It’s the time of the year again! The end of it of course. 2009, to many it seems to have been a major drag, and I’ll admit it’s been a tough year to progress through even for me. But finally we’ve made it thus far and as such, ’tis a swell time to reflect on the previous year and learn from our choices so that hopefully we make more intelligent decisions for the upcoming 2010. /pastormode

As many others, I was visiting relatives out of town for the past few days, but now that I’m back I am able to wish thee readers a blessed upcoming new year. And by that I mean, show off what my haul from the holiday season! Unfortunately, my digital camera up and decided to finally die after a long duration of depression so I cannot do such a thing at the moment.

Anyhow, my “gifts” are usually purchased by myself as justification for burning large holes in my wallet. The most notable being the 32″ wide screen HDTV I purchased at the beginning of the month, leaving me wondering, “HD, where have you been all my life?” Beyond that I ended up shopping around for many other miscellaneous goods like the entire School Rumble DVD set and the first Spice and Wolf novel. I ruled out purchasing another figurine as I was running low on cash needed to purchase the blasted Playstation 3 I’ve been meaning to buy for nearly five months now. At the very least, PS3 Blazblue and Street Fighter IV for MM is confirmed! partyhat.gif

As far as anime goes, here’s the Crap-I-Watched-09 list:

• Bakemonogatari (unfinished)
• Canaan
• Cencoroll
• Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemeni
• Eden of the East
• Endless Eight
• Kara no Kyoukai 5-7
• K-On!
• Kämpfer
• Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom
• The Tower of Druaga: The Sword of Uruk

Not a bad year I’d say, for my standards at least. My favorite was easily Darker than Black 2. Even though the ending was rushed and left open for another season (sigh), I greatly enjoyed the entire show due to its unique, ambient mood that was captured well with the transitional settings of mother Russia to Tokyo. And of course, Suou Pavlinchenko, my new fascination and Russian loli waifu. Also let’s not forget the recent Kara no Kyoukai movies. While I wasn’t very fond of the last two, Mujun Rasen still upholds a great position in my ranks of favorites. Tomoe Enjou and Suou Pavlichenko, copies or not, they were here.

And with that, it’s near time to flip over the page called 2009. It has definitely been an interesting year, politically, economically, and of course the unfortunate death of MJ (!!), but even so cheers, to the new year! A new chapter of life experience and fulfillment, may it be filled with nurses, maids, and figurines! shrine-write will continue to exist, hopefully better than before. Sobzob and I will be continuing to experiment and expand shrine-write into something to be proud about, so please do come visit again, and have a festive new year!

A wise man once said, “my new year’s resolution is to not have a new year’s resolution.”

Before we jump into that stick modifying tutorial, let’s take the time out to learn a bit about them shall we?

First off, let’s just clear up some common questions regarding arcade sticks.

Q: Will switching to stick make me a better player?
A: Not necessarily. While it can, as some game’s inputs were designed for arcade stick control play, it comes down to the same level of practice and experience. tl;dr no

Q: Is it worth it to mod my stick?
A: It’s up to the individual really. To a serious competitive fighting or arcade game enthusiast, the professional parts are all worth the money. But to a casual gamer it can be done without (however I believe in that case the person should not even use an arcade stick).

Q: Cost?
A: Anywhere from ten to several hundred dollars depending on your mods. The common button mods should range around $20-30 while new joysticks range from about $10-20. Custom art can go up to $40.

Q: Okay, I’m interested in using a stick, but I’ve never used one before and I don’t know if I want to spend the money to get one. Should I?
A: As expected, it really comes down to the individual. If you find passion for fighting or arcade games, then an arcade stick may be necessary to you. If it can make the game more fun to you, then it is all worth it.

Hori vs Mad Catz

With the recent popularity explosion among the fighting game scene, courtesy of SFIV, controller companies are taking advantage of the boom and are coming out with them sticks that are now all the rage. Two popular brands are the Hori Real Arcade Pro series and the Madcatz’s SFIV Fight Sticks, both of which are very reliable and are excellent options to choose from if you’re a first time stick owner. Hori sticks are made straight from Japan with the authentic parts used in the arcades themselves. I own a Hori stick myself and can vouch for that. Conveniently, everything you need to know about Hori sticks can be found in a thread on SRK of course.

Mad Catz, while an American brand company, use Japanese parts as well for their SFIV fight sticks, namely Sanwa brand parts. While I own a Hori Real Arcade Pro 3, to be honest I really wish I owned a Mad Catz Tournament Edition stick as well. The design is very crisp and clean, as it comes stock with Sanwa OBSF-30s, it’s simply beautiful.

So all in all, the only major differences between these two brands are the designs/dimensions and their stock parts depending which type you purchase. Even then, those can always be swapped out for others parts. Both brands are very effective in their respective areas, so it just comes down to personal preference of looks. Price-wise they can range from the $50-150 US dollars depending on what stick you purchase.

Octogonal Gates

Don’t get one. That’s it. It’s tempting for some, but really, don’t get it, you’re just ruining your stick. If you don’t know what it is, don’t worry then. tl;dr don’t get one.

Useful links:

Akihabara Shop – Buy Japanese arcade parts straight from Japan

Lizard Lick – Buy a wide variety (including Sanwa) arcade parts from America

Madcatz Custom Art Tutorial

Hori FAQ

Art’s Hobbies – Get custom artwork for your stick

A couple of days ago I received the last DVD of Kara no Kyoukai. I paid full price for it to get the Santa Azaka and Shiki phone card, that’s was about 2,000 – 3,000 yen more than I could have gotten it for if I purchased it from Amazon Japan instead of Anibro Gamers.
I didn’t take a picture of it directly, but you can see parts of it in this first picture.
I also received the DJCD “the Garden of tellers” on the same day, but same there, I didn’t take a picture of it yet. Might update this entry with them later on.

As always the limited edition came with 2 postcards, a soundtrack, booklet and an extra pamphlet with Q&A.
I really like the alternative version of the DVD cover, you can’t see it on this picture but tears are falling down along Shiki’s cheeks.

And here is the complete collection!

Twitter

As the title says, I’m still here. I just haven’t really had anything worthwhile to actually make a blog post about, and instead I’ve been making updates on my Twitter.
I still don’t have anything really interesting to add, but I thought I’d still make a blog post about the fancy speaker stands I built myself! Read the rest of this entry →

After a week’s wait of shipping, four hours of work, and $80 later, my modded Hori arcade stick is finished! For a fighting game enthusiast, taking the plunge into the culture of arcade sticks and away from silly d-pads is a big step. And of course the next step is to customize and personalize yourself within that realm. But enough with my fightan spiel let’s take a look at it already. Read the rest of this entry →