MATRIX GHOST TRANSMISSIONS: 10 Character Backgrounds for Weird Cyberpunk Games...
MATRIX GHOST TRANSMISSIONS: 10 Character Backgrounds for Weird Cyberpunk Games...: A glimpse of things to come! 10 character backgrounds for CHROMATIC SHADOWS, my in-progress weird cyberpunk RPG. (Photo by Drew Graham)...
Adventures in Joystick Modding: Round 3
A few months ago my friend Chris pretty much finalized his move to California. My efforts to check his brain failed, so I helped him move stuff out of his condo to either ship or put in storage.Once the task was completed I received a payment of sorts in the form of a PS3 Madcatz Street Fighter IV SE fightstick, just like the one I modded several months previously. He had since dual-modded a 360 BlazBlue TE and no longer needed the SE.
Okay, cool. I enjoyed modding the other stick, so now I started thinking about a mod for this one. I wanted to be a bit more elaborate this time around. An art mod would do the trick.
I thought about it for a few days and decided it might be cool to do something related to one of my favorite bands, the aggrotech outfit Psyclon Nine. My first idea was to do something to play off the white casing of the stick rather then dying it a different color. The cover art to Psyclon Nine's second album, INRI, would work really well.
The idea was to chop the logo and use just the feathers. With some clear read buttons and a matching balltop to play off the blood specks, it would look pretty nice. Then I saw this video, and it got me thinking about LED mods
.
This required a little research on my part. After a few days of reading I came to the conclusion that I should use Uila LEDs, which would require I use Seimitsu buttons rather then Sanwa. I was okay with that, as I was curious about Seimitsu. Supposedly Sanwa and Seimitsu buttons were about equal in performance, but had slightly different feels.
I still had a few doubts, but after reading a bit more I found this guide to Uila LEDs that made things look pretty simple. I became convinced that this was a project I could pull off.
Now I had to figure out art. This is when I ran into my first problem. Though I own a copy of INRI, its not the US release with the cover posted above. Rather, I have European release, which didn't come out Stateside because Americans are terrified of nipples.
I tried several methods of getting a scan of the US art. However, nothing I could find via image searches was of high enough resolution. I tried posting on Psyclon Nine frontman Nero Bellum's Facebook page, in hopes that a fellow fan could help me out, but had no luck. After a few days of trying to come up with alternate concepts, I decided to see what I could do with the European art.
After a bit of poking around the forums at Shoryuken.com I learned that the official art template for the Madcatz SE is actually slightly off. However, d3v over at the Tech Talk sub-forum created a more accurate template that I ended up using.
This is where I ended up spending a lot of time. First things first, I needed to scan the cover of my CD. I figured I'd want as big a scan as possible, so I set up my scanner to its highest settings. The software indicated that the actual scan would take a while under those settings, so I went to sleep.
When I woke up the next morning, I checked the results immediately. I can't say I was too surprised to find the scan had failed and given me an error. Evidentally, on the settings I'd picked the resulting scan would have been several gigabytes big, and the error boiled down to my computer going "Are you fucking kidding me?". I turned things down to a more reasonable level and tried again. This time things worked fine.
Now it was time to fool around with the template. It took me several hours, over the course of a few nights, to get things placed correctly. I'd been pondering what I was going to do with the shaft and balltop of joystick mechanism, and then a happy accident with the template solved everything. When I lined up the artwork a particular way, the hole for the joystick matched the location of the nail in the goth chick's wrist. I'd just have to paint up the balltop and shaft cover in some sort of metal color. With that idea in mind, I was able to resize and align the art in a way that pleased me. I ended up using the same fonts as I had with my girlfriend's stick, so once I'd labeled the buttons, everything was set. It ended up looking like this.
Now it was time to get the internals taken care of. My first decision was which LED controller to use. My options were the Sparky PWM SMD and Toodles FGWidget. I read about them both on Tech Talk and looked up Youtube reviews and tutorials. Since this is the first major electronics project I've ever taken on, I decided that the FGWidget was a little too advanced for my skill level. I then took another look at the Sparky over on Focusattack.com and saw that they'd linked to an installation video. It was made made by Nerrage, the same guy who did the Uila installation video, and was pretty easy to follow. I re-watched a few sequences to clarify points I wasn't totally clear on, but soon I was sure I could do this.
From there, I had to save up money to make a parts order. By the time Black Friday had come around, I had just about enough. As luck would have it, that day I received an email from Focus Attack informing me that they would be having a big Cyber Monday sale. I decided to check their stock levels for the items I was looking to buy and discovered they were getting low on my button of choice. Therefore, on Sunday just shortly before midnight I had my cart ready to go and just waited a few minutes for it to officially be Monday. Everything went fine, and I ended up ordering the following:
8 Paradise Arcade Uila LED PCB S Flash
1 Sparky PWM SMD LED Controller PCB
I also snagged a few .110" Quick Connectors and Nylon .110" Quick Connector Insulation Sleeves because I'd opened the stick to take a quick look at it and discovered that one button had soldered connections rather then quick connectors. I figured adding quick connectors would make my life easier. Finally, I grabbed a couple odds and ends for some friends that needed things that were too inexpensive to warrant paying shipping for on their own.
I had initially wanted to get the Uila LED PCB S, which are a buck cheaper then the S Flash, but they were sold out. I considered waiting for a restock and buying them separately later, but realized the $8 I'd save on each Uila would be the same I'd spend on shipping, so I bit the bullet and got the more expensive PCBs. No biggie.
Shipping was fast. Placing the order just after midnight on a Monday saw my order arrive on Wednesday. I noticed that the Focus Attack page on Facebook had made a post that shipping might be slower then normal due to the volume of orders received. Placing my order early paid off, since I got everything so fast. If I'm reading the invoice correctly, it looks like I was the 4th order placed.
When the box arrived on Wednesday, I gleefully opened it.
At this point, I hadn't quite finished my art yet, so I took some time to do that and get it printed. In the mean time, I prepped the top plate for the new art. Naturally, the first thing I did was tear off the old art. This took only a minute or so, and then I had to remove the remaining adhesive.
This part took much longer then expected. I was hoping that 15 minutes with some Goo Gone and paper towels would take care of everything. Well, after working at it for the duration of the 2010 A-Team movie, I made almost no progress. The solution ended up being a glass brownie pan with some acetone in it. Combined with a paint scraper, the top plate was completely clean in about a minute and a half.
I also got the buttons ready for installation. I'm also a Warhammer 40,000 player (shameless plug), so I have a lot of small tools. Using a pin vise with a 3/32" drill bit I followed the guide video linked above, but found I preferred to drill a hole for each wire. Sure, its a bit more work, but not at all difficult and I liked the results.
The other thing I prepped was the Sparky PCB itself. The thing is seriously lightweight and tiny. I've heard of people just leaving it loose in the case when they were done, but I didn't like that idea.
I pondered the possibility of attaching it to the case with a bit of Velcro, but the aforementioned Chris said he was leery of attaching things across traces (the circuit lines in the PCB) unless completely sure the adhesive was completely non-conductive. According to him, some weird stuff is conductive enough to short/bleed across short distances. That was just enough of a concern to look for alternative solutions.
The next day, I talked with my father about the situation. He had a suggestion that ended up being the prefect solution: a small piece of Plexiglass he had laying around. It had been collecting dust for so long that he didn't even remember where he got it. Thinking about it, I remember it laying around the house in the mid-90s, so its been around for a while. One edge was rounded, and the whole thing was a bit longer then the Sparky, but roughly the same width. I decided to cut it a little bit closer to size using a Dremel with a cutting wheel. It was quite easy, taking about a minute, but it smelled a little funny.
Once it was cut to size, I used the mounting holes on the Sparky as a guide and used a 1/8" drill bit in the Dremel to cut some holes. I stuck in some brass standoffs I had leftover from when Chris and I build a computer a few years ago, and I was in business.
After that, all it took was some mounting screws and everything was perfect!
All I had to do was scuff up the bottom side a little bit, and then superglue the thing to the case. That part would come later, but I took a few minutes to find a good spot to place it. The interior of the case has several tabs in it and by sheer coincidence the Plexiglass mount fit perfectly between two of them. The fit couldn't have been more precise. I happily put the Sparky to the side and turned my attention to the visual side of things.
A few days later I had my art finished and got it printed at the local FedEx Office. I had two printed (in case I made a mistake) then LamiLabeled them using their self-service machine. Once home, a few unrelated events put me in a bad mood. Word of advice: Don't try to cut things accurately when you're feeling frustrated. I outright botched the first attempt. I thought I had the second correct, then realized I'd cut one side a little too narrow and part of the top plate was visible. It stuck out like a sore thumb to me, and would probably allow the top plate to oxidize. It was too late to go back to FedEx Office, so I instead went to my computer and made an alternate version of the art that included the outer guide line, but not the button guides. The next day I went back and had 4 copies of the art printed. 2 with that outer guide line, 2 with no lines at all.
The guide lines ended up being a good idea. I cut the art out, then applied it with a little help from the same squeegee I used on the Namco stick. I got it just about perfect on the first try. Glancing at it as I write this, I notice the teeniest bit of exposed top plate along the lower edge. You can't see it unless you're looking for it, so its no big deal. I'll dab it with a little varnish from my Warhammer 40,000 paints, and that should prevent any rust.
Next, I cut out all the various holes. That was fairly simple. A fresh X-Acto blade handled everything nicely. However, at one point I accidentally pricked my finger. No big deal, just a drop of blood. People often talk about putting their blood into a project, so I decided to do it a bit more literally. The underside of one of the kick buttons now has a smear of me.
After I was done cutting and placing the artwork into the buttons, I screwed said buttons back onto the case. This was quite easy. Some people have difficulty with the light kick (X) button, because the nut for the button is too close to the joystick's mounting plate to turn. The typical solution is to hold the nut in place and rotate the button instead. Screw that, I have tools! That part of the mounting plate is not important, so with quick application of file and Dremel, I removed it and screwed the button in properly.
