Note: This guide needs to be updated to discuss PS5 compatibility, GP2040-CE updates, and the newer retail sticks that came out this year, but the hardware sections are still relatively current.

chastetiddy’s Arcade Sticks 101

This document aims to be a complete guide to buying or building a custom arcade stick, from choosing a layout and enclosure, down to how to wire once you have the parts. I’m also going to refer to both arcade sticks with actual levers (i.e., sticks) as well as stickless builds as “arcade sticks” for ease of collective reference. I also favor “stickless” rather than “hitbox” to avoid confusion with the Hit Box brand, and “WASD” over “mixbox” for similar reasons.

My personal hitbox, Marlene.

This document does NOT cover sticks meant for platform fighters, such as Smash Bros. I don’t play those games, and simply do not have any experience with sticks for them.

I will assume that you want an arcade stick - discussions about whether or not you need an arcade stick have been covered elsewhere extensively. The first question you’ll need to answer is whether to buy an off-the-shelf arcade stick, or to build your own. That’ll be right below the table of contents.

Because I live in the US, this document leans heavily toward enclosures and parts available here. Stickless builds in particular are more difficult to buy or build outside of North America, but Afro put together a helpful guide to doing so here. Please reach out to me at @chastetiddy on Twitter if you would like to contribute information about suppliers or parts availability in other countries.

To submit corrections to information in this guide, please DM me on Twitter at @chastetiddy.

Table of Contents

Building vs Buying Retail

Recommended Retail Arcade Sticks

Building a Custom Arcade Stick

What’s in an Arcade Stick?

Where to Buy Arcade Parts

North America

UK & EU

Layouts

Vewlix

Noir

Sega 2P

Standard Stickless (aka Hitbox)

Shiokenstar

Hitstick

Crossup

WASD (aka Mixbox)

Custom Layouts

Enclosures

Enclosure Makers

Arcade Buttons

24mm vs 30mm

Snap-in vs. Screw-in

Art Buttons

Common Buttons Comparison

Sticks/Levers

Battop vs Balltop vs Bullet

Restrictors (Gates)

Japanese

Sanwa

Seimitsu

Korean

Fanta

IST

Crown/Samducksa

PCBs

PS3 Legacy Controller Support in PS4 Games

USB Passthrough Adapters

Bonus Round: Nice to Haves

Lockout and DP/LS/RS Switches

Art

Bottom Foam

LEDs — TBD in Future Revision

Basic Wiring

Brook Board Wiring Diagrams:

Advanced Wiring

Helpful Communities and Resources

Appendix A: Tournament Legality

Appendix B: SOCD Modes for Stickless Builds

Appendix C: Custom Thinboxes

Building vs Buying Retail

You do not need to solder in order to build a custom arcade stick.

There are many advantages to buying a retail arcade stick, rather than building a custom one. The two main advantages are simplicity, cost, and the possibility of PS5 compatibility out of the box. Custom sticks typically end up costing more than retail sticks, however you can make budget builds as well. If you’re interested in buying a premade stick, check out the Recommended Retail Arcade Sticks table below.

That said, there are many advantages to building your own, custom stick. The increased starting cost is also offset by being able to start with the components you want to use—if you want a specific lever, for instance, it costs the same whether you’re building custom or replacing the lever it comes with. You’ll also end up with something that feels uniquely yours, and these days, it’s really not very hard to put one together.

Recommended Retail Arcade Sticks

This list is changing constantly, but I’ve included it with the goal of providing quick recommendations for decent stock sticks, as well as key information for easy comparing them. I’ve also bolded a couple of personal recommendations if you don’t want to think about it too much, but again, you’ll be fine buying anything on this list.

Price (Approx) — The approximate price of this stick when buying new. If there are limited or special editions, I’ve listed the lowest standard price.

Arcade Stick — Link to the manufacturer’s website.

Size — How wide the stick is, approximately. I’ve generally rounded to the nearest ½ inch, so please check product dimensions for exact measurements, as well as the height and depth.

Layout — The top panel button layout.

Lever — What lever (if any) the stick ships with. If multiple options are available, all are listed.

Buttons — What buttons the stick ships with.

