Custom built arcades sticks are a particularly unique aspect of the fighting game scene. To celebrate these incredible creations, SRK commissioned a cross-over contest: design and build the ultimate Starcraft II arcade stick. The task was to take all the craftsmanship and flair that goes into a handmade fightstick, but translate it to a different game genre.

Here is the winning submission, by Mauricio Romano. I was blown away by the initial renderings for his stick, and equally impressed by the fully functional final product. Here’s Mauricio’s concept render for the stick.

And here’s the finished product.

The “Keyboard”

Instead of a keyboard, the stick uses a matrix of Sanwa buttons traditionally used in fighting game arcade sticks. The larger buttons on the bottom left and right of the button array are for the CTRL, SHIFT, and Space keys. When plugged in via USB, the stick is recognized as a normal keyboard. No button mapping required.

The Mouse

The hemisphere you see on the right is a fully working 2-button mouse build using an Ultrastik analog joystick configured as an absolute pointing device. This allows for an RTS like feel while still maintaining the two-hands-on-the-stick spirit of a fight sticks.

The End Result

Is this controller as effective as a good mechanical keyboard and mouse? Hell no, but that wasn’t the point! This was a cross-over challenge to blend RTS and Fighter controls, borrowing from both and unifying them in a way that makes sense in both worlds. If you’d like to see more of the stick, check out these galleries.

If you’d like to see more custom arcade sticks or learn about the fine art of stick building, check out this thread in the SRK Tech Talk forum.