Before wiring, I decided to do one last thing. The bottom plate on these sticks is made of metal. Its winter hear in Massachusetts, and sometimes that metal plate gets seriously cold. It can be annoying to get a chill even through a heavy pair of jeans, so I came up with a solution. After a quick trip to the fabric store, I had a piece of felt that was just slightly larger then the plate. I chose purple both because its my favorite color, and because its a color of the church and would play off the fallen angel motif of the artwork. A bit of Elmer's Spray Adhesive would do the job nicely.
A little bit of excess adhesive got onto the exposed side of the felt, but a little acetone on a paper towel took care of it without damaging anything. After giving it a few minutes to set, all that was left was to trim the excess off with a fresh X-Acto blade and poke holes for the screws to go through. Now the plate doesn't get cold and as an added bonus, it prevents the stick from sliding around in one's lap. I have a second piece of felt, so I'll be doing this to my other SFIV SE soon.
There was one other thing to take care of before wiring: To get my desired result, I'd have to paint the balltop, shaft cover, and dust washer. Luckily, when harvesting parts for the Namco build, my friend Mark gave me the spares from his Brawlstick he'd no longer be needing. I used the shaft from one of the Madcatz JLF knockoffs, along with a 2x4 I drilled a hole into. This way I could stand up the shaft with the cover and ball attached to it while I sprayed them with primer. For the dust washer, I just laid it on the same 2x4.
Once primed, I sprayed the balltop and dust washer with some Citadel Colour Boltgun Metal spray paint. I bought the can nearly a decade ago, when I was considering building a Necron army. Then I decided I didn't like their play style and the can just collected dust. Hell, they stopped making it something like 5 years ago. I'm still somewhat amazed that it still worked, but the results were to my liking.
For the dust washer, I used several of my 40K paints and did it by hand. For the dirty areas I mixed Vallejo Model Color's Orange Brown with just a touch of Vallejo Game Color's Earth. The red was a blend of several different reds, but mostly Vallejo Game Color's Gory Red, with a bit of Citadel's Devlan Mud wash mixed in. There was also just a touch of Citadel red ink (another thing not made since around 2008) and another red ink wash of some sort that I mixed up a bunch of years ago and kept in an empty Vallejo bottle.
The painting process took a few days and ended with several coats of gloss varnish. One night, while waiting for things to dry, I figured it was time to get the wiring done.
I followed along with Nerrage's guide posted above, but made things a bit easier on myself by downloading the video and converting it to a format that would play on my PSP. With a portable guide, the initial wiring was pretty easy. After fixing the wire with a soldered connection, I used the barrier strip technique mentioned in the guide. Everything went smoothly, though a few of the quick connections were a little bit loose. A small squeeze with my piers took care of that.
From there, I moved on to the daisy chain between the Sparky and the Uilas. When using a Sparky, the Uilas don't need their white wire. I'd removed them earlier, and ended up using them as the bridge between ScotchLoks, rather then trimming some wire as suggested by Nerrage. I also saved a bit of time and effort by using some tongue-and-groove pliers to close the ScotchLoks, rather then my fingers or some scissors. One thing that caught me off guard is that some, but not all, of the ScotchLoks had a clear liquid inside them that made a bit of a mess when I closed them. A little Googling informed me that this is an anti-corrosive compound to protect the connection. I simply incorporated a paper towel into the task and things went fine.
I was a little nervous when I had to mess with the USB cable. Sure enough, I cut it a little closer to the PCB then I probably should have, but I was still able to ScotchLok things alright.
Now it was time to test things. I brought the stick over to my PC, fired up the joystick control panel, plugged the thing in, and... nothing. The PC didn't recognize that I'd plugged anything in.
The next 20 or so minutes was spent carefully examining each wire. I eventually spotted a place on the red power wire where I apparently nicked the insulation while stripping the end. Its possible that I'd damaged the wire as well, so I cut off that ScotchLok and put on another one. This is when I realized I'd cut the USB cable a little close. I didn't have much extra to work with on the PCB side. Still, there was enough space to get a new ScotchLok on, then it was time to re-test.
Still nothing.
Well, shit. What else could it be? The power wires were fine, and a problem with the data wire shouldn't keep the PC from recognizing the connection. I spent some more time squeezing all the ScotchLoks again. In hindsight, that should have been my first move, and sure enough, one of them was only 95% shut. Once I'd got it to 100%, the PC recognized the stick just fine.
Now to test things. The first problem was that I'd reversed the signal and ground connections on the barrier strip. That wasn't a huge deal, and took no more then 2 minutes to fix. Now my buttons were lighting up just fine, but according to the joystick control panel, the stick itself wasn't making any inputs. That's a serious problem.
I'll spare you the 45 minutes of freaking out and re-examining every last wire (even the LED connections, which have nothing to do with signal data). I eventually noticed that one of the data wires had a nick in it, just as the power wire had earlier. However, I had a problem. After clipping off the ScotchLok, there wasn't enough wire left on the PCB side to connect another one.
After a while brainstorming and searching, I found an old Microsoft Sidewinder USB gamepad I hadn't used in years and had been meaning to recycle. I harvested some wire from its USB cable, heated up my soldering iron, and was able to splice in more wire. Its the first time I've ever done such a thing, and it was a little tricky because I really could have used another hand, but I got it done.
Once the new ScotchLok was in place, it was time to test again. Still nothing. Son of a bitch. Had I somehow fried this thing?
While pondering what to do next, I idly started tapping a few buttons, because they look pretty when they light up. Then I noticed something: The joystick control panel wasn't registering inputs from the buttons. I knew that couldn't be right, so on a hunch I went over to my PS3. Sure enough, I was navigating XMB menus with no problem at all. I bet I didn't need to do that data wire splice in the first place.
Now my stick was working just fine. My only guess was that something about the mod prevented the PC from reading the thing's inputs, even though that makes no sense. As a note, on a whim after I typed that last sentence, I reconnected the stick to the PC. Now the control panel reads all the inputs just fine. Go figure.
So, here's what the guts of the stick looked like before I started. I had used some twist ties on the Uila wires to keep things organized while I connected the LEDs. If you click it, you can see where I cut away part of the mounting plate to make room for the screw button's nut.
And here's the multi-colored linguini that is my stick's guts now. Note how nicely the Sparky mount on the right fits into the case. That wasn't planned, it was pure dumb luck. A little superglue locked it firmly in place.
I was and am very happy with the results. I just had to finish the paint and varnish job on the shaft components and it would be done. That ended up taking a few days, and I ended up painting the red parts of the dust washer on the stick itself, with help of some wax paper.
A few days later the paint was finished and the varnish was dry. It was time to test the thing out. I ended up fighting my friend Claire in 5 rounds of The King of Fighters XIII. Unfortunately for me, I caught her when she was stressed out and she took it out on me, beating me cold in 4 matches. On the other hand, I shellaced her in that last match, so go me.
During our matches, a couple bugs did arise. Fist of all, I realized that a pair of buttons was slightly loose. No big deal, just crack open the back and tighten the nuts. A more serious problem showed up during our third match: I suddenly found myself unable to move left or right. Normally I'd be worried, but I was sure I knew exactly what the problem was. Opening it up, I was immediately proven right.
Previously, I'd noticed that the wiring harness connecting the joystick to the PCB fit a little loose. This particular harness didn't have a clip or anything to hold it in place, so I ended up using a bead of hot glue to hold it in place. Not the best solution, but it works. This is when I took the time to tighten those nuts as well.
I haven't had any problems since, and the stick handles beautifully. Here she is in all her glory:
Finally, here is a short video I made, showing off the LEDs.
I am very happy with the finished product.
Special thanks:
Nerrage for the tutorials
d3v for the art template
Josh & Christopher at FedEx Office for the help with the art
Jaleel at focusattack.com for outstanding service.
Okay, cool. I enjoyed modding the other stick, so now I started thinking about a mod for this one. I wanted to be a bit more elaborate this time around. An art mod would do the trick.
I thought about it for a few days and decided it might be cool to do something related to one of my favorite bands, the aggrotech outfit Psyclon Nine. My first idea was to do something to play off the white casing of the stick rather then dying it a different color. The cover art to Psyclon Nine's second album, INRI, would work really well.
The idea was to chop the logo and use just the feathers. With some clear read buttons and a matching balltop to play off the blood specks, it would look pretty nice. Then I saw this video, and it got me thinking about LED mods
.
This required a little research on my part. After a few days of reading I came to the conclusion that I should use Uila LEDs, which would require I use Seimitsu buttons rather then Sanwa. I was okay with that, as I was curious about Seimitsu. Supposedly Sanwa and Seimitsu buttons were about equal in performance, but had slightly different feels.
I still had a few doubts, but after reading a bit more I found this guide to Uila LEDs that made things look pretty simple. I became convinced that this was a project I could pull off.
Now I had to figure out art. This is when I ran into my first problem. Though I own a copy of INRI, its not the US release with the cover posted above. Rather, I have European release, which didn't come out Stateside because Americans are terrified of nipples.
I tried several methods of getting a scan of the US art. However, nothing I could find via image searches was of high enough resolution. I tried posting on Psyclon Nine frontman Nero Bellum's Facebook page, in hopes that a fellow fan could help me out, but had no luck. After a few days of trying to come up with alternate concepts, I decided to see what I could do with the European art.
After a bit of poking around the forums at Shoryuken.com I learned that the official art template for the Madcatz SE is actually slightly off. However, d3v over at the Tech Talk sub-forum created a more accurate template that I ended up using.
This is where I ended up spending a lot of time. First things first, I needed to scan the cover of my CD. I figured I'd want as big a scan as possible, so I set up my scanner to its highest settings. The software indicated that the actual scan would take a while under those settings, so I went to sleep.