Console Compatibility — All sticks listed are PC compatible. I’ve chosen to list only compatibility with PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PS3 (due to PS3 Legacy Controller Support in PS4 Games). Check the manufacturer website if you’re interested in support for other systems. Note also that PS4 sticks will work in PS4 games running on PS5, but not in the PS5 menu or PS5 games.

Notes — Any relevant notes I thought to add.

Building a Custom Arcade Stick

First you need to decide what to build. Here’s what you need to pick:

• A layout, including whether you want a lever or movement buttons, or both.
• An enclosure.
• Buttons
• A stick/lever (if using)
• A PCB
• A USB passthrough adapter
• Any optional hardware you want to include such as lockout switches or DP/LS/RS selectors.

What’s in an Arcade Stick?

Arcade sticks are quite simple. The core parts are:

An Enclosure — The box that holds the parts. The key considerations when choosing an enclosure are size, material, weight, and supported layout. Other considerations are number of option buttons, neutrik mounting holes (helpful for lockout and DP/LS/RS switches), and price.

Controls — Action buttons, option buttons (i.e., start, select, L3, R3, Playstation/Guide button, touchpad), and either a lever or buttons for movement.

PCB — The “brain.” The PCB is what connects your buttons to your PC or console, and translates the button presses and lever movement into actual controller inputs.

A USB passthrough adapter — Most enclosures are made with the Neutrik USB passthrough adapter in mind, but there are a few options. These let you have a separate, detachable USB cable for connecting your arcade stick to the console. While not strictly necessary (you could just have a gaping hole instead) this is HIGHLY recommended. Fully detaching a cable is convenient for travel, and the passthrough moves potential strain from the PCB (an expensive part) to an easily replaceable port (a cheap part).

Wiring — both to connect the controls to the PCB, and the PCB to your console via USB.

There’s also a few things that I think of as nice to have, but not strictly necessary:

Lockout switches — These will turn off any buttons they’re connected to (usually the option buttons) to prevent the possibility of accidental button presses or opening menus while in tournament. Or if you’re me, to keep myself from hitting the taunt button because I have a problem.

Send help.

DP/LS/RS selector switch — Switches the movement function between the D-pad, left stick, and the right stick. This is entirely unnecessary for most fighting games, but can come in handy when trying to use your stick in other genres. There are also occasionally modes in fighting games that this switch can be helpful for, such as the figure mode in Guilty Gears Xrd and Strive, but this is uncommon.

SOCD mode switch — Some PCBs have selectable SOCD modes (more on what that is here), and the SOCD select pin can be wired to a switch for convenience. Using different SOCD modes in different games isn't very common, however, and most people can skip this. See SOCD modes for more information on what SOCD is and why you might choose one mode over the other.

Art — Generally a printed paper layer sandwiched between the enclosure/top panel and a protective clear acrylic sheet.

Bottom Foam — Bottom foam adds a little padding which can be very nice when playing on your lap. It’s not necessary, but most people I’ve spoken to like having it.

LEDs — Are you a gamer who wants your buttons to light up? I don’t understand you but I’ll tell you how to do it.

Where to Buy Arcade Parts

North America

Focus Attack

Paradise Arcade

Arcade Shock

UK & EU

Arcade World UK

Arcadeforge

Shadaloo

Smallcab

Highflow

Australia

Close Quarters Battle Arcade

Korea

ISTMall

Layouts

This section is a bit long, click here to skip to Enclosures.

Vewlix

        Traditional Vewlix. Image: AllFightSticks.

Created for Taito’s arcade cabinets, Vewlix is one of the most common layouts for stock sticks and is easily recognizable by its two straight rows of the 3 rightmost buttons. Its popularity is due in large part to its use in the Madcatz TE series. The lever is generally placed closer to the buttons than with the Noir and Sega 2P Extended layouts, though many sticks choose to use an extended Vewlix layout with increased spacing.

Vewlix Extended. Image: AllFightSticks.

This leads to two potential issues: the last two buttons can be more difficult to hit than in more ergonomic layouts (though this depends on preferred hand angle), and some find the low distance between the lever and buttons less comfortable. It comes down to personal preference though—many players swear by Vewlix.

Noir

        Noir. Image: AllFightSticks.

