Stick Building/SSF4 Update!

So first up, I've been busy lately so I haven't been able to update, unfortunately. Something called Life has been keeping my time occupied. So a week or so ago I acquired a new Fight Stick case in a trade, so I figured I'd just gut my current Madcatz Standard Edition Fight Stick and swap everything into the new case. So let's dive into a little bit of the process and what all transpired.

So it finally came in the mail today. Super happy about that, being that this is my first "custom build". Normally I've just swapped parts, so this is the first one I'm putting together. Anyways I immediately jumped into building the stick, but it wasn't without some hiccups. I'll post the pics first and then elaborate. Here it is, still not 100% finished though.

Pic #1

Pic #2


So first up I ran into a problem mounting the joystick. 2 of the screws on the mounting bracket were pretty badly stripped *thanks to madcatz's professional craftsmanship, lol*, so I couldn't get it off. However, it was just a hair off of slipping through , so I filed part of the wood down really slightly, and it slipped through without a problem. The screws wouldn't actually fasten for some reason, so I just pushed them in and left the plexi on. The plexi is putting enough pressure on the screws to keep the stick nice and secure, so it's all good. And lastly, it's a bit cramped inside, so i'm going to do a bit of re-adjusting and moving, if I can.


My final to-do list:

-Add some artwork. *You can view what I plan to have on it. Click Here. I wanted a simpler layout, and trying to have the cards "shooting" out of the buttons.*
-I gotta get a pink balltop, since it's a stock Madcatz stick the pink balltop I have doesn't fit. :(
-2 extra buttons on the way to fill the Start/Select, got a couple green ones on the way. I don't have them wired up, because the start and select buttons were soldered, and don't have QD's. This stick will be strictly for tournament play anyways.


Kind of amateur, but I'm really happy with it so far. ^__^


Then I've been busy trying to take care of things while dad was in the hospital. He's been holding fluid for a long time now, and it's been making life really really hard for him. He was having a hard time breathing, walking, and just doing his daily routine. Finally he went to the cardiologist seeing if there was anything else to be done, but there wasn't anything else to do except either A.) Go to the hospital and get the fluid drained, or B.) Go home and die. He went with option A, and went in. He was in for about 8 days, and lost a grand total of around 110 lbs of fluid. His clothes no longer fit him, and he looks really different. Better, really. He's out of the woods, and he's on the road to losing some more weight, and we're all here to support him and be there for him when he needs it. We're trying to be more on the lower-sodium diet with him, as well. It's not too bad, but if it helps him, then it's worth it.


Next up we got a new trailer for Super Street Fighter 4. This trailer confirms the inclusion of Cody, Guy and Adon. So combined with Dee Jay, T. Hawk and Juri, that's technically 6 of the, and I quote from several interviews with Seth Killian ,"8 ish new characters". So far the rumored list is coming true, so this would leave Dudley, Ibuki, Makoto, and one new character that's rumored to be another grappler. Like SSF4 needs more grapplers. Pffft.

You can view the trailer here:



2 things I'd like to note:

-It sounds like they've remixed all of the character's original themes from the older games to go with SSF4. Nice touch.
-The English voice acting. I'm kind of disappointed with Dee Jay and T. Hawk, for a couple of reasons. I guess I should've expected Dee Jay's voice, but it just seems unfitting to me for some reason. T. Hawk just sounds too young, IMO. You see this massive tower of muscle before you, and he sounds like my older brother when he was a teenager. Terrible. I'm sure it'll grow on me as time goes on, but for the moment i'm kind of disappointed. The other characters so far sound pretty good. Adon is still sounding great, Cody sounds like a cocky street punk, Guy sounds cool, and Juri sounds good as well. Pretty satisfied with those voices, and the animation of the attacks look really nice as well.


As for my thoughts on the "new" characters so far:

-Guy. I'm really hoping that he isn't a pile of trash, and that he'll be actually usable. I think Alpha 2 was his best version, from what I heard, *don't quote me on it, though* so hopefully they bring that version back. I'd really like him to be usable, since he's really cool to watch when he's fighting.
-Adon. Sounds really cool, and he looks relatively stylish. I'm guessing he'll be pretty strong, or at least hoping he will be. I really liked using him in Alpha 3, he was a rather unique character, I thought.
-Cody. Good to see he still has his knife back in SSF4. I heard that his second Ultra will only be able to be used if he has his knife. We've seen the one where he doens't have to use it, so hopefully it'll be somewhat useful. Throwing rocks was his projectile, and his uppercut, when used as a jab version wasn't too bad. EX version should be pretty good, I'm guessing that it will be something like a combination of Sagat's EX Tiger Uppercut and Ryu's EX Hurricane Kick.

Can't wait for spring of 2010. And let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that Dudley, Ibuki and Makoto are in! ^_^

So I'll leave it at that, I'm happy that Dad's fine now, and everything is good at the moment. I'll have a review of Tekken 6 coming up soon, as well, since I played a lot of it the past week. :) Lastly, I'm hoping to get to one of the local Street Fighter 4/Tekken 6 tournaments soon, so I can try and get a video interview of Alucard, one of, if not the top SF4/T6 players in the state. We'll see how it works out, hopefully I'll be able to go.


Stay cool.