MK1 Custom Controllers

[Jynks]

Are you making or using a custom controller for MK1? Pad, Leverless or Arcade? Custom can mean you are putting in your own art choices, building it from scratch, just swapping out new buttons or giving it a paint job. Homemade or Bought it dosn't matter. I just want to see what you are doing controller wise for MK1

 

[Jynks]

This is a layout I'm thinking of for me new custom hitbox I am going to make. I've labelled them as Xbox Buttons as "A" is a lot easier icon than "Square".

1. The BLUE colours are 100% default hitbox layout for the button size and shape and potions relative to each other. I got the hitbox buttons from FocusAttack's Templates which has template files for the hitbox.
2. The RED buttons are also 100% default hitbox layout just moved a bit to allow room for the new yellow button.
3. PINK, YELLOW and GREEN are all new additional buttons.

• RB = Right Bumper
• LB = Left Bumper
• LS = Left Thumbstick Button
• RS = Right Thumbstick Button
• U = D-Pad Up
• D = D-Pad Down
• L = D-Pad Left
• R = D-Pad Right
• X = Square
• Y = Triangle
• A = Cross
• B = Circle

The idea here is that in Mortal Kombat there is a BLOCK button, so I thought as this is a custom I can make a dedicated block button near the 4 action buttons (this is the yellow button). This slightly moves the wsad style movement keys.

Also MK requires having the thumbstick button for Invasion Mode.. I have placed these (Yellow) so my finger resting on Y can just move up to press RIGHT THUMBSTICK BUTTON to activate a talisman. The Left Thumbstick Button is not used in MK but I think I may as well have it in a matching position on the left, above the X.

The Blue Section should be exactly the same layout as a traditional official hitbox, as I use one of their template files to make this. I wanted this all the same as the hitbox so the big UP button is in the same relative space for easy hitting with the thumb. Just like in the original HitBox Layout'

This is my current controller. Though, I pulled the joystick out. The entire point of doing this came from the fact that the Right Thumbstick Button is required by MK1 for Invasion mode. So I wanted to add them. The new block button was a kind of recent thought.

Thoughts?

 

[Gooberking]

How have you been using the 2 up buttons? I know the traditional hitbox had reasons it is where it is in order to let both hands use the traditional one but do you see that happening or currently use the right hand a lot for up?

I'm asking for 2 reasons,. I do think the block button there does make about as much sense as anything for it does, but it does look like it will push your hands apart a little bit. I added space for comfort so that's not a criticism just an observation that it may be harder to share than stock layout is.

I've mentioned it before but since I added the space and couldn't share, (I actually didn't know it was up at all) I moved the upper, right most button for my right thumb. The hardest button to press became arguably the easiest button and it's pretty much my favorite button in any game. In the case of mk it's my block.

I did make a compact prototype where I had a button near where the block button is on yours and it seemed to work out well. Maybe the index finger was getting a little over worked at worst.

You have a layout you are familiar with so definitely lean on it as much as you can. I do recommend trying the layout on something more disposable to see how it feels before having to cut into metal if it's a hard thing to fix if anything goes wrong. If that is easy to try again with then it doesn't matter as much.

That's probably all I can suggest typing from my phone ATM.

Good luck!

 

[Gooberking]

I never wired up the stick buttons but often wish I had. You are wise to include them.

 

[Gooberking]

I think this is probably the best way to say what I'm trying to say up there.

There is a lot of power in the thumbs. Make sure you find a way to put them both to work. However that makes sense for you

 

[Jynks]

Are you suggesting I should make the thumb button block and have the 2nd up near where the yellow button is?

You know I could make the block the "thumb button" and then add a up to the left of the wsad... that way I wouldn't have to move the spacing of the buttons and I would still be able to just slide riht to left to hit the 360.

How have you been using the 2 up buttons

I mainly use the wsad up button. Particularly in MK.

The 2nd "hitbox" up is mainly for Street Fighter and other tradition input fighters that use 360 and 720 motions. I literally use it for that alone as you can just slide a finger over the three movement and then hit thumb + button and a 360 comes out.