When I woke up the next morning, I checked the results immediately. I can't say I was too surprised to find the scan had failed and given me an error. Evidentally, on the settings I'd picked the resulting scan would have been several gigabytes big, and the error boiled down to my computer going "Are you fucking kidding me?". I turned things down to a more reasonable level and tried again. This time things worked fine.
Now it was time to fool around with the template. It took me several hours, over the course of a few nights, to get things placed correctly. I'd been pondering what I was going to do with the shaft and balltop of joystick mechanism, and then a happy accident with the template solved everything. When I lined up the artwork a particular way, the hole for the joystick matched the location of the nail in the goth chick's wrist. I'd just have to paint up the balltop and shaft cover in some sort of metal color. With that idea in mind, I was able to resize and align the art in a way that pleased me. I ended up using the same fonts as I had with my girlfriend's stick, so once I'd labeled the buttons, everything was set. It ended up looking like this.
Now it was time to get the internals taken care of. My first decision was which LED controller to use. My options were the Sparky PWM SMD and Toodles FGWidget. I read about them both on Tech Talk and looked up Youtube reviews and tutorials. Since this is the first major electronics project I've ever taken on, I decided that the FGWidget was a little too advanced for my skill level. I then took another look at the Sparky over on Focusattack.com and saw that they'd linked to an installation video. It was made made by Nerrage, the same guy who did the Uila installation video, and was pretty easy to follow. I re-watched a few sequences to clarify points I wasn't totally clear on, but soon I was sure I could do this.
From there, I had to save up money to make a parts order. By the time Black Friday had come around, I had just about enough. As luck would have it, that day I received an email from Focus Attack informing me that they would be having a big Cyber Monday sale. I decided to check their stock levels for the items I was looking to buy and discovered they were getting low on my button of choice. Therefore, on Sunday just shortly before midnight I had my cart ready to go and just waited a few minutes for it to officially be Monday. Everything went fine, and I ended up ordering the following:
1 Sparky PWM SMD LED Controller PCB
I also snagged a few .110" Quick Connectors and Nylon .110" Quick Connector Insulation Sleeves because I'd opened the stick to take a quick look at it and discovered that one button had soldered connections rather then quick connectors. I figured adding quick connectors would make my life easier. Finally, I grabbed a couple odds and ends for some friends that needed things that were too inexpensive to warrant paying shipping for on their own.
I had initially wanted to get the Uila LED PCB S, which are a buck cheaper then the S Flash, but they were sold out. I considered waiting for a restock and buying them separately later, but realized the $8 I'd save on each Uila would be the same I'd spend on shipping, so I bit the bullet and got the more expensive PCBs. No biggie.
Shipping was fast. Placing the order just after midnight on a Monday saw my order arrive on Wednesday. I noticed that the Focus Attack page on Facebook had made a post that shipping might be slower then normal due to the volume of orders received. Placing my order early paid off, since I got everything so fast. If I'm reading the invoice correctly, it looks like I was the 4th order placed.
When the box arrived on Wednesday, I gleefully opened it.
At this point, I hadn't quite finished my art yet, so I took some time to do that and get it printed. In the mean time, I prepped the top plate for the new art. Naturally, the first thing I did was tear off the old art. This took only a minute or so, and then I had to remove the remaining adhesive.
This part took much longer then expected. I was hoping that 15 minutes with some Goo Gone and paper towels would take care of everything. Well, after working at it for the duration of the 2010 A-Team movie, I made almost no progress. The solution ended up being a glass brownie pan with some acetone in it. Combined with a paint scraper, the top plate was completely clean in about a minute and a half.
I also got the buttons ready for installation. I'm also a Warhammer 40,000 player (shameless plug), so I have a lot of small tools. Using a pin vise with a 3/32" drill bit I followed the guide video linked above, but found I preferred to drill a hole for each wire. Sure, its a bit more work, but not at all difficult and I liked the results.
The other thing I prepped was the Sparky PCB itself. The thing is seriously lightweight and tiny. I've heard of people just leaving it loose in the case when they were done, but I didn't like that idea.
I pondered the possibility of attaching it to the case with a bit of Velcro, but the aforementioned Chris said he was leery of attaching things across traces (the circuit lines in the PCB) unless completely sure the adhesive was completely non-conductive. According to him, some weird stuff is conductive enough to short/bleed across short distances. That was just enough of a concern to look for alternative solutions.
The next day, I talked with my father about the situation. He had a suggestion that ended up being the prefect solution: a small piece of Plexiglass he had laying around. It had been collecting dust for so long that he didn't even remember where he got it. Thinking about it, I remember it laying around the house in the mid-90s, so its been around for a while. One edge was rounded, and the whole thing was a bit longer then the Sparky, but roughly the same width. I decided to cut it a little bit closer to size using a Dremel with a cutting wheel. It was quite easy, taking about a minute, but it smelled a little funny.
Once it was cut to size, I used the mounting holes on the Sparky as a guide and used a 1/8" drill bit in the Dremel to cut some holes. I stuck in some brass standoffs I had leftover from when Chris and I build a computer a few years ago, and I was in business.
After that, all it took was some mounting screws and everything was perfect!
All I had to do was scuff up the bottom side a little bit, and then superglue the thing to the case. That part would come later, but I took a few minutes to find a good spot to place it. The interior of the case has several tabs in it and by sheer coincidence the Plexiglass mount fit perfectly between two of them. The fit couldn't have been more precise. I happily put the Sparky to the side and turned my attention to the visual side of things.
A few days later I had my art finished and got it printed at the local FedEx Office. I had two printed (in case I made a mistake) then LamiLabeled them using their self-service machine. Once home, a few unrelated events put me in a bad mood. Word of advice: Don't try to cut things accurately when you're feeling frustrated. I outright botched the first attempt. I thought I had the second correct, then realized I'd cut one side a little too narrow and part of the top plate was visible. It stuck out like a sore thumb to me, and would probably allow the top plate to oxidize. It was too late to go back to FedEx Office, so I instead went to my computer and made an alternate version of the art that included the outer guide line, but not the button guides. The next day I went back and had 4 copies of the art printed. 2 with that outer guide line, 2 with no lines at all.
The guide lines ended up being a good idea. I cut the art out, then applied it with a little help from the same squeegee I used on the Namco stick. I got it just about perfect on the first try. Glancing at it as I write this, I notice the teeniest bit of exposed top plate along the lower edge. You can't see it unless you're looking for it, so its no big deal. I'll dab it with a little varnish from my Warhammer 40,000 paints, and that should prevent any rust.
Next, I cut out all the various holes. That was fairly simple. A fresh X-Acto blade handled everything nicely. However, at one point I accidentally pricked my finger. No big deal, just a drop of blood. People often talk about putting their blood into a project, so I decided to do it a bit more literally. The underside of one of the kick buttons now has a smear of me.
After I was done cutting and placing the artwork into the buttons, I screwed said buttons back onto the case. This was quite easy. Some people have difficulty with the light kick (X) button, because the nut for the button is too close to the joystick's mounting plate to turn. The typical solution is to hold the nut in place and rotate the button instead. Screw that, I have tools! That part of the mounting plate is not important, so with quick application of file and Dremel, I removed it and screwed the button in properly.
Before wiring, I decided to do one last thing. The bottom plate on these sticks is made of metal. Its winter hear in Massachusetts, and sometimes that metal plate gets seriously cold. It can be annoying to get a chill even through a heavy pair of jeans, so I came up with a solution. After a quick trip to the fabric store, I had a piece of felt that was just slightly larger then the plate. I chose purple both because its my favorite color, and because its a color of the church and would play off the fallen angel motif of the artwork. A bit of Elmer's Spray Adhesive would do the job nicely.
A little bit of excess adhesive got onto the exposed side of the felt, but a little acetone on a paper towel took care of it without damaging anything. After giving it a few minutes to set, all that was left was to trim the excess off with a fresh X-Acto blade and poke holes for the screws to go through. Now the plate doesn't get cold and as an added bonus, it prevents the stick from sliding around in one's lap. I have a second piece of felt, so I'll be doing this to my other SFIV SE soon.
There was one other thing to take care of before wiring: To get my desired result, I'd have to paint the balltop, shaft cover, and dust washer. Luckily, when harvesting parts for the Namco build, my friend Mark gave me the spares from his Brawlstick he'd no longer be needing. I used the shaft from one of the Madcatz JLF knockoffs, along with a 2x4 I drilled a hole into. This way I could stand up the shaft with the cover and ball attached to it while I sprayed them with primer. For the dust washer, I just laid it on the same 2x4.
Once primed, I sprayed the balltop and dust washer with some Citadel Colour Boltgun Metal spray paint. I bought the can nearly a decade ago, when I was considering building a Necron army. Then I decided I didn't like their play style and the can just collected dust. Hell, they stopped making it something like 5 years ago. I'm still somewhat amazed that it still worked, but the results were to my liking.
For the dust washer, I used several of my 40K paints and did it by hand. For the dirty areas I mixed Vallejo Model Color's Orange Brown with just a touch of Vallejo Game Color's Earth. The red was a blend of several different reds, but mostly Vallejo Game Color's Gory Red, with a bit of Citadel's Devlan Mud wash mixed in. There was also just a touch of Citadel red ink (another thing not made since around 2008) and another red ink wash of some sort that I mixed up a bunch of years ago and kept in an empty Vallejo bottle.
The painting process took a few days and ended with several coats of gloss varnish. One night, while waiting for things to dry, I figured it was time to get the wiring done.
I followed along with Nerrage's guide posted above, but made things a bit easier on myself by downloading the video and converting it to a format that would play on my PSP. With a portable guide, the initial wiring was pretty easy. After fixing the wire with a soldered connection, I used the barrier strip technique mentioned in the guide. Everything went smoothly, though a few of the quick connections were a little bit loose. A small squeeze with my piers took care of that.