Noir originates from Namco arcade cabinets, and places the action buttons on a curve meant to mimic a hand. The curve is more pronounced than the one found on Sega 2P layouts. Noir also comes standard with a larger distance between the lever and the buttons. This is the other layout you’ll tend to find on retail arcade sticks, though it’s still less common than Vewlix.

Sega 2P

        Sega 2P Extended. Image: AllFightSticks.

Sega 2P is so named because it was used on the player 2 side of Sega cabinets. Traditionally, Sega 2P has a short lever to button distance much like Vewlix, but many enclosure makers increase this distance (we call this Sega 2P Extended). The second and third buttons are placed both higher than in Vewlix and Noir, and are situated on the same horizontal line as each other. This is also my personal favorite layout for action buttons.

Standard Stickless (aka Hitbox)

        Standard Stickless. Image: AllFightSticks.

The standard stickless build uses 24mm buttons for all inputs except up, which is 30mm. While the placement of the up button may seem odd at first, it allows a player to dedicate one finger of their left hand to each movement button; as opposed to WASD layouts which use the middle finger for both down and up. The hands are also placed close together so the right thumb may also be used to hit movement buttons, most commonly for TK or down-up charge inputs.

Some players may find the smaller, 24mm action buttons less comfortable, and the smaller size makes double tapping more difficult. Those players may be interested in the other common stickless layout, Shiokenstar.

Shiokenstar

        Shiokenstar. Image: AllFightSticks.

Shiokenstar is a stickless layout that uses 30mm action buttons. May be more comfortable for those with larger hands, or those transitioning from a traditional stick. There are no other notable differences compared with the standard Stickless.

Hitstick

        Hitstick. Image: AllFightSticks.

As the name suggests, the hitstick layout combines a lever with a standard stickless (hitbox) layout. Can be convenient if you use different input methods for different games and want a single input device.

Crossup

Like the hitstick above, the Crossup combines movement buttons with a lever. Unlike the standard hitstick layout, the movement buttons are arranged for use by the right hand, allowing for SOCD input shortcuts with a lever. This is particularly useful for Tekken, in which SOCD inputs make Korean backdashing significantly easier.

This layout is really only found in Hit Box’s Crossup but if you’re designing a custom layout, it may provide inspiration.

WASD (aka Mixbox)

        WASD Keys. Image: AllFightSticks.

WASD Buttons. Image: AllFightSticks

The WASD layout is the least common stickless layout, and will be the most familiar to FPS players. There’s two major variants: one uses keyboard keys for movement, the other uses arcade buttons. While this layout may be more familiar at first, it has a major disadvantage: the middle finger is used for both the up and down buttons, making TKs and down-up charge inputs significantly more difficult than with the standard stickless layout.

Custom Layouts

Custom split stickless layout. Image and layout design: GMKeeb

It’s possible that none of the above layouts work for your hands. You may wish to use a more ergonomic split stickless layout that allows your hands to rest further apart, or include additional action buttons on the top panel. Designing your own layout is as simple as deciding where you want the holes for a lever and buttons to be placed. Slagcoin’s templates are very helpful for initial design.

Before beginning on a design, I recommend reaching out to your enclosure maker of choice to ask:

• Have they already created a similar custom layout that you can use?,
• Can they accommodate a custom layout?

This is also an option if you’re interested in a southpaw layout. You really don’t have to play like Seth Killian:

Yes, Seth Killian actually plays like this.

Enclosures

The enclosure is the box that holds all the parts of your stick. Here’s what to consider when selecting an enclosure:

• Material

• Metal is relatively heavy (which can be a pro or a con). It’s often more expensive, but is durable. In colder weather, it will get cold, which will transfer to your hands if you don’t have an acrylic top panel.
• Plastics such as acrylic or HDPE are relatively light and often less expensive. Acrylic in particular can scratch easily and will be brittle when thinner sheets are used.
• Wood is heavy, can require additional upkeep to maintain, and can warp in very humid environments (note that this warping is not very common). At the same time, nothing compares to wood aesthetically.