 

[Pan1cMode]

I’ve recently started using a standard leverless controller with hitbox layout.

If you’re just gonna play at home, use whatever works for you.

Just be careful because your controller may not be legal at tournaments if more than one button leads to the same input.

EDIT:
My layout is standard hitbox layout for movement.

Other buttons:
1 2 Block Stance
3 4 Kameo Throw

I have L3 and R3 on separate smaller buttons above the direction buttons.

 

[Gooberking]

Are you suggesting I should make the thumb button block and have the 2nd up near where the yellow button is?

You know I could make the block the "thumb button" and then add a up to the left of the wsad... that way I wouldn't have to move the spacing of the buttons and I would still be able to just slide riht to left to hit the 360.

I want to stop short of saying you SHOULD do anything just because I did it. It's your mission and I want to make sure you get a good personal solution. That said I do want to make sure I pass along what I did and what I liked about it just for stuff to think about. Most people just copy the Hitbox layout and call it a day. I did not do that, and you having WASD directions and looking for a block button means you aren't fully doing that either.

So one big thing is if you aren't actually using the shared down the way it was intended, like doing 720s or playing Marvel 3, then it's worth asking if your thumbs could be doing something else. Whatever that means to you. The way games are now there is always some button or two that is super important to the game's system that I keep hearing streamer's on stick or Hitbox complaining about not knowing where to put. That's a more current problem that didn't exist when the Hitbox layout was made. It's also one I've not really had with the below.

Spoiler

My initial change was I didn't want my hands close together. That didn't seem comfortable, and I just laid my hands on some paper where they wanted to be and this is basically what they did. Obviously I broke convention and left thumb is down. That's not something I'm recommending. All my adjustments basically mean I couldn't borrow a Hitbox and expect to have any ability to use it. But when I need a block, I had a button. When I needed a button for Drive Impact and people were moding a new button hole, I already had a button. When I needed a dash shortcut button for Strive, I had a good button for it. Shield in Melty, it worked there too. It makes for a really good system mechanic that gets used all the time button.

It also means I don't have an "outcast" button over RT that is just way out of the way that no finger wants to go over and spend time with. RT is the hardest thing to hit and it is still easy to hit at the edge without having to move my hand out of place. I basically never move my hand ever and I can comfortably press LT and RT at the same time. People with different size hands may have a different situation. My hands aren't all that big, and I originally tried 30mm buttons and the spread caused cramping within a couple of minutes. A that point I figured Hitbox was on to something with the 24. Someone with bigger hands might find it too compact.

A lot of stick users aren't even using their right thumb except to maybe hit the A button position or one or two others in unique circumstances. The thumb is powerful, that's a big lesson I've learned I'm trying to get at. We should be giving them something to do. I've even thought about giving it two buttons. I think one thumb could comfortably hit two buttons but I haven't tried it. If I had gone with a WASD layout, I might have made the left one non-motion at all and done LT and RT on thumbs

 

[Jynks]

thanks for the input... here is my new layout V2

It is a modified hitbox layout... most of it is the exact layout as a hitbox.

1. All the Blue is 100% default HitBox.
2. All the red is 100% default HitBox, just moved left a bit, no upward movement, not individual button movement.
3. The Yellow is 100% default HitBox, just moved left a bit, no upward movement.
4. Pink and Green are completely new buttons

The idea here is that :

• I retain the wsad movement that I like from MixBox
• I have an extra UP button on the left of the L,D,R. This should mean I can slide my finger right to left to do 360 and quickly do it for 720.
• Both buttons where the thumb rests are set to RT and designed to have Block set to them in MK. I left off the UP from the blue thumb as I really do not use it much, as was pointed out, and pressing it is supernatural for me from a resting position on the action buttons. I think it would be a great place for a block. I placed the 2nd one as a fall back.... why not its custom.
• The two Thumbstick Buttons are in Green. RS is the command required in Invasion mode of MK and can not be changed in options. So this button is the entire reason I am making this controller. I think it works best as just reaching upward from the X position, so the greens are one button to the left rather than being a new row up. As that would mean I would have to use my 2nd finger or forefinger move up and right from the X button.