From there, I moved on to the daisy chain between the Sparky and the Uilas. When using a Sparky, the Uilas don't need their white wire. I'd removed them earlier, and ended up using them as the bridge between ScotchLoks, rather then trimming some wire as suggested by Nerrage. I also saved a bit of time and effort by using some tongue-and-groove pliers to close the ScotchLoks, rather then my fingers or some scissors. One thing that caught me off guard is that some, but not all, of the ScotchLoks had a clear liquid inside them that made a bit of a mess when I closed them. A little Googling informed me that this is an anti-corrosive compound to protect the connection. I simply incorporated a paper towel into the task and things went fine.
I was a little nervous when I had to mess with the USB cable. Sure enough, I cut it a little closer to the PCB then I probably should have, but I was still able to ScotchLok things alright.
Now it was time to test things. I brought the stick over to my PC, fired up the joystick control panel, plugged the thing in, and... nothing. The PC didn't recognize that I'd plugged anything in.
The next 20 or so minutes was spent carefully examining each wire. I eventually spotted a place on the red power wire where I apparently nicked the insulation while stripping the end. Its possible that I'd damaged the wire as well, so I cut off that ScotchLok and put on another one. This is when I realized I'd cut the USB cable a little close. I didn't have much extra to work with on the PCB side. Still, there was enough space to get a new ScotchLok on, then it was time to re-test.
Still nothing.
Well, shit. What else could it be? The power wires were fine, and a problem with the data wire shouldn't keep the PC from recognizing the connection. I spent some more time squeezing all the ScotchLoks again. In hindsight, that should have been my first move, and sure enough, one of them was only 95% shut. Once I'd got it to 100%, the PC recognized the stick just fine.
Now to test things. The first problem was that I'd reversed the signal and ground connections on the barrier strip. That wasn't a huge deal, and took no more then 2 minutes to fix. Now my buttons were lighting up just fine, but according to the joystick control panel, the stick itself wasn't making any inputs. That's a serious problem.
I'll spare you the 45 minutes of freaking out and re-examining every last wire (even the LED connections, which have nothing to do with signal data). I eventually noticed that one of the data wires had a nick in it, just as the power wire had earlier. However, I had a problem. After clipping off the ScotchLok, there wasn't enough wire left on the PCB side to connect another one.
After a while brainstorming and searching, I found an old Microsoft Sidewinder USB gamepad I hadn't used in years and had been meaning to recycle. I harvested some wire from its USB cable, heated up my soldering iron, and was able to splice in more wire. Its the first time I've ever done such a thing, and it was a little tricky because I really could have used another hand, but I got it done.
Once the new ScotchLok was in place, it was time to test again. Still nothing. Son of a bitch. Had I somehow fried this thing?
While pondering what to do next, I idly started tapping a few buttons, because they look pretty when they light up. Then I noticed something: The joystick control panel wasn't registering inputs from the buttons. I knew that couldn't be right, so on a hunch I went over to my PS3. Sure enough, I was navigating XMB menus with no problem at all. I bet I didn't need to do that data wire splice in the first place.
Now my stick was working just fine. My only guess was that something about the mod prevented the PC from reading the thing's inputs, even though that makes no sense. As a note, on a whim after I typed that last sentence, I reconnected the stick to the PC. Now the control panel reads all the inputs just fine. Go figure.
So, here's what the guts of the stick looked like before I started. I had used some twist ties on the Uila wires to keep things organized while I connected the LEDs. If you click it, you can see where I cut away part of the mounting plate to make room for the screw button's nut.
And here's the multi-colored linguini that is my stick's guts now. Note how nicely the Sparky mount on the right fits into the case. That wasn't planned, it was pure dumb luck. A little superglue locked it firmly in place.
I was and am very happy with the results. I just had to finish the paint and varnish job on the shaft components and it would be done. That ended up taking a few days, and I ended up painting the red parts of the dust washer on the stick itself, with help of some wax paper.
A few days later the paint was finished and the varnish was dry. It was time to test the thing out. I ended up fighting my friend Claire in 5 rounds of The King of Fighters XIII. Unfortunately for me, I caught her when she was stressed out and she took it out on me, beating me cold in 4 matches. On the other hand, I shellaced her in that last match, so go me.
During our matches, a couple bugs did arise. Fist of all, I realized that a pair of buttons was slightly loose. No big deal, just crack open the back and tighten the nuts. A more serious problem showed up during our third match: I suddenly found myself unable to move left or right. Normally I'd be worried, but I was sure I knew exactly what the problem was. Opening it up, I was immediately proven right.
Previously, I'd noticed that the wiring harness connecting the joystick to the PCB fit a little loose. This particular harness didn't have a clip or anything to hold it in place, so I ended up using a bead of hot glue to hold it in place. Not the best solution, but it works. This is when I took the time to tighten those nuts as well.
I haven't had any problems since, and the stick handles beautifully. Here she is in all her glory:
Finally, here is a short video I made, showing off the LEDs.
I am very happy with the finished product.
Special thanks:
Nerrage for the tutorials
d3v for the art template
Josh & Christopher at FedEx Office for the help with the art
Jaleel at focusattack.com for outstanding service.
Adventures in Joystick Modding: Round 2
Though I cut my teeth on the various
iterations of Street Fighter II and the early Mortal Kombats, the
first fighting game that really drew me in was Soul Edge.
I remember my first encounter with the
game fairly well. The mall close to where I live had an Aladdin's
Castle arcade in it which featured a big screen TV for whatever the
hottest game was at the time. At this point it was Tekken 2, which
had recently been ported to the original Playstation. I didn't yet
own a Playstation, but I became curious about the game after seeing a
Playstation commercial that showed Marshall Law's funky back flip
throw thing.
For some reason I was hesitant to try
the game, but eventually just went for it. I tried out Law, since I
recognized him from the commercial, and ended up really liking both
him and the game. I played quite a bit over the next few weeks. It
was fun, but my only distinct memory of that time is when a guy in
army fatigues came up and challenged me. He had to have been at least
6' 7 and looked like Jack-2. Sure enough, he picked Jack-2 and beat me
cold.
One evening, maybe a week after that, I
was playing, when a tiny Korean walked in. She went right up to the
Soul Edge machine they'd recently moved from the a back of the
arcade, and next to Tekken 2. I'd looked at that thing a couple
times, but the whole side stepping in a 3D environment thing seemed a
bit intimidating to me. She picked Seung Mina and played for a bit
before eventually losing and going on her way.
Having lost at Tekken, I
decided to give Soul Edge a shot. I picked Seung Mina as well, since
I'd seen what the girl did, and the reach seemed like a good idea. I
think I did pretty decent for a newbie, and in one of my fights I
faced Siegfried. I thought he was really cool looking, so when I
eventually lost, I started over and gave him a shot. I totally fell
in love with the game at that point.
During mid-terms week at my
high school, you were allowed to leave campus once you were done with
your tests for the day. One day, I was done at 9:45am. The mall
opened at 10, so I got in my car and headed over. I ended up playing
Soul Edge until about noon. I actually didn't spend much money, as I
was getting the hang of things and doing well. This lead to me
heading to the arcade whenever I had free time.
Flash forward a few months.
A particular day in either late April or early May (its been so long,
I forget specifically) was the traditional Senior Skip Day. A girl I
kinda liked had propositioned me, so I was rather looking forward to
that.
I have to be honest, I was
not at all surprised when she blew me off. I was I think
understandably annoyed, and now I had nothing to do. At this point I
had an after school job to give me some disposable income, and I knew
that Soul Edge was now out on the Playstation. This would end up
being the first time a single game pretty much sold me on a system. I
withdrew $200 from my main bank account. I had an account with
another, small, bank which had just gotten ATM cards so I decided to
test that by withdrawing the money to cover the game. Cash in pocket,
I headed to the EBX just down the hall from Aladdin's Castle and
bought my Playstation and a memory card. They were out of stock for
Soul Edge, which I learned was retitled Soul Blade for the home
release. With that done, I headed to the Toys R Us about a quarter
mile away to get the game.
I was really happy with Soul
Blade. It was just as good as the arcade version! Arcade-perfect
ports were still kind of a new thing at the time. Even the SNES ports
of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat II, while fun, weren't quite
as good as the real thing. Still, the control pad just wasn't quite
doing it for me. The instruction manual for the game had made
reference to the “Namco Stick”, so after a few days I decided to
see if I could find some sort of Playstation joystick.
I headed back to that same
EBX, a place I'd end up becoming a regular at. That particular
location isn't there anymore, but I remember it had glass doors, and
as you entered, the Playstation games were on a shelf to the left.
You had to walk past a column to get to them. The side of that column
facing the center of the store had a TV in it. I think it played some
of their hype stuff, and also had demo units attached sometimes.
Tangent: I ended up meeting
a guy who had a Japanese PS1 that he'd bring to the store on Saturday
nights to hook up to that TV, so he could show off import games. Its
the way I first saw Bloody Roar, Final Fantasy VII, and Dead or
Alive. With DOA, I thought it hilarious that “Bouncing Breast”
was a option screen toggle and the lone thing in English.
That column also had some
shelves on it. When I entered that day, for some reason I looked at
the games first, just to see if anything would catch my eye. Then I
decided to look for a joystick and turned around. In one of the odder
coincidences in my life, upon simply turning 180° I ended up face to
face with the box of a Namco Stick on one of those column shelves. I
think it was $40, which I gladly paid.
I had no idea at the time
that the Namco Stick would go down as one of the legendary home
joysticks for its time. The idea of scratch builds was pretty much
unheard of at the time (and where would you get the parts, anyway?
The internet wasn't really a big thing yet), and the Namco Stick
became known for its high quality build and great responsiveness. It
was gray, with yellow buttons and balltop.
