such as the old Grandstand games like Astrowars. I used to control these almost in reverse, so to go left, my thumb would primarily be on the right hand side of the stick and push the thing from right to left. My benchmark game is Atari VCS Berzerk, where the rapid switches to and from diagonals is crucial.

So, to perform this mod, you will need:

1 x Staedtler triplus ball M pen
1 x rubber cover thingy from a fibre optic patch panel (optional, but it gets a bit rough on the thumb otherwise)
1 x GPX2
Super Glue

Step one: unscrew the component ingredients of the pen, and cut off about 5mm from the top of the refill so you have a small plastic tube, and the top of the pen. You can now throw away the rest of the pen, or, if you prefer, keep it as a memory of the operation.

Step two: fill the top of the pen up with superglue, then insert the bit of refill you cut off into the top. Leave the thing upright to dry. (Leaving it on a keyboard as pictured is a good shout):

Step three: (optional): if you have a rubber cover thingy from a fibre optic patch panel, fit it now. Again, I suggest that you fill the bottom of the thing up with superglue, then mash the whole thing onto the top of the pen lid. Again, leave it to dry on your keyboard:

Step four: mash the whole thing down on your GPX2 and enjoy:

Ta da! Atari VCS Berzerk is now playable and most people who have seen the device since don't have a clue that it's been modified.

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

I'm guessing if you had two sticks, one normal and one with your mod, you could swap them depending on what style of game you are playing

 

[Loccy]

I'm guessing if you had two sticks, one normal and one with your mod, you could swap them depending on what style of game you are playing

Not going to happen - Atari ST Kick Off 2 was enough for me to mash my makeshift stick right off of the pad. Bear in mind that on the stock padthing, you're pushing the stick down onto the shaft. On mine, you're actually pushing UP so as you play, you actually gradually leverage it off of the stick shaft.

So, more superglue time, and it looks like I'll be gluing my new stick to the shaft, so a little more permanent than I intended, although I'm sure I'd always be able to get the thing off if the worst came to the worst with a bit of a tug - I just don't want it slipping off in use.

What it needs is something that doesn't stick up much beyond the stick shaft itself so that you are more or less pushing the shaft rather than pushing something that pushes the shaft. Perhaps a pen lid with a hole all the way through it might be a decent basis.

 

[Loccy]

Right, an update, the mod looked good, and it even worked well for about ten minutes at a stretch, but I just can't get the bloody thing to stay on the shaft.

Meanwhile, my best performances of Kick Off 2 and Berzerk seem to be happening with this, awful as it looks, and it does tear my thumb to shreds:

(basically, it's just a length of biro refill cut to size)

Clearly then, I need to work on something that destroys my thumb a bit less than this. Perhaps a pencil rubber might be a possibility...

 

[Loccy]

Right, best results so far was with the below:

It does look very 80s LCD game, I think you'll agree!

The external black "stick" is the top of a pen refill cut down to size (one of those quasi-nice pens that you turn to get the nib out). This is padded out with my now ubitquitous length of biro refill. The whole thing fits very snugly and the stub of the black stick is short enough to minimise travel, which combines to mean that it doesn't keep coming off the metal stick shaft.

Berzerk works well, Kick Off 2 is OK-ish - perhaps I should accept the fact that I am way better at Kick Off on a PC keyboard than I ever was with a joystick on my old ST, or ever will be on any handheld-type controller - but is better than I've managed so far.

The only problem is that the "stick" is quite hard plastic and is thus not much better on my thumb than the bare biro refill. I'm thinking perhaps some kind of rubber grommet might be in order...?

 

[PoisonedV]

Heheh... You said stick... And shaft.... And grommet.... And hard...

 

[triton]

ive been using my gp2x with the bare metal shaft for a long time now! (not much of a step down from the original cap honestly) it really does play hell with my thumb tho, i need to put my superpad cap on again!

 

[Wes Vampire]

Well, thnx for sharing your erm.... idea so to say.
I just wanted to let you all know i still use the Q-tip mod ( oldies should remember it ).
And only because i was too lazy so ask Evil Dragon to send me the new stick cap.

Wes

 

[Loccy]

ive been using my gp2x with the bare metal shaft for a long time now! (not much of a step down from the original cap honestly) it really does play hell with my thumb tho, i need to put my superpad cap on again!

At one point last night I got frustrated enough that I did play for a spell like that. If the GP2X mk2 cap was an improvement over the original, I shudder to think what that must have been like.

Have been going through the old postings on the board looking at other peoples' stick mods (can't believe there isn't a "pimp my mod" sticky). D-pads are the spawn of Satan but kudos to those who are cramming them into GP2Xes. I also can't believe that no-one's doing a line in custom stick caps yet. Something the shape of what I've ended up with but made of nice soft rubber would be nice. I'm going to stick my head in B&Q's tonight on the way home and see if I can find anything in there that might fit the description.