So this is the planned MK Layout....

• I - Item (Talisman)
• T = Throw
• K = Kameo
• B = Block
• S =Stance

This is actually a very different layout than I normally use as the Block is always arkward to position on a hotbox or arcade stick. Having the block on the spot my thumb rests should remove that and allow me to go back to the standard 12,34 in two rows.

My original layout for the action buttons I have been using is...

1,2,4,K
3,B,T,S

Pressing the last two of bottom row will launch the Fatal. I have not looked into shortcuts. Apparently if I wanted I could make the unused Green Button do B and S in a single button click.

I use LT/Block as the far bottom right is the hardest button to click and it has repeat buttons at the thumb positions. This way if I want I can move the throw and the Stance switch around, for the sacrifice of Fatal being the two last buttons on each row.

 

[Gooberking]

Looks interesting. Definitely worth trying.

What's the plan for building it? Are you planing on making a custom plate for the existing box?

 

[Jynks]

well I think I am pretty happy with the layout... I have not tweaked it with exact measurements yet, but that is the general idea. I will put a extra "green" button on if I can work out how to make a shortcut button that does fatal blow in one hit... left and down from the LT button.

I suppose the thing to do now is work out what stuff I need. I need a board that will play native on PS5. The question is do I need it to play on PC as well? Like PS5 works on pc already.... so do I just get a PS5 board or a PC/PS5 board?

I am planning on a mainly white stick with the current MK1 logo on it, with Blue and Red accent of some kind throught it. I want it to look like a MK1 logo / box kinda thing. So like the logo but all as a single graphic. I also plan to do a blood splatter. So the goal is a nice clean whitish blue slick look with a blood splat across it to contrast.

I also need to source a good place for buttons. Until I finalise my art for the box, I am not sure what buttons to buy. I'd like the buttons to match the art somehow. Like a pale blue or white or something.

What's the plan for building it? Are you planing on making a custom plate for the existing box?

As for the actual construction.

There is a factory not far from where I live that manufacture things out of plastic sheets. I am sure I can buy an off cut of clear perspex from them, drill and sand to make the top. I may even be able to get them to cut it exactly on their machines, I really do not know about that though. I did get a perspex sheet from them once before for another project unrelated to gaming years ago.

As for the box... well I am not sure. Probably just out of wood I guess. I have not looked into that yet. I have always dreamed of a stick with a compartment in the base, like a draw. That I could fill with stones or a sand bag to make the stick super heavy, but also allow it to be removed to make it super light for travel. I may look into this.

 

[Gooberking]

I never followed through on it, but I did order test cuts for laser cut plexiglass which was pretty easy. I just used SVG shapes and files to define cut lines using InkScape which is free. I spent a lot of time around image files and designers in a former work life so that stuff was pretty easy for me to get into, but not sure how easy it is for others. They might offer something like that and you just pick your thickness and pop out the shapes and are good to go.

If it's just plexiglass or similar it will probably need to be thick enough to support everything which may mean you need screw buttons instead of ones that snap in. The screw bases will support more thicknesses but they tend to take more horizontal space that needs to be accounted for. I've not measured the distance between buttons for a traditional hitbox layout but you will probably want to do that to help with spacing your new buttons consistently.

It can be worth getting buttons and putting them into some cardboard or chip board to make sure things actually fit with the specific buttons, assuming you can accuratly test the layout in those. If you find the right buttons, buy a couple of spares so you don't have to worry about trying to find a match later if one bugs out.

 

[Jynks]

I think this is going to be my final layout. I've added a TrackPad Button for the PS5 and a shortcut "Fatal" button.

