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Update: August 5th, 2017. As some of you may or may not know, I'm now working full time from 8-to-5 as an inspector at a local manufacturing plant. I'm also carpooling a coworker (single mom, three kids, no car) so my free time during the work week is slim to none. I'm going to bed at 930 and the alarm goes off at 530 in the morning. Anyway, I was unemployed when I started building boxes, so now I'm working full time, so I'm going to take inventory of parts on hand and order just enough to finish the boxes currently in my possession, and that will be it for the time being. When my store opens officially, I will have available three Rustic CX-40 Grands ($80 each, two right hand one left), two Rustic CX-40 Juniors ($75 each, both right hand), six small rectangular 7800 joysticks ($75 each, two right hand, four left hand - one of the left hands is reserved for an AA member, who will get first pick when they are ready to sell), and one small rectangular 2600 joystick ($70, left hand). I have three stains available, Ebony, English Chestnut, and Natural. I'm not taking custom requests for stain color, but there will be a couple different color options available. The natural and ebony finishes will use red buttons, however the English Chestnut finishes will use black. I am also planning to produce an NES controller in weathered Oak later on ($100), and a Starplex ($80) with ridged surface identical to the one I commissioned earlier. Once I have everything built and ready to sell, there will be a massive update. First come, first served. Special thanks to everyone who bought arcade boxes from me. I would love to make more, but time to move on. As they say: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy... Update July 5th 2017, 12:01am Free shipping promotion ends. Remaining stock of cigar boxes (I have three left) has been permanently reduced. Still taking commissions on finished wood box joysticks. Update June 24th 2017: I have decided to retire from up-cycling cigar box joysticks so what I have available will probably be the last. It has been a nice learning experience for me. Instead, future efforts will use woodcraft boxes from the hobby store, stained and finished. I am still taking commissions but not sure how much I'll pre-build going forward. More info: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/256709-homemade-cigar-box-arcade-controllers/?p=3791229 Update Jan 5th, 2017: I've decided to start taking commissions. If there's a special cigar box you want me to convert into a joystick, please let me know. I will need exact internal dimensions to make sure everything will fit before I order the parts. Shipping for the parts on my end will cost extra since I can't bulk buy when doing custom jobs. Take care everybody and have a happy 2017! = = = = = = = = = = Hi. Many of you may recall my interest check thread for the cigar box arcade controllers. Well they are here now and ready to ship! I have available 8 controllers in the initial batch, 5 single button Atari 2600 controllers, one Ambidextrous Atari controller (7800 internal wiring), and two 7800 controllers, with both right and left hand options available. Base price is $60 USD for the single button sticks and $70 USD for the dual button sticks. All controller boxes to US address ship in a medium flat rate USPS Priority box. Shipping charge is not included in base price and will be extra. Current USPS rates are $13.60 USD for United States Priority and $24.50 for Canada 1st Class (tracking to Canada extra). Shipping free through Independence Day (July 4th). Canada included! Each controller option is clearly labeled in the photos and description with a designation A through H. Priority is based on first come first serve, and the order of PMs received. If you are visiting from Nintendoage or Digitpress and do not have an AtariAge account you can also PM me there too. My NA username is the same as AtariAge, Kosmic Stardust. My DigitPress username is my old handle Stardust4Ever. And now, here are the controllers: Full album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30203515@N04/albums/72157677174082635 Options D, G and H (all that's left): (D) Left Hand Atari 2600 Joystick. Henry Clay Stalk Cut. Gray Box with silver trim. Steel screws. White button and balltop. $50. (G) Left Hand Atari 2600 Joystick. Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary. Finished wood box. Brass screws. Black button and balltop. Slightly crooked button hole (see photo). $45 Defect G: (H) Right Hand Atari 2600 joystick. Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary. Finished wood box. Brass screws. Black button and balltop. $50. = = = = = = = = = = One of my goals for producing these controllers was to offer a low cost option for arcade quality joysticks beyond what one would find in vintage sticks, and cheaper than "boutique" options such as the Eladdin or Atari 7800 Prosystem joystick. If rolled steel isn't your thing, well you are in luck! I have found that many cigar boxes have very solid quality construction and pretty to look at. The tobacco stores practically give these away, however please note the original purpose of these boxes was to transport and display cigars at retail. They may have slight cosmetic defects or possess a faint odor. Care has been taken to clean them and remove any manufacturer, retailer, or regulatory decals from the exterior, but they still clearly display tobacco branding as I have chosen to leave the original finish unaltered. If this offends you, please do not buy. Also as the boxes have been repurposed and modified using only hand-held tools, some of the cuts may not be absolutely precise. Any boxes with minor cosmetic defects have been identified in the photos (click the spoiler tags below controller description for details of said defects) and given a $5 discount off base price. I stand by my craftsmanship and warrant that the controllers will operate as intended and stand up to repeated gentle use. Controllers will ship with the cable, dustwasher, and balltop detached from the main controller due to clearance issues inside the Priority Flat Rate shipping box. Everything will be well padded and secured. The dust washer slides over the shaft and the balltop screws on the top of the shaft and does not require any disassembly to install. Each cigar box also ships with a support card, and is initialed and dated "AJW 2016" on the lower right interior corner of the box. Each joystick comes with a Japanese style Paradise Arcade Joystick and low profile Semitsu 30mm screw type arcade buttons. The joystick is a bit clicky but very responsive and easy to control. The Paradise Arcade joystick features a restrictor gate configurable to 8-way or 4-way operation. These consist of a square 8-way gate and a clover style 4-way gate which is perfect for playing games like Pacman or Donkey Kong. The stick ships with the 8-way configuration but I can switch it to four way if you prefer. A Phillips screwdriver is all that is needed to convert it and it takes less than two minutes. One of the major Achilles heels of commercial or homemade arcade controllers has to be the cord. It is easily the most vulnerable part of a quality arcade stick. The heavier the enclosure and the longer the cord, the more likely that the cable will become damaged or snag. I also believe firmly in not destroying working vintage hardware. As a result, I can certify 100% that no vintage controllers were harmed during the production of these arcade boxes! 3rd party 9-pin extension cables for classic game consoles such as Atari and Sega are readily available online, so I will be using these for the cables. Each cigar box controller has a 9-pin female Dsub connector mounted on the back of the box which mates to the male end of the extension cable. Due to the fact the Dsub connector is mounted to the case using wood screws, some modification to the extension cable is necessary. This modification has already been performed so the six foot cable is ready to use. Unfortunately due to some unforeseen quality control issues with the manufacturer of these cables (bulk purchase from console5.com), some arrived defective out of the box. As a result, every controller and cable I sell has been triple-tested to ensure proper function, and so I am offering a lifetime replacement guarantee on the cable should your joystick become inoperable or an input stop working as a result of cable defect. Should a problem arise, feel free to contact me by PM or email. Joystick issues can be ruled out by testing the extension cable with another controller. Going forward, I will be searching for an alternate supplier for classic 9-pin extension cables in the future. Thank you all so much for your support!

Which of these 2 mods would be easier? Both are a cartridge kind of like the Intellivoice which is temporary, and can be inserted and removed at will. 1 adjustment is for the INTV 1/3 where Arcade style 8-way joysticks, or analog USB controllers could be plugged where it divides a circle into 16 sections and you just have to achieve half a radius to actuate the direction. The other adjustment is for the INTV 2 where Coleco games and Word Fun and any other troubling third party game could be played by sticking this in between. I would prefer a non-permanent solution, in the sense that I don't have to a) open up the console, or b) hire someone to do that, and in either case c) decrease the historical collectability of it. I think both technologies are possible. The first one sounds harder, but I read they were intending to make the intellivoice a 4 player module too. The second one could be done if it has it own boot screen data added in between the cartridge and the machine or can temporarily activate the short without the risk. (Sort of like component CRT TV, and a DVD recorder is a non-permenant solution to taping games and a quality display. You just Y it, and send one end to the CRT TV and the other to the DVD recorder and record it. Also a Sony Wega CRT TV is good for getting clear pictures on RF. You're not using it for analog TV anymore. If you want to compare proof, here are two somethings I taped for the Bally Alley High Score Club Component Capture via DVD-recorder: Composite Capture via VCR: See if the quality of TV and recorder improves the visuals.)