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

I see you mentioned Berzerk, did you know that's one of my favourite games, and it's where I got my domain name from. Also, I have written an updated Berzerk (Berzerk 2005) which I will be porting to the GP2X soon, so keep an eye out for Berzerk 2X

 

[Loccy]

I see you mentioned Berzerk, did you know that's one of my favourite games, and it's where I got my domain name from. Also, I have written an updated Berzerk (Berzerk 2005) which I will be porting to the GP2X soon, so keep an eye out for Berzerk 2X

Bring it on! Berzerk is one of my favourites from my misspent youth, especially the VCS version which I cut my teeth on. Never got to play the original arcade game until years later and the advent of MAME on PCs, and am rediscovering it now on the GP2X. I can't help going back to the VCS version though, it's just so simple and addictive.

Drop me a PM when yours is ready, or if you want someone to beta-test!

 

[bacteria]

Using the tube inside from a biro has been doing the rounds for a while now, it is not new.

 

[Loccy]

An update - gravedigging a bit here, but it was my thread to start with.

I think I have finally settled on my final stick mod, after a few days of using various pen lids, various other contraptions, and then a week or so of using a cotton bud (or Q-tip to you Yanks - it took me a while to figure out it was you were all on about!). What I wanted was something broadly similar in feel and shape to a cotton bud, but that didn't need replacing after half an hour of punishment.

I'm going to do it in reverse order, so I'm starting with the finished product, and disassembling it to show you the constituent parts:

Very 80s Pac-Man arcade stick, you'll find. Here's what the constituent ingredients were:

As before, the usual length of biro refill, and the top of a more expensive pen refill cut down to size. The difference this time is that I haven't cut off the screw thread - that is left at the top, for reasons you'll see below.

This is the good bit. This is, once again, a rubber cover from a fibre optic patch panel, this time cut down to size (and red -- I've ruined all my black ones ) and with a metal nut pushed up inside it as far it'll go. Then, it's just a case of screwing this assembly onto the top of the black pen refill. It actually all screws together as if it was meant to be that way in the first place.

 

[Gruntfuggly]

So do you hold it between your thumb and forefinger, or do you put your thumb on top of it?

 

[Tony Hoyle]

How to mod your gp2x using available office supplies..

Although fiber optic patch panels aren't that common in thse parts

 

[Loccy]

So do you hold it between your thumb and forefinger, or do you put your thumb on top of it?

Thumb on top of it. The rubber is slightly pointed right at the top, so you can actually control it like I'd originally envisaged, like an 80s LED game. To go left, the thumb is slightly offset of center to the right and pushes the stick in a leftwards direction from the opposite side. If you see what I mean. But that's just me, what I find comfortable; there's no reason why you couldn't do it with the thumb and forefinger. (In fact, maybe that might be a better bet for Atari ST Kick Off 2)

 

[gaterooze]

Nice! Love the retro arcade look

 

[Loccy]

update - and I think this is the final one.

I found another black fibre optic cover. I did a better job of cutting this one down to size, and I also held the bottom of it under a lighter for a while, then mashed it onto a table to flatted the ragged edges around where I'd cut. (You can't see in the original pics, but the red one was actually far from the perfect spherical shape it appeared in the pics).

Something I didn't mention in my previous posts; I actually had to cut the pen refill to favour the left hand side, so the bottom of the refill is at a slant, otherwise there didn't seem to be enough travel to make left register. The left direction on the joystick is definitely less responsive than the right and even using just the bare stick shaft, it needs more travel than the opposite direction. Don't know if this is just my unit or a general issue.

Anyway, what I've ended up with looks more like an 80s LCD game than an arcade stick (which was the point) and it plays really well, the black plastic/rubber seems to be much less slippy than the red.

Does anyone want the old red one

 

[Stainy]

Right, best results so far was with the below:

It does look very 80s LCD game, I think you'll agree!

The external black "stick" is the top of a pen refill cut down to size (one of those quasi-nice pens that you turn to get the nib out). This is padded out with my now ubitquitous length of biro refill. The whole thing fits very snugly and the stub of the black stick is short enough to minimise travel, which combines to mean that it doesn't keep coming off the metal stick shaft.

Berzerk works well, Kick Off 2 is OK-ish - perhaps I should accept the fact that I am way better at Kick Off on a PC keyboard than I ever was with a joystick on my old ST, or ever will be on any handheld-type controller - but is better than I've managed so far.

The only problem is that the "stick" is quite hard plastic and is thus not much better on my thumb than the bare biro refill. I'm thinking perhaps some kind of rubber grommet might be in order...?

Kick Off 2 eh ? looks like you need to get tornamenting

Kick Off Association

We just had a World Cup some Greek won it! hehe we have a modded version of KO2 as well..