How to Change the Suicide Battery on the CPS2 Arcade Board (with video)

So this is my CPS2 battery swap article from 02.06.2009 from Pineconeattack. This is the one thing I literally do once every 5 years. If you have a lot of CPS2 boards, I strongly suggest buying the batteries in the exact quantities and hopefully you can get a price break for buying them in bulk. I hope this article will still be useful to those in need of replacing your battery. I will keep it up here for archival purpose. 

--Nathan

I’ve been collecting arcade hardware for a few years now and I’ve learned one very important thing about this hobby: knowledge is everything and the more you know the better you can preserve your growing expensive collection. You have to keep in mind that some older arcade games have the dreaded suicide battery that kills the functionality of your board when the on board battery dies. This is a big bummer for me since some of my more favorite arcade boards have this appalling flaw and as a general rule, I tend to stay away from them BUT some of the boards are easily swappable if you know what you are doing. From my experience the easiest board to swap the battery is the CP System 2 board by Capcom.

There’s plenty of write ups on forums and websites but none of them that I could find can satisfy my fetish for illustrative step-by-step walkthroughs. So with this in mind, if any of the pictures do not make any sense, then read the paragraph associated with it, hopefully that should answer most of your questions. If you still do not understand, please leave a comment so I can amend the walkthrough for future readers.

[Please note that this walk-through is based off of Razoola’s informative guide from CPS2Shock. All credit goes to him for helping out the arcade community with his informative write ups.]

WARNING:

This is a simple project if you have some technical skills. This walkthrough is as simplified as I can make it so if none of this makes any sense then please DO NOT ATTEMPT. This project will void what little warranty there may still exist for your board.  The moment the old battery is removed you have less than 1 hour before the ROM on the PCB will die.

Attempt at your own risk!

Pineconeattack (Outdated References) will not take any responsibility if you kill your board.

How To Mod The Madcatz Fight Stick with Seimitsu Parts.

This is probably my most requested walk-through articles on how to upgrade a Madcatz Standard Fight Stick that I originally wrote for Pineconeattack back on 08.06.2009. I hope this article will still be useful to those still modify and upgrading your fightsticks. I will keep it up here for archival purpose. 

--Nathan

The fighting craze is back in an upturn for the mainstream but you can take advantage of this trend by picking up some of the best joysticks out for the North American market which is the Madcatz Tournament Edition fight joystick with 100% Sanwa arcade joystick and buttons. Of course such awesomeness does come at a hefty price tag of $150.

The problem is that not everyone can justify the hefty high price tag for an expensive joystick to play Street Fighter IV, Blazblue or King of Fighter XII so many have opted to pick up the cheaper Madcatz Standard Fight Stick. Good news! This guide will show you how to get your cheaper standard fight stick up to arcade standards by upgrading the components yourself, which can save you some money or at very least make it so you don’t have to come up with $150 immediately.

Of the cheaper joysticks at are readily available in your retail chains, you basically have a choice between the Hori EX2 and the Madcatz standard fight stick. I’ve already shown you how to replace the buttons and joystick on your Hori EX2 in past walkthroughs with Sanwa parts and I even shown you how easy the Madcatz fight stick can be upgraded with Sanwa joysticks and buttons in my video, but now I would like to kick up notch, so to speak, by really making this Fight Stick into something truly original and bad ass by staining the case, adding custom artwork, installing Seimitsu joystick and adding art in your Seimitsu buttons.  By replacing the stock joystick you will also avoid the headaches with substandard suicidal Madcatz quality parts.

The one thing that I freaking LOVE about the Standard Madcatz Fight Stick is that it’s so damn easy to modify. You do NOT need to have any soldering skills to replace the joystick or push buttons to improve the Madcatz Fight Stick’s reliability and performance. A lot of forward thinking was used to design this stick and you can get it up to speed with the expensive $150 Tournament stick big brother by replacing the buttons and joystick with minimal effort or go hog wild and customize it to your heart’s content.

This walk through will show you step-by-step on how to disassemble the standard Madcatz Fight Stick and get it ready for staining as well as applying custom joystick art, walking you through adding art work in your Seimitsu push buttons and the little quirks on getting a Seimistu joystick to work with the existing wiring setup. Please understand that my goal in this how-to walk through is to provide you with plenty of pictures with a “by the hand” approach to present the most complete and comprehensive guide so anyone from beginners to the experts can mod their own joystick with ease.

WARNING:

Attempt at your own risk!

DO NOT ATTEMPT unless you have some technical skills and can follow instructions. This walk through is as simplified as I can make it so if none of my instructions makes any sense then please DO NOT ATTEMPT.

This project will void your warranty.

[Pineconeattack.com (Outdated References) will not take any responsibility if you kill your joystick.]

How to Mod the Hori EX2/Hori Wii Fighting Stick with Actual Sanwa Joystick and Buttons

Here's one of my walk-through articles on how to modify your Hori Wii Fighting Stick/EX2 that I originally wrote for Pineconeattack back on 03.07.2009. I hope this article will still be useful to those still modify and upgrading your fightsticks. I will keep it up here for archival purpose. 