• Finish: Glossy finishes attract more fingerprints and scratch more easily than matte finishes.
• Size: Larger sticks are generally more comfortable to use on your lap, but harder to transport.
• Weight: Heavier sticks will move less on your lap if you use a lot of force when hitting the buttons or lever.
• Option Buttons: Start (Options), Select (Share), Home (PS), L3, R3, and Touchpad. Most enclosures have at least 4, many have all 6.
• Neutrik Holes: Most enclosures have a single Neutrik port. Enclosures with additional ports allow you to mount switches for tournament lockout or DP/LS/RS selection.

Enclosure Makers

This is a very incomplete list but reach out to me via Twitter if you have an enclosure you’d like to see added.

A Note on Parts Checklists: I can’t list every single option in the parts checklists, but each checklist will include all the parts necessary for a working build. I’ve made some judgment calls on specific components as well; these are mainly intended to help someone brand new to stick building put together something that works.

Arcade Buttons

Image: Focus Attack

24mm vs 30mm

Button size refers to the diameter of the button’s barrel, or in other words, what size hole it fits into. 99% of the time, the option buttons will be 24mm. Action button sizes vary a bit more: most layouts that use a lever will use 30mm buttons, as does Shiokenstar; while the Standard Stickless and Hitstick layouts use 24mm buttons. Mixboxes are less standardized and vary more when it comes to button sizes.

On stickless builds, the movement buttons will be 24mm for the left, down, and right buttons, and 30 mm for up.

Snap-in vs. Screw-in

Buttons come in two mounting methods. This has no impact on the function of the button.

Generally I recommend picking screw-ins when you have a choice, due to the durability and top panel compatibility issues mentioned above. To help get a secure fit on the screw-in ring, you can either get a LayerShift button wrench (pictured below), or simply use a flathead screwdriver to tighten the ring.

A LayerShift Screw Button Wrench. Image: Focus Attack

If you go with snap-ins, the Buttercade Snap Out tool can help with removing buttons without damaging them.

Buttercade Snap Out tool. Image: Focus Attack

Art Buttons

If you choose to include art in your build, you may want to use clear buttons that you can put art inserts in. All you really need for this is to buy whatever the clear variant is of the button you’re interested in. To ensure that art does not rotate, a small piece of thin, double sided tape can be placed below the art cutout.

Focus Attack has a guide on common button insert cut sizes by manufacturer here.

Common Buttons Comparison

These are some of the most common buttons you’ll find. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but seeing as single buttons are relatively cheap I recommend just buying one to test if you’re curious about any particular brand.

Sticks/Levers

Battop vs Balltop vs Bullet

You will come across 3 top styles for Levers, and which one you would like to use is mostly down to preference. Most are plastic, but other materials such as wood, aluminum are also available. Tops are available in a variety of colors and generally inexpensive, making them an easy way to customize any arcade stick.

Restrictors (Gates)

Restrictor gates are only a consideration with Japanese style levers. These determine where your lever ‘bottoms out’ when moving in either direction. Beginners will typically ‘ride’ the gate when performing motion moves (quarter circle, half circle, etc.), so the gate design can help or hinder this. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference. We show gates used by the Sanwa brand, but other brands use close equivalents.

Japanese

Sanwa

The standard for most retail arcade sticks, Sanwa is best known for producing the JLF lever series. These feature a square gate and a low tension spring. If you have no idea what lever to get, I recommend starting with a stock JLF as it’s a common baseline against which other levers are compared.

Seimitsu

Another popular Japanese Brand, these are commonly found in candy cabs (the specific lever being the LS-32). Seimistu has its hard adherents, but has won more people over with its new NOBI lever. They also produce the LS line of levers.

Seimitsu levers generally have shorter throws than Sanwa levers, meaning the distance your hand has to move to activate a directional input is shorter. As with button layouts, whether this is a good thing (more responsive) or a bad thing (less precise) is a matter of personal preference. Many shmup players prefer Seimitsu levers because of this shorter throw.

Korean

Korean levers are most popular in the Tekken community. The key way in which Korean levers differ from Japanese ones is how the lever retains tension. Japanese levers use a pivot and spring, while Korean levers use a rubber grommet. This difference results in Korean levers both having a longer throw and a faster return to neutral.