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That thing served me well
for many years. With it, I was able to get the arcade experience at
home with Soul Blade, the Tekkens and, once I got to college, Street
Fighter Alpha 1 and 2. I'd play a lot of Tekken 2 with people from
around the hall in my dorm, and when it wasn't my turn, there were
sometimes arguments over who'd get to use the stick. I think I was a
little feared with that thing, particularly because I learned how to
do King's multi-throw on it very reliably. I still have the input
memorized. Typing this, I remember that both I and one of the others
took a strong liking to Baek Doo San, and would often have
'Baek-offs' when nobody else was around.
The only annoying thing
about that stick was that sometimes the ball unscrewed from the
shaft. It happened often enough that I ultimately used some super
glue to keep it in place. I used a lot of glue, something I'd regret
down the line. These days I know you can just remove the bottom plate
and hold the shaft in place to tighten things firmly.
Years later, sometime around
the early days of the PS2, the square button started to become rather
iffy. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. With some regret, I
put the stick to the side, and it gathered dust for several years.
There really weren't any good PS2 era joysticks until much later in
the system's life cycle. I remember picking up this one called a
Shadowblade, which looked cool but was a giant piece of junk. It was
a total waste of money. I still have it around, and wonder if there
is anything worth salvaging from it. Probably not.
More years pass. I start
getting involved in the fighting game community on RPG.net. Posts
from a guy calling himself Chikahiro (who is now my buddy Sam)
inspired me to dig out the Namco Stick and see if I can fix it.
So, I got the bottom plate
off and discovered a couple things: The first was dust, which I
cleaned up as best I can. Second: The electronics within this thing
were simply beyond me. I put the bottom plate back on and tested it
out. The square button was now a little more responsive, but still
not very good.
Six months to a year later,
Chikahiro sold off his PS2 stuff in favor of an Xbox 360 and offered
to send me a spare joystick he didn't need. I accepted, and a few
weeks later I end up with another PS1 era stick called the Hori
Fightstick PS. Its was contemporary of the Namco Stick, which used
Hori parts, but has slightly different guts. It works great and
caused me to abandon my attempts to repair the Namco Stick. As an
aside, ironically, now one of the buttons on the Hori has developed a
response issue, and I'm not sure how to fix it.
Now the PS3 era was upon us.
I wanted to get a new system, but was still split between PS3 and
360. As mentioned in my last post, my decision was made when I ended
up snagging the PS3 version of the Standard Edition Madcatz Street
Fighter IV arcade Fightstick off of Amazon for $40.
After modding that SE
earlier this year, my attention returned to the Namco Stick. With
what I now knew, I thought I could at least attempt a repair.
What makes the Namco Stick
more complicated then the Street Fighter stick is the way the buttons
connected to the PCB. With the Street Fighter stick there are some
simple wire connections. The Namco Stick has the button leads
directly soldered to the PCB. Still, since I now have my PS3 stick,
this will just be a fun project to learn from. If I screw things up,
no biggie, right?
With that attitude, I
removed the problem button and tried soldering in one of the Fightstick's original buttons, which I had leftover after the mod.
This ended up being a bit of a pain because I'd glued the ball on all
those years ago, and this hindered dismantling the stick. I had to
remove the entire shaft assembly, which was tricky at first. In
addition, I had to modify the leads coming off the new button, as the
Namco buttons have a narrower layout.
From left to right: Namco
button. Stock Madcatz button. Modified Madcatz button.
Still, the mod ended up
working great. I also tried swapping in the shaft and balltop
leftover from my Madcatz mod, but it fit a little too loose. I
figured that I'd one day mod the stick further, using some Sanwa
buttons and some paint on the balltop.
However, not long after
this, I had a conversation with Kelly, my long distance girlfriend,
that made the project a priority. See, she broke her wrist several
years ago and while we were talking, she mentioned the old injury was
feeling sore. As best she could tell, it was because she'd played
some Soul Calibur 3 against her roommate recently, and some of the
motions from using a Dualshock 2 must have aggravated the old injury.
She lamented that she'd just have to stop playing.
Well, no girlfriend of mine
is going to turn her back on fighters, so my thoughts immediately
turned to trying to find a good PS2 stick for her. Her birthday was
coming up, so it would make a perfect gift. A complication reared its
head just a few days later: Kelly is a bit of a contradiction at
times. She hates it when people spend money on her, but she does
enjoy receiving gifts. So, we're talking on the phone and out of
nowhere she maked me promise not to buy her a birthday gift this
year. She wouldn't take no for an answer, so I had to make the
promise.
Well, that threw a wrench in
the whole joystick gift plan, huh? I thought about it for a bit and
realized its not quite as bad as I'd thought. She said no buying
things, nothing about building things. If I played my cards right, I
could build her a stick using the Namco as a base, and some spare
parts. It just hinged on a phone call.
Something important to note.
Kelly's favorite colors are purple and black. Now, as I mentioned in
the last update, my buddy Mark had picked up a WWE Brawlstick he was
going to mod it. I've read, but not confirmed, that although the
Brawlstick is pretty much the same thing as the SFIV SE Fightstick,
its buttons are of slightly better build quality. Sure, they're not
authentic Sanwas, but hey. Plus, they're all black while the
Fightstick has only 2 black buttons.
I gave Mark a call and asked
him if he has anything in mind for the old buttons. He didn't, and
said he'd be happy to give them to me the next time we saw each
other. Great! I'm in business.
Now, what to do about the
top plate? Years of use had seen the paint wear away from where my
hand commonly rubbed against it. I could simply repaint it with
purple paint, but I wanted something that will wear better then the
old paint had. I'd removed the balltop/shaft combo when I did the
test button, so now I removed the top plate entirely. At this point I
sprayed the balltop and shaft black, and use an absurd number of
clear coat layers to make it look nice. I also soaked the top plate
in acetone so I could totally strip it of paint
During my research for my
Madcatz SE mod, I read a lot about replacing artwork. For sticks that
don't have an acrylic top plate, the thing to do is design your art
using an appropriate template, go to a FedEx/Kinkos (now FedEx
Office) and have them print and LamiLabel it. Googling for a
template, I found that the guys at Tek Innovations had one
So, now that I had a
template, I started fooling around with GIMP. Initially I was
planning on doing a solid purple panel, with a single horizontal
black racing strip near the bottom, and Kelly's handle “Lornadoom”
just below that. After a bit more reading, I learned that solid
blocks of color don't always print well, so its best to break it up
somehow. I considered adding scan lines, but didn't like the result.
After a bit more reading, I learned how to do a fractal pattern that
looked kind of neat. After a few adjustments, I ended up with
something I was pretty sure she'd like. All that was left to do was
add in some button labels.
A bit of Googling found me a
font for the various Playstation button symbols, but I wasn't fond of
the L and R included. I ended up finding a cool font called DiamondGothic which served that purpose, as well as for her name.
Now is the part where I
cheated a little bit. I'd promised not to spend money on her gift,
but I did end up dropping $5.71 on getting the artwork printed. That
particular FedEx Office had a self-serve lamination machine, but it
was easy enough to figure out and the results were great. Now I just
had to apply it.
With the pattern I'd made, I
didn't have to be too accurate in terms of lining things up. So long
as the button labels were in the right spots, it was all good. Just
to be safe, I had two copies of the art printed. I ended up nailing
it on the first try. To make sure things went on smoothly, I used a
squeegee intended for cleaning showers. It worked great and, after cutting out the holes, the
artwork was all set.
Now all that was left was to
connect the buttons. As noted, the buttons needed some modification,
so I did that and then tried a test connection with the PCB. It went
quite well, but I noticed that the brawlstick buttons fit just
slightly loose in the Namco plate, so I used a bit of Green Stuff
modeling putty from my Warhammer 40,000 supplies to keep them secure.
After that it was a simple matter to solder the connections.
That ended up being easier
then I expected. Once it was done, I reattached the balltop and
shaft, and tested the stick out. It worked great. A couple of aesthetic notes: I left the two L buttons yellow, as a nod to the stick's past. I was tempted to use the old, gray, dust washer but it didn't fit the color scheme. In addition to the clash, the paint on the shaft caused the gray dust washer to fit too tight, so I swapped in a black one leftover from the Madcatz mod. Now all I had to do
was wrap the stick up and ship it.
I had the prefect setup for the surprise.
Kelly likes Wonder Woman and the TV show Charmed, so I've been
snagging her the comic books for both. It had been a while since I
mailed her any, so I told her that since she wouldn't let me buy her
a gift, I was at least going to send the batch of comics out to her.
She was fine with that, and I exaggerated how thick the stack was. I
wrapped everything up, fit it into a flat rate USPS box, and sent it
on its way.
Kelly gave me a call on her
birthday, mainly just to say hi, because she hadn't opened her gifts
yet. She knew I'd just sent comics, so no rush, right? About 45
minutes after we finish, she called me back. I said “Hello?” and
she said “I love you.”
So yeah, I got points for an
original birthday present. She was thrilled that it was purple and
had her name on it. Later, she fought her roommate in Soul Calibur 3
again, and had no wrist pain. Mission accomplished. As an aside, I
love that I first bought that stick for Soul Blade, and she's using
it for Soul Calibur 3. She also recently told me that her roommate
thinks her game has improved since she started using it. Woohoo!
Adventures in Joystick Modding: Round 1
I got rather sick in February. Several
trips to the doctor, as well as a specialist, and a few tests
ultimately took care of the problem, but I was pretty stressed for a
while. One thing that helped me get through it all was learning a bit
about joysticks.
I adore fighting games. I first cut my
teeth on the original Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat in arcades.
Mortal Kombat's II & 3 came a bit later. I had a bit of
experience with the arcade MKII thanks to a local video store, but
MK3 (and later, the Ultimate revision) was mostly SNES and later the
PlayStation, via Mortal Kombat Trilogy. That video store also
introduced me to the Neo-Geo. I'd played the SNES version of Fatal
Fury, which was okay, but I'd never seen the real hardware before.
