History

Who I am

The first game I played on a console was Super Mario Bros. The first game I played on a PC was The Secret of Monkey Island. And the first game I played in an arcade was Street Fighter 2.

I've been an avid gamer ever since. I played Counter-Strike 1.0 semi-professionally on PC with a CRT monitor and I've played a lot for leisure on many different consoles in the last 4 decades. All those different titles, genres and systems over the years had a profound impact on how I view everything that is gaming, software and hardware related.

What I do

2017 was the first time I seriously pursued building custom arcade sticks. Classic fightsticks were the perfect base to design custom metal faceplates and build leverless controllers. I also delved into woodworking and build my personal wooden fightstick. Unfortunately back then, doing completely original designs was very labor intensive and therefore expensive, while the player base was comparatively small. So while I was doing custom work, it was just not the time to do any own designs from the ground up.

All of this changed in 2023 with the release of Street Fighter 6. It was a surprise over-night hit and rekindled the interest in the fighting game genre in many people. And since 3d printing became affordable in recent years, it was as easy as never before to quickly prototype different layouts, while GP2040 running on RP2040 boards made it possible to build controllers as affordable as ever. It is now the time to design and build fighting game controllers for gamers by gamers, that really push the limits on what can be achieved with custom hardware.

How I do it

Innovation.
I am not here to meet a demand that others already meet. I am here to build something that is new in a meaningful and useful way.

Quality.
I try to build things as affordable as I possibly can, but I do not cheap out on quality. Human labor and components should have the highest available standard.

Aesthetics.
Things do actually have to look good. It's a special challenge to build something that does not only function in a specific way, but is also aesthetically pleasing. 

Why I do it

I love games and I love a good challenge. Building the ultimate (custom) hardware is like solving an ever evolving endless puzzle. If you have an interesting individual challenge for me, that is not covered by what I offer in my shop, just contact me.