So I've been working on building an authentic arcade controller for several months now, following the threads at Build Your Own Arcade Controls and Shoryuken.com, in addition to closely reading the materials that Armad1llo of Modeverything.com and Catch22 of The Joystick Builder have been cool enough to post on their sites.

I ordered some empty controller cases from RedOctane, and have been to Radio Shack about a thousand times it seems. On a business trip to Chicago, I actually went to Happ Controls' main distribution center in Elk Ridge, and bought real honest-to-goodness arcade parts, including the joystick, competition-style buttons, and super-dee-duper microswitches.

Despite the fact that the last time I held a soldering iron was fifteen years ago, I managed to get the thing wired up right and hooked up to the printed circuit board (PCB) which hooks into my Playstation 2.

Here are a few pics of the work in progress. You can click on each image to see a larger view.