This one was a two-slot model, and featured Art of Fighting and World
Heroes. I didn't really care for Art of Fighting, and although World
Heroes was alright, it really felt like a Street Fighter II
knock-off.
I tried more fighters as the years
passed. Some were good, some bad. In my college days, my roommate
Corey and friend Jay introduced me to Street Fighter III: Third
Strike, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Capcom vs SNK, and really got me
into the King of Fighters series. I'd been aware of it, but had never
given it a fair shot. Its now my favorite franchise.
It occurs to me that the campus arcade
at UMass, Amherst really was amazing for fighters at that point. In
the fall of '97 its big draw was the brand new Mortal Kombat 4, but
it also had a rather beaten up Super Street Fighter II Turbo machine
that would be replaced by a Street Fighter Alpha 3 a year later.
Virtua Fighter 3 came in as soon as it was released, but the real gem
was that there were three Neo-Geos. Between the three of them were
The King of Fighters '94-'96, and I think '97 eventually showed up as
well. One of them had Fatal Fury 3, and another had Magician Lord
because its some sort of rule that Magician Lord had to show up
somewhere. As an aside, a pizza place a couple miles from campus had
a two-slot Neo-Geo with the Double Dragon fighter and Blazing Star,
but Double Dragon eventually got replaced with Metal Slug X.
So anyway, its safe to say I'm a
fighter fan. During my illness, my thoughts turned to the joystick
I'd purchased a couple years previously. Its was the Standard Edition
Madcatz Street Fighter IV arcade fightstick. I'd snagged it off of
Amazon at a bargain price of $40 for the PS3 version. I used it with
my PC and the Steam version of Street Fighter IV, because I didn't
yet own a PS3. I was pretty sure I someday would, and this stick
helped seal the deal.
I think its a reasonably decent entry
level stick. The stock stick and buttons are Madcatz knockoffs of
Sanwa parts. Specifically, as I would later learn, the JLF series of
sticks and the OBSF series of buttons.
So, during my illness, I started
thinking about it more. I'd since bought a PS3 and had the 2011
Mortal Kombat, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, the excellent
Skullgirls, and the amazing King of Fighters XIII. I knew my stick
could be better, and even though I'm not a tournament player, I
wanted to improve it. However, modding was an intimidating prospect
for someone who has no idea what they're doing. Then, during a
productive day of googling, I found this article, which in turn lead me to this excellent video:
Jangofatt made the process look easy. I
wasn't ready to do an art mod, and I kinda liked the stock art
anyway, but the rest? I knew I could do that.
In March, I helped a friend of mine
named Mark out with a concert he was promoting. On the day of the
show we met up at his place early. He was curious about Mortal
Kombat, so I brought it over along with my stick and a PS2 stick I
had an adapter for. We played for a bit, and he really liked using
the stick and started looking into them. Soon after, I discovered
that a GameStop near him had the Madcatz WWE Brawl Stick for $30 and
I told him. The Brawl Stick is pretty much the SFIV SE stick, just
with some bad art on it (and I say that as a WWE fan). I've since
been told that the build quality of the buttons is a bit better, but
I didn't know that at the time.
So, Mark gets his stick, and the next
time we hang out, I show him the video I linked above. He too thinks
a button and stick mod could be useful, but he wants to try his hand
at art as well. After taking a few days to ponder colors and whatnot,
we jumped in and made a parts order from focusattack.com
I'm glad we went with Focus Attack. At
the time, Lizard Lick was in the process of imploding, and we dodged
a bullet there. Jaleel Beck runs a tight ship, and I'm thrilled to do
business with him. We placed our order at about 4:30pm EST on
Thursday, April 26th 2012. We decided to have it sent to
my place, and it arrived the following Monday.
I ended up getting a JLF stick, a green
balltop, and some violet/black buttons. My color choices were simply
because purple is my favorite color, and green works well with it. I
also got a translucent smoke shaft cover and an octagonal
restrictor
gate. Mark opted to get the same shaft cover and gate.
So, I took my dog for a walk,
re-watched that video and then with parts in hand, I got modding.
First, I found an old bet sheet to lay
on the table to protect both the stick and table from potential
scratches. Here's what it looks like when you
first open it up.
The first thing I did was, as the video suggested, remove the old stick. At this point I decided it would be a little easier to change out the buttons first. This is what it looked like when I was done with that part.
After that I put in the new
joystick.
To conclude, I placed the shaft cover and dust washers, and screwed on the new balltop. After that I just had to reattach the bottom panel.
The project took about half an hour. I
then tested it out by firing up Super Street Fighter IV and
practicing a bit with Dan. I was expecting there to be a difference
in performance, but I was surprised by just how big a difference it
made.
In hindsight, the colors I chose don't
really go with anything, so if I were to do an art mod, I might end
up replacing something. Still, I like it, and it was my first mod, so
I'll probably keep it the way it is.
Fond memories
So, back in January of 1998 I went to an ECW house show. While poking around the internet the other day, I found a place where the results were posted. So, for fun, I've decided to review the show and share memories, over 13 (!) years after the fact.
January 23, 1998 - ECW - Waltham, Massachusetts:
The first thing I remember is that for Christmas I'd received the Sears version of a Leatherman multi-tool and forgot to take it off my belt. Security understandably didn't want me to bring it in, but it was a long hike back to my car and it was nearly show time. The security guy agreed to hold onto it, but it was up to me to find him after the show and get it back. I was able to do so without issue.
The tickets were general admission. I ended up with a seat right by the corner ring post. There was just one guy, wearing a Stone Cold t-shirt, between me and the guard rail.
Opening match: Jerry Lynn pinned Chris Chetti.
Lynn and Chetti did a solid, traditional wresting match. Nothing traditionally Extreme happened, and to my annoyance the crowd started chanting “Boring!”. I couldn't disagree more. It was a rock solid match, better then anything you'd see on Raw or Nitro at the time. It just didn't involve stop signs or tables.
Second match: Justin Credible pinned Spike Dudley.
This was pretty much a curb stomping by Credible, and got him some good heel heat. One thing I noticed was that there was a balcony area that the crowd didn't have access to, and New Jack was using it to watch the match. Also, Chastity was Credible's escort. When the obligatory “Show your tits” chant started, she responded with a gesture for female masturbation.
Third match: John Kronus pinned Paul Diamond.
This match carries one of my fondest memories of the show. Keep in mind that Perry Saturn had signed with WCW the previous summer, ending the Eliminators tag team with Kronus.
The match was quite back and forth, and ultimately Kronus hit a big move on Diamond to set up his 450 splash finisher. Kronus stepped through the ropes to climb the turnbuckle near where I was. He couldn't have been more then 6 or 7 feet from me, when the guy in the Stone Cold t-shirt yells out:
“Saturn sucks!”
Kronus stops climbing and looks at the guy. “Yeah, Saturn does suck!”
Stone Cold Guy: “Fuck Saturn!”
Kronus: “Yeah! Fuck Saturn!”
This whole exchange took a good 10 or 15 full seconds. Meanwhile, Paul Diamond is just laying there, playing at being stunned and waiting for the 450. After finishing his conversation with the fan, Kronus hit the 450 and got the win.
I can't help but wonder what was going through Paul Diamond's head while he was waiting for that 450.
Fourth match: Al Snow pinned Roadkill.
This was right as the Head gimmick was coming into prominence. I have a clearer memory of Snow's entrance, and just how totally into it the crowd was. People were chanting “Head! Head! Head!” enough to make their throats raw.
Fifth match: Axl Rotten, Balls Mahoney, and The Sandman defeated Little Guido, Tracey Smothers, and Tommy Rich
A solid match from the FBI. I remember Tracy Smothers was doing a lot of playing to the audience in typically humorous FBI way, and Sandman's reaction was to put his Singapore cane between his legs and make a masturbation motion. Also, whenever he was tagged out, Sandman was talking with the fans at ringside.
Sixth match: The Blue Meanie pinned Jason
This is odd. I'm a pretty big fan of the Meanie and the b.W.o., and I have absolutely no recollection of this match. I don't remember Meanie even being at the show.
Seventh match: Chris Candido and Lance Storm defeated The Dudley Boys
My favorite moment of the night came from this match. Candido and Storm had recently started tagging as part of the Triple Threat, so Storm still had a bit of a “new guy” vibe to him. The pair was escorted by Francine in a tight and slinky dress, and the Dudleys with Joel Gertner in his typical tux jacket with no shirt, and neck brace.
So, as with Chastity earlier, a huge “Show your tits!” chant starts during the introductions. The difference is that this one just won't stop. I'm used to hearing these things on ECW television and then generally peter out after a minute or so. Not this time. I know that Francine realizes that this comes with the territory of being the hot chick at an ECW show, and she's heard them thousands of times before, but even she seems to be getting annoyed by how relentless this one is. It feels like everybody in the room except me and my buddy Pete are chanting.
So, the match is about to begin, and the audience is STILL chanting. Lance Storm goes to lock up with D-Von Dudley, when D-Von suddenly holds out his hands in a “Wait a minute” gesture. Storm looks confused, but backs off.
D-Von then motions for Joel Gertner to enter the ring, and Joel does so, and has this really nervous look on his face. The chants continue. After three or four more iterations of the chant, Gertner suddenly pulls his tux jacket open, flashing his man-boobs.
The audience goes dead quiet. From deafening “Show your tits!” chant to so quiet you could hear a pin drop, in the space of half a second.
When it first seemed that the match was going to start, Francine had moved to an area that was out of the line of sight for most of the crowd, but where I could still clearly see her. When Joel flashed the audience I saw her hold her hand to her mouth to cover her laugh, but her body was visibly shaking from the force of her laughter.