Korean Levers also typically have a high collar around the shaft, requiring a larger hole on top panels. As a result, fitting a Korean Lever to a retail stick usually requires expanding the existing hole. This is not true of all Korean levers, however, with some manufacturers making collarless versions that can be used as drop-in replacements for retail sticks..

Left: Korean Lever (Taeyoung Fanta), Right: Japanese Lever (Sanwa JLF). Image Credits: MaiWaifu

Fanta

Fanta is one of the older makers of Korean Levers. Most popular is their Taeyoung lever, which is used in the South Korean Fantasia Arcade Tekken machines. Along with their Myoungshin lever, these two are considered the gold standard for Korean levers.

IST 

Also known as ISTMall, IST is a Korean arcade parts supplier that has produced their own levers, including the IST Fujin III, the IST Knee, and the Alpha series. IST has several options that can be used as drop-in replacements for Japanese levers (i.e., they do not require you to create a larger hole).

Crown/Samducksa

Crown produces multiple types of levers, including levers developed in collaboration with prominent Korean Tekken players (Helpme, Crazydongpal), multiple lines such as 301, 303 and 309 series. Crown also has options that can be used as drop-in replacements for Japanese levers.

Note: There are many lever mods available for both Japanese and Korean levers, most of them very easy to do. These are beyond the scope of the current guide, but I may include them in a future revision or supplemental document.

PCBs

*Average, latency info from https://inputlag.science/controller. 1f = 16.7ms.

PS3 Legacy Controller Support in PS4 Games

Many fighting games on PS4 support the use of PS3 controllers. Keep in mind though that the arcade stick will not work on the Playstation menu and you will need a separate DS4 controller to change games, as well as activate the legacy support. This can also be circumvented through use of a Brook converter.

USB Passthrough Adapters

The passthrough adapter is how you’ll connect your arcade stick to your console or PC. Most common is the Neutrik USB A to B. It and the 3 next most common adapters are shown below.

If you use a Neutrik USB A to B, you’ll also want to pick up either a Buttercade Surround & Support or a rubber gasket to seal the area around the Neutrik adapter.

Bonus Round: Nice to Haves

Lockout and DP/LS/RS Switches

Art

Stick art consists of a printed paper layer sandwiched between the top panel of the stick and a clear acrylic cover. Both the art and the acrylic cover will have the same holes cut into them as the top panel, with the arcade buttons holding everything together. If you use clear buttons, you can also insert small art cutouts into the plungers (see Art Buttons above).

Focus Attack has an extensive collection of art templates for various arcade sticks and layouts, both stock and custom. You can find it here. I also highly recommend their print and cut service.

You can also use these templates or manufacturer provided templates and have them printed at a print shop, then cut it yourself. When working with your printer, make sure they print at exactly the same size as your template, otherwise the final art will not fit.

When choosing art for your stick, please remember that other people will also see it if you bring it to locals. If you’re printing something horny, try to have it be tastefully horny.

Bottom Foam

Bottom foam is exactly what it sounds like — a layer of foam that you add to the bottom of your arcade stick so it’s more comfortable on your lap. It can also help with adding friction so your arcade stick slides around less during use. There’s very little reason not to include foam with your build, assuming it fits with the aesthetics you’re interested in.

The simplest option is if pre-cut foam is available for your chosen enclosure, there may be a mention of it on the enclosure manufacturer’s website. You can also check parts retailers to see if they offer foam for your enclosure. Focus Attack, for example, offers cut-to-order foam for several different enclosures.

You can also buy your own foam and cut it to size. I recommend adhesive backed EVA foam for this.

LEDs — Refer to UKFightModz Guide

This section will be added in a future guide, but you have basically two options.

• Wiring a USB LED strip into a Brook board’s power. JonyFraze did a video on this here.
• LED buttons/rings from Paradise Arcade. Fandango did a video here.

The UKFightModz wiring guide covers both.

Basic Wiring

Detailed wiring instructions with photos will be added in a future update to this guide.

For your first build, I highly recommend purchasing harnesses rather than the advanced wiring described in the UKFightModz guide. These harnesses make wiring very straightforward.

For buttons, it does not matter which pin you connect live to and which pin you connect ground to. Use whichever is more convenient.