--Nathan

The Hori EX2 walk-through seems to be a huge success with the community but I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails on people wanting a walkthrough on two topics: How to add a Sanwa joystick in your Hori EX2 & how to mod the Hori Wii Fighting Stick. Well since I was in the need for a good joystick for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and I wanted a joystick that played better than the stock stick, well good news, I finally finished modding my Wii Fighting stick with Sanwa push buttons & an authentic Sanwa joystick. It wasn’t as difficult as I expected but it defiantly was time consuming to figure out what needed to be trimmed, but more on that later.

The Wii Fighting Stick and the Hori EX2 are practically the same stick so this walkthrough will cover both sticks and probably the PS3 Hori EX2 stick as well. The main difference between the Xbox 360 Hori EX2 and the Hori Wii Fighting Stick is the addition of buttons on the Wii stick. Additional buttons means a different PCB. The process to modify each stick is identical so do not let the different boards confuse you.

Please note that the PCB on the Hori EX2 & the Wii Fighting Stick is very sensitive and has a tendency to commit suicide and like most PCB: do not touch the board unless you’ve grounded yourself and not charged with static. Static kills boards.  Also do not over heat the solder because it will splash on the board which may cause a short.

This mod is more difficult than the first Hori EX2 and you will need a Dremel tool or something equivalent that can cut through plastic because you will be doing a LOT of cutting & grinding to the Sanwa joystick mount to get it to fit inside the Hori EX2/Wii Fighting Stick. I will not be replacing the joystick art because I want my Wii Fighting Stick to keep with the Wii’s sterile aesthetics, ie: I was too lazy to care.

The only noticeable exterior changes I made was replacing the last two blue buttons with white ones because I loathe 8 button configuration but I refuse to just plug them up because you never know when you might need them for a game. With the end buttons white, I can easily ignore them during game play. I also had to use some photos from a previous project to fill in the missing photos that I forgot to take, so hopefully this will not confuse anyone.

WARNING:

Attempt at your own risk!

DO NOT ATTEMPT unless you have some technical skills and can follow instructions. This walkthrough is as simplified as I can make it so if none of my instructions makes any sense then please DO NOT ATTEMPT.

This project will void your warranty.

[Pineconeattack (Outdated References) will not take any responsibility if you kill your joystick.]

How to Mod the Hori Fighting Stick EX2 with Authentic Arcade Parts (Xbox 360 Version)

Here's one of my walk-through articles on how to modify your Hori Fighting Stick EX2 that I originally wrote for Pineconeattack back on 12.07.2008. I hope this article will still be useful to those still modify and upgrading your fightsticks. I will keep it up here for archival purpose. 

--Nathan

The Hori Fighting Stick EX2 is a good stick that I got pretty cheap, but like all stock joysticks, there are plenty of room for improvements. In my review of this stick, I brought up two minor complaints with this stick: mushy buttons and the square restrictor plate. Well, here’s the walk-through on how to fix these issues.  With a little soldering skill and plenty of patience, you can make this good stick into an incredible one and it’s not as hard as you might think.

(UPDATE: If you are looking for more joystick projects then head over here to add an actual Sanwa Stick inside your Hori EX2 or here to mod the MadCatz Fight stick.)

WARNING:

This is a simple project if you have some technical skills. This walkthrough is as simplified as I can make it so if none of this makes any sense then please DO NOT ATTEMPT. This project will void your warranty.

Attempt at your own risk!

Pineconeattack  (Outdated References) will not take any responsibility if you kill your joystick.

Outdated References 22

Abhi joined us because I needed his wifi as my hotel lacked a proper connection. (Joys of staying at a 16th Century Hotel in Hook, Hampshire.) I recorded this early last month when I just landed to the UK. I was tired and we just B.S.'ed about the usual differences between the US and UK. Seriously, I know Americans pronounces Adidas incorrectly, but hearing the "correctly" made my brain fizzle for a bit.
Sadly, this was the only show I was able to record when I was in the UK. Next time, I need to buy some mobile gear for podcasting on the road. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this show.
Cheers,
Nathan


Check out this episode!

Heiankyo Alien Has Finally Come to the Famicom

Heiankyo Alien, an old PC game that’s been around since 1979, which then been made into an arcade machine in 1980 and subsequently remade for the Gameboy, Super NES, and a variety of cell phones for the last 30 years, is finally seeing a Famicom remake.

“Columbus Circle,” the publisher of 8Bit Music Power, Kira Kira Star Night DX, 8Bit Music Power Final for the Famicom and Shubibiman Zero for the Super Famicom; will also be releasing Neo Heiankyo Alien, a quirky action maze puzzler for the Famicom.

The gameplay is simple, avoid the enemies, dig holes to trap said enemies, then burry them to complete the stage. The gameplay is addicting and has been one of my go to Game Boy games.  I’m most excited about this game since it looks to support simultaneous two players and for only $49.99 at Play-Asia, it’s a no brainer for me to snag a brand new copy of a Famicom game in 2017.  

--Jangofatt