The match itself was quite good, but couldn't top its opening.
Main Event: Television Champion, Taz, defeated Rob Van Dam.
This one was just crazy. Several big spots like you'd typically see on TV. At one point I narrowly avoided getting crushed by a flying Taz and took him to the lap instead. There were a lot of run-ins, enough that would be criticized as an over-booked finish these days, but was just the typical ECW craziness at the time.
The climax was when the Dudleys ran in and started attacking Taz. A few moments later Spike Dudley and New Jack ran in, each holding one end of a catering tray, presumably from back stage. They whacked Buh Buh Ray from behind, carrot sticks, broccoli, dip, and pastries going everywhere.
Ultimately, the face interference overpowered the heel interference and Taz won the match.
After the event was over, the exits got quite crowded. Since I was right by ringside, I knew it would be a while before I could get out, so I just stayed put. A moment later I noticed Spike Dudley return to ringside, so I complimented him on his match. He walked over to me and we started discussing the show. A moment later he noticed a brownie from the catering tray had landed on a nearby chair. He picked it up, broke it in half and gave me part while he munched on his and continued to talk. It was kind of neat, because he was talking to me as Matt Hyson, not Spike Dudley.
Eventually things had cleared out enough for me to leave, so Spike and I said our goodbyes and I headed out. Entering the main foyer of the venue, I saw a number of wrestlers leaving. What caught my eye was the Great Sasuke. I admit I was slightly puzzled, as I was aware of him touring with ECW at the time, but he hadn't performed during the show.
Overall? Absolutely wonderful time. In my time I have been to a WWF house show in the late 80s, the Raw in 2001 where Austin and the Rock sang Margaritaville together, a WCW house show two days before the Wolf Pac debuted on Nitro, an NCW show last year, and more local NECW shows then I can count.
This ECW show was by far the most fun of any of those shows.
Last night's D&D session
So, in my D&D 4e game I play a Dragonborn (humanoid dragon, basically) fighter named Koloth. The other characters are:
Veeks - Elf barbarian (yes, seriously)
Froderick - Halfling sorcerer
Sariel - Eladrin (high elf) wizard
Xander - Elf cleric
Khait - Elf thief and Xander's half-sister.
And having just typed that, I only just realized how many damn elves we have.
Okay, a little bit of game mechanics, so that this story will make sense: In the current version of D&D, the highest possible character level is 30, and they divide the levels into 3 tiers. 1-10 is Heroic, where you're considered to be just a typical adventurer. 11-20 is Paragon, where your characters are more of a big deal and some of the higher powers are starting to notice you. 21-30 is Epic, where your characters pretty much become demigods.
I once summed up the tiers as regular guy --> Batman --> Superman.
When you hit Paragon, you get to choose something called a Paragon Path, which gives your character a few additional abilities. In my case I selected Scion of Arkhosia, a Dragonborn-specific path which gave me wings that allow for short distance flight, and more control over my breath powers.
When you hit Epic, you get to select an Epic Destiny, which is like a Paragon Path, just more powerful.
Technically, by the rulebook, you get your Path/Destiny as soon as you hit the appropriate level, the GM wants to incorporate them into the story. Therefore we don't gain them until a thematically or dramatically appropriate time. In Koloth's case, I didn't get my Paragon Path until nearly to level 12, and its sometimes taken longer for other characters.
The only other game mechanic thing I can think of that is important is the concepts of Short Rests and Extended Rests. Short rests are a quick breather that allow you to regain some of your spent abilities, and heal a little. Extended Rests are basically a full night's sleep and let you fully recover everything. Also, if you've gained enough experience to level up, it does not occur until you next have an Extended Rest.
Xander is a cleric following the Raven Queen, who serves as the goddess of death. An important plot point from about a real-life year ago is that Koloth was killed in battle, but the Raven Queen came to him and returned him to life as a Revenant and tasked him to destroy her enemies.
About six real-life months ago, as part of our ongoing plot, the Raven Queen was apparently killed, and her position usurped by Kelemvor, the previous god of death. We later learned that the Raven Queen wasn't quite dead, but severely injured and weakened.
With the exception of Khait, all of us have recently hit level 21.
Xander's player and I have chosen similar Epic Destinies. He chose Avatar of Death, and I chose Avatar of Io. In Xander's case this means he will become either the direct representative of, or the embodiment of the Raven Queen.
Mine does the same, but the catch is that within the setting, Io is a long dead god. When Io was slain, his body was cut in two, and each half became one of the two dragon gods: Bahamut and the 5-headed Tiamat.
A short time ago (the last time we were in a city), Koloth was attacked by what looked to be a 5-headed Dragonborn, surely a sign of Tiamat. The odd thing was that nobody else could see it, or interact with it (such as attacking where it seemed to be), but they could see wounds appear on Koloth when he was hit. After a short fight, the thing left.
I think that's all the backstory you need to know for the rest to make any sense (the campaign is going on 3 years now, so there's a lot that is tied together)
Currently, we're trying to recover a hammer that was stolen from a demon blacksmith called the Breaker. The Breaker has important information we need, and will trade it for his hammer. We'd tracked it down to a particular location, and had already eliminated most of the opposition, but had one room left to check. This is where we picked up last night...
The party was pretty run down after the series of battles we'd had the previous session, so Sariel used a ritual that allowed us to take an extended rest, but only eat up an hour of time. Thus, everyone except Khait officially hit level 21.
Rested, Khait used an ability to examine the next room without having to enter it. What she saw was the demons we expected, a hammer and anvil, and a 5-headed creature fighting the demons.
We were up a staircase, so we went down it to the door and entered. In the time this took, the 5-headed creature had finished off the demons. Sure enough, it was the Dragonborn thing that had attacked me earlier. Now that I could get a better look at it, I recognized it as a rival Dragonborn from much earlier in the campaign, who was a follower of Tiamat and generally quite the scum bag.
The interesting part was that directly behind the Rival (who's name we'd never learned) was a ghostly image of a 5 headed dragon. Apparently Tiamat herself! O_O And she appeared to be directing energies into the Rival! Zounds!
I guessed, correctly, that the Rival had become an avatar of Tiamat. As I was guessing this, I heard a woman's voice (the Raven Queen), say (in the form of a note passed to me) "You must lose to prevent a new conflict, but it must be you and only you to battle her chosen."
So, Koloth pointed at the Rival and stated "In the name of the Raven Queen, I challenge you to single combat!". The rest of the party was surprised by this, but backed off. One of them even turned to leave, only to find that directly behind the party was a ghostly image of Bahamut!
So, the Rival and I started trading blows. I decided to start off fighting for real, and that I'd throw it later on. I figured I should at least make it look good. I ended up doing better then I expected. Rival was starting to look rather ragged, so I chose to taunt him instead of attacking and offer him a free hit.
My plan was that unless the Rival outright missed, I'd drop after he hit me, no matter what sort of damage it did. Well, coincidentally, the blow put me at exactly 0 hit points. Mechanically, that means your character is knocked out and dying, but they're not dead-dead until their HP drops to half their total HP below 0. In my case that would be -78, but the kicker is that because I'm a Revenant, I don't fall unconscious at 0, I can just keep fighting but all the other related penalties (which I'm glossing over) still apply.
The party was shocked. A few reminded me, out of character, that I don't drop and 0, and I told them I knew that. The Rival continued to attack.
Froderick did some rolling for Insight, and realized there was no way that blow could have dropped me, and that I must be up to something. So everyone held back. Everyone except Veeks the Barbarian, who just saw his compatriot fall. He charged in and whacked the Rival, despite an image in his head of the Raven Queen telling him not to (He later explained that A) He doesn't follow the Raven Queen, so it was just some woman to him, and B) He figured it was a mage trying to mess with his head.)
At this point a second image of the Rival appeared. It pointed at Veeks and the first Rival, and made a slashing motion with its arm. Then it pointed at Koloth and itself, made another slashing motion, and attacked Koloth once before vanishing. Translation: You interfered once, so I get to interfere once.
Now Xander received a whisper from the Raven Queen, and he was able to hold back Veeks. Now unopposed, the Rival continued his attack on Koloth, finishing me off. (Far past -78).
So, Koloth is dead and the Rival looks pleased with himself. He turns to leave, when Koloth's body floats in the air. Rival sees this and attacks again, knocking Koloth to the floor once more.
Koloth floats again. This time he speaks, and its with both the voice of Koloth and the Raven Queen. It explains something that Koloth already knew, but that the rest didn't: When the Raven Queen turned Koloth into a Revenant, she stored a part of her essence within him to do it. Since her apparent death she's been resting, but now it is time to retake her role from Kelemvor. As she spoke, energies swirled around Koloth's body, in particular a dark patch. Said dark energies lashed out at the Rival and leeched energies from him. Tiamat looked concerned by this, since she had been powering the Rival.
Over the course of a few seconds, the Rival rapidly aged, until it was just a skeleton, and then just dust, which blew away. That done, the dark energy left Koloth's body and headed out a window, but not before flying through Xander. Her voice told them that if he abandons his prideful ways (Xander has an inflated ego, which is a sin to the Raven Queen's teachings) that he would grow in power as her representative. And thus Xander gained his Epic Destiny!
Koloth stopped floating, falling gently onto his feet. Apparently as a reward for carrying her essence for about a year, the Raven Queen restored Koloth to full life. He is no longer a Revenant.
Then the Raven Queen did one last thing. She shoved the images of Tiamat and Bahamut from behind. They didn't expect this, and ended up colliding, with Koloth between them. Tiamat and Bahamut are now dead, and Io shall be reborn. Koloth gains his Epic Destiny!
The Raven Queen's final words before departing were to task us with raising an army to oppose Asmodius' forces. We know that he controls an army of spirits. Thus, Koloth took the hammer from the nearby anvil, and the group returned to the Breaker.