The Focus Attack 20-pin Harness Guide covers using a Focus Attack harness to wire the following to a Brook board:

• Japanese Lever
• Action Buttons
• Start (PS4: Option)
• Select (PS4: Share)
• Home (PS4: PS)

If you’re using another harness, keep in mind that the wire colors may differ.

The lever will also need to be oriented correctly. This can be done based on the following diagram:

I find the above image confusing, so my personal preference is to simply connect the lever and plug the PCB into a PC or console, then orient the lever based on inputs.

For Korean levers, you will also need an additional .187 to 5-pin conversion harness, then wire each switch individually.

The L3/R3/TP buttons can be wired with an appropriate harness. Refer to the below image for Brook board wiring:

Brook PCB L3/R3/DP wiring

Lockout switches work by interrupting the ground connection back to your PCB. To wire lockout switches, use a lockout harness to connect the grounds of all the buttons you want to lock, then connect the other side of the lockout harness to the middle pole of your lockout switch. Connect one of the other two pins on the switch to the ground on your PCB.

A LS/DP/RS selector switch can be wired according to the image below:

Image: AllFightSticks

The USB Passthrough Adapter is wired simply by using a USB cable to connect the PCB to the inside USB port on the passthrough adapter.

Brook Board Wiring Diagrams:

Brook Zero-Pi

Brook PS3/PS4

Brook PS3/PS4 Fighting Board Plus

Brook XB Fighting Board

Brook PS4+ Audio

Brook Wireless

Brook UFB

Advanced Wiring

Image: UKFightmodz

The basic wiring described above is 100% functional and easy, but the inside of your stick isn’t going to be very pretty. How much this matters is entirely down to personal preference, but if you’re interested in building sticks with attractive innards like the one above,I highly recommend reading through the UK Fightmodz Wiring Guide.

This is not a necessarily difficult process, but it is time consuming and does require additional tools. Again, refer to the above guide for more information.

Helpful Communities and Resources

In no particular order:

Focus Attack — Definitive List of Parts to Build a Fightstick

Slagcoin

The Local European Hitbox Buying Guide

r/fightsticks and the r/fightsticks discord

JoyStickNY

Mr. Sujano

NihongoGamer

jonyfraze

Alex Nostalgix

The Arcade Stick

siegarettes

Please reach out via Twitter to suggest additions.

Appendix A: Tournament Legality

Check the exact tournaments you’re interested in to verify the exact requirements, but common requirements are:

• A single button may not activate multiple inputs whether at the same time or sequentially.

• This means no macros, including wiring a button that will hit multiple attack buttons at the same time.

• No analog buttons that send different inputs depending on how hard the button is pressed.
• Builds that use movement buttons require an SOCD cleaner (see below).

The specific tournament you’re attending will have their own rules that may be stricter or more lenient than the ones above. For example, Capcom Pro only allows up to 8 action buttons and requires neutral SOCD for stickless controllers.

Appendix B: SOCD Modes for Stickless Builds

SOCD is short for Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions. The SOCD cleaner mode refers to what happens when you press both left and right at the same time, or down and up at the same time, and is necessary to prevent issues in many older games. Having some form of SOCD cleaner is also required to use stickless layouts in all major tournaments.

There’s two common SOCD is handled:

Neutral SOCD: Left + Right = Neutral. Down + Up = Up.

Last Input SOCD: Left, then Right = Right. Right, then Left = Left. Down + Up = Up.

Each has its own advantages, and the Hit Box Blog has many examples of how SOCD can be used for input shortcuts. The PCB comparison above lists the SOCD mode(s) used by each PCB.

Appendix C: Custom Thinboxes

My own custom thinbox, based on jfedor’s flatbox rev3

This is honestly outside the scope of this guide but it’s a personal favorite. If you’re a hitbox user, like small form factors, and really want to go sicko mode on making a custom thinbox, look into jfedor’s flatbox, b1nc’s Egg on Rice, and projects that use the GP2040 firmware such as the BentoBox and Crush Counter. You can learn more about the latter in the OpenStick discord.

DIY keyboard resources are helpful for MX switch and USB connector footprints.

More detailed information to come in a future update, but don’t hold your breath.