The Breaker kept his end of the deal, telling us the information about Asmodius we needed. He'd also agreed to forge each of us a powerful item. Except for Koloth. Instead of forging something for him, he will instead teach Koloth (who has a background in smithing) the ways of the so-called Soul Metal. Soul Metal is a magical metal in our campaign. It looks like silver, but is infused with souls, and has unique properties. The most notable is that a weapon edged with Soul Metal can harm spirits as if they were flesh.
Teaching Koloth will take time. A month, in-game. The party has agreed that Koloth will stay with the Breaker and learn, while the rest explore some of our options in gathering allies. We already have some that will likely help, as well as the various Raven Queen followers (Xander is basically the RQ pope, so he can probably amass something via preaching), and we have some enemies who hate Asmodius more then they hate us, so that might be an option. They're also going to see what the new status quo is with the followers of Tiamat and Bahamut is, since those gods are suddenly no more.
In next week's session, we're going to pick up a month later and go from there. Also, the experience gained pushed Khait to level 21 as well.
Veeks - Elf barbarian (yes, seriously)
Froderick - Halfling sorcerer
Sariel - Eladrin (high elf) wizard
Xander - Elf cleric
Khait - Elf thief and Xander's half-sister.
And having just typed that, I only just realized how many damn elves we have.
Okay, a little bit of game mechanics, so that this story will make sense: In the current version of D&D, the highest possible character level is 30, and they divide the levels into 3 tiers. 1-10 is Heroic, where you're considered to be just a typical adventurer. 11-20 is Paragon, where your characters are more of a big deal and some of the higher powers are starting to notice you. 21-30 is Epic, where your characters pretty much become demigods.
I once summed up the tiers as regular guy --> Batman --> Superman.
When you hit Paragon, you get to choose something called a Paragon Path, which gives your character a few additional abilities. In my case I selected Scion of Arkhosia, a Dragonborn-specific path which gave me wings that allow for short distance flight, and more control over my breath powers.
When you hit Epic, you get to select an Epic Destiny, which is like a Paragon Path, just more powerful.
Technically, by the rulebook, you get your Path/Destiny as soon as you hit the appropriate level, the GM wants to incorporate them into the story. Therefore we don't gain them until a thematically or dramatically appropriate time. In Koloth's case, I didn't get my Paragon Path until nearly to level 12, and its sometimes taken longer for other characters.
The only other game mechanic thing I can think of that is important is the concepts of Short Rests and Extended Rests. Short rests are a quick breather that allow you to regain some of your spent abilities, and heal a little. Extended Rests are basically a full night's sleep and let you fully recover everything. Also, if you've gained enough experience to level up, it does not occur until you next have an Extended Rest.
Xander is a cleric following the Raven Queen, who serves as the goddess of death. An important plot point from about a real-life year ago is that Koloth was killed in battle, but the Raven Queen came to him and returned him to life as a Revenant and tasked him to destroy her enemies.
About six real-life months ago, as part of our ongoing plot, the Raven Queen was apparently killed, and her position usurped by Kelemvor, the previous god of death. We later learned that the Raven Queen wasn't quite dead, but severely injured and weakened.
With the exception of Khait, all of us have recently hit level 21.
Xander's player and I have chosen similar Epic Destinies. He chose Avatar of Death, and I chose Avatar of Io. In Xander's case this means he will become either the direct representative of, or the embodiment of the Raven Queen.
Mine does the same, but the catch is that within the setting, Io is a long dead god. When Io was slain, his body was cut in two, and each half became one of the two dragon gods: Bahamut and the 5-headed Tiamat.
A short time ago (the last time we were in a city), Koloth was attacked by what looked to be a 5-headed Dragonborn, surely a sign of Tiamat. The odd thing was that nobody else could see it, or interact with it (such as attacking where it seemed to be), but they could see wounds appear on Koloth when he was hit. After a short fight, the thing left.
I think that's all the backstory you need to know for the rest to make any sense (the campaign is going on 3 years now, so there's a lot that is tied together)
Currently, we're trying to recover a hammer that was stolen from a demon blacksmith called the Breaker. The Breaker has important information we need, and will trade it for his hammer. We'd tracked it down to a particular location, and had already eliminated most of the opposition, but had one room left to check. This is where we picked up last night...
The party was pretty run down after the series of battles we'd had the previous session, so Sariel used a ritual that allowed us to take an extended rest, but only eat up an hour of time. Thus, everyone except Khait officially hit level 21.
Rested, Khait used an ability to examine the next room without having to enter it. What she saw was the demons we expected, a hammer and anvil, and a 5-headed creature fighting the demons.
We were up a staircase, so we went down it to the door and entered. In the time this took, the 5-headed creature had finished off the demons. Sure enough, it was the Dragonborn thing that had attacked me earlier. Now that I could get a better look at it, I recognized it as a rival Dragonborn from much earlier in the campaign, who was a follower of Tiamat and generally quite the scum bag.
The interesting part was that directly behind the Rival (who's name we'd never learned) was a ghostly image of a 5 headed dragon. Apparently Tiamat herself! O_O And she appeared to be directing energies into the Rival! Zounds!
I guessed, correctly, that the Rival had become an avatar of Tiamat. As I was guessing this, I heard a woman's voice (the Raven Queen), say (in the form of a note passed to me) "You must lose to prevent a new conflict, but it must be you and only you to battle her chosen."
So, Koloth pointed at the Rival and stated "In the name of the Raven Queen, I challenge you to single combat!". The rest of the party was surprised by this, but backed off. One of them even turned to leave, only to find that directly behind the party was a ghostly image of Bahamut!
So, the Rival and I started trading blows. I decided to start off fighting for real, and that I'd throw it later on. I figured I should at least make it look good. I ended up doing better then I expected. Rival was starting to look rather ragged, so I chose to taunt him instead of attacking and offer him a free hit.
My plan was that unless the Rival outright missed, I'd drop after he hit me, no matter what sort of damage it did. Well, coincidentally, the blow put me at exactly 0 hit points. Mechanically, that means your character is knocked out and dying, but they're not dead-dead until their HP drops to half their total HP below 0. In my case that would be -78, but the kicker is that because I'm a Revenant, I don't fall unconscious at 0, I can just keep fighting but all the other related penalties (which I'm glossing over) still apply.
The party was shocked. A few reminded me, out of character, that I don't drop and 0, and I told them I knew that. The Rival continued to attack.
Froderick did some rolling for Insight, and realized there was no way that blow could have dropped me, and that I must be up to something. So everyone held back. Everyone except Veeks the Barbarian, who just saw his compatriot fall. He charged in and whacked the Rival, despite an image in his head of the Raven Queen telling him not to (He later explained that A) He doesn't follow the Raven Queen, so it was just some woman to him, and B) He figured it was a mage trying to mess with his head.)
At this point a second image of the Rival appeared. It pointed at Veeks and the first Rival, and made a slashing motion with its arm. Then it pointed at Koloth and itself, made another slashing motion, and attacked Koloth once before vanishing. Translation: You interfered once, so I get to interfere once.
Now Xander received a whisper from the Raven Queen, and he was able to hold back Veeks. Now unopposed, the Rival continued his attack on Koloth, finishing me off. (Far past -78).
So, Koloth is dead and the Rival looks pleased with himself. He turns to leave, when Koloth's body floats in the air. Rival sees this and attacks again, knocking Koloth to the floor once more.
Koloth floats again. This time he speaks, and its with both the voice of Koloth and the Raven Queen. It explains something that Koloth already knew, but that the rest didn't: When the Raven Queen turned Koloth into a Revenant, she stored a part of her essence within him to do it. Since her apparent death she's been resting, but now it is time to retake her role from Kelemvor. As she spoke, energies swirled around Koloth's body, in particular a dark patch. Said dark energies lashed out at the Rival and leeched energies from him. Tiamat looked concerned by this, since she had been powering the Rival.
Over the course of a few seconds, the Rival rapidly aged, until it was just a skeleton, and then just dust, which blew away. That done, the dark energy left Koloth's body and headed out a window, but not before flying through Xander. Her voice told them that if he abandons his prideful ways (Xander has an inflated ego, which is a sin to the Raven Queen's teachings) that he would grow in power as her representative. And thus Xander gained his Epic Destiny!
Koloth stopped floating, falling gently onto his feet. Apparently as a reward for carrying her essence for about a year, the Raven Queen restored Koloth to full life. He is no longer a Revenant.
Then the Raven Queen did one last thing. She shoved the images of Tiamat and Bahamut from behind. They didn't expect this, and ended up colliding, with Koloth between them. Tiamat and Bahamut are now dead, and Io shall be reborn. Koloth gains his Epic Destiny!
The Raven Queen's final words before departing were to task us with raising an army to oppose Asmodius' forces. We know that he controls an army of spirits. Thus, Koloth took the hammer from the nearby anvil, and the group returned to the Breaker.
The Breaker kept his end of the deal, telling us the information about Asmodius we needed. He'd also agreed to forge each of us a powerful item. Except for Koloth. Instead of forging something for him, he will instead teach Koloth (who has a background in smithing) the ways of the so-called Soul Metal. Soul Metal is a magical metal in our campaign. It looks like silver, but is infused with souls, and has unique properties. The most notable is that a weapon edged with Soul Metal can harm spirits as if they were flesh.
Teaching Koloth will take time. A month, in-game. The party has agreed that Koloth will stay with the Breaker and learn, while the rest explore some of our options in gathering allies. We already have some that will likely help, as well as the various Raven Queen followers (Xander is basically the RQ pope, so he can probably amass something via preaching), and we have some enemies who hate Asmodius more then they hate us, so that might be an option. They're also going to see what the new status quo is with the followers of Tiamat and Bahamut is, since those gods are suddenly no more.
In next week's session, we're going to pick up a month later and go from there. Also, the experience gained pushed Khait to level 21 as well.