 

[Gooberking]

This one someone made for SF6 is pretty impressive. Definitely better than anything I've done. It uses some similar ideas of thumbs being action buttons and the wasd style directions

https://www.reddit.com/r/StreetFighter/comments/16um9gg

 

[Jynks]

I'm thinking of changing my layout to this... I did some rests with drilling cardboard and was worried the move from a traditional hitbox layout would make a learning curve I wasn't interested in. Also this means the stick is more universal for other people to use.

So eveything in blue is a 100% traditional hitbox layout.

 

[Jynks]

art concept....

 

[Gooberking]

That would look great

 

[Jynks]

Stick is coming together.... but there is an issue. I can't get the duel button to work... even though I was assured it would work by the store : ( They are now saying there are not boards that will work the way I intended.

So... I think I will either rebuild it to look like this... with the button removed.

The thing is I am almost done....

So I might make it another block.... so the final layout will look like this...

 

[Pan1cMode]

Stick is coming together.... but there is an issue. I can't get the duel button to work... even though I was assured it would work by the store : ( They are now saying there are not boards that will work the way I intended.

So... I think I will either rebuild it to look like this... with the button removed.

The thing is I am almost done....

So I might make it another block.... so the final layout will look like this...

How do you find instant airs on this layout? I’ve been using standard hitbox layout and having the thumb be up has been really helpful for the aerial db/df instant airs. Do you use your left little finger for these?

 

[Jynks]

Instant airs are harder without the thumb, which is in one of the original designs I still used one....

U. B. F as instant air actually comes out as does U. D. F. Both come out when dragging the finger left to right as MK had such tolerant inputs. It's actually doing U. B. D. F. But as is is so fast it seems to work....

Still the truth is this is probably a prototype. I might go back to an earlier layout with two thumb buttons.

 

[Gooberking]

Pretty solid a prototype/first attempt.

I couldn't find a way to have unique and combined buttons. I thought maybe using the two different header pins on my board would work, but wiring up two buttons on one header set turned a single button on the other into another dual button. I'm sure there is some super basic electricity 101 reason for it, but I'm maxed out knowing black wires go here, colored ones go there because the picture says so

 

[Jynks]

Pretty solid a prototype/first attempt.

Remember when I said there was a factory near me that makes stuff out of plastic? A kid I met at the factory happened to be a big fighting game player and was into the project... so he is actually making the box and cover plate for me on the machines there. So all I do is provide a template for the button positions and he lazer cuts it out for me.

How do you find instant airs on this layout? I’ve been using standard hitbox layout and having the thumb be up has been really helpful for the aerial db/df instant airs. Do you use your left little finger for these?

this is actually a bit of a problem with this build. While it is super easy to do instant D,F jump specials, B,F ones are pretty hard...

this is a new layout I am thinking of... basically it adds a smaller up button to the button of the device... allowing basically identical UP buttons usage for 360/720 and instant air jump specials. All you have to do is hit the up by moving your thumb a tiny bit below what it was originally doing.

In this build I also removed the combo button and adjusted the thumbstick and pad buttons.

 

[Gooberking]

Remember when I said there was a factory near me that makes stuff out of plastic? A kid I met at the factory happened to be a big fighting game player and was into the project... so he is actually making the box and cover plate for me on the machines there. So all I do is provide a template for the button positions and he lazer cuts it out for me.

That's pretty fortunate. I did some laser cut tests ordered online but never followed through with a build.

I added holes for the stick buttons over the weekend. Got tired of not having access to them since training functions keep getting mapped to them. Kind of goofed it up a bit and it looks a little silly now, but it's better having them. I feel like you have to have them now unless you hate training mode. I always wanted to wire them up, but was hoping to find a mini button I liked instead of using 24 or 30mm buttons

 

[Pan1cMode]

Remember when I said there was a factory near me that makes stuff out of plastic? A kid I met at the factory happened to be a big fighting game player and was into the project... so he is actually making the box and cover plate for me on the machines there. So all I do is provide a template for the button positions and he lazer cuts it out for me.



this is actually a bit of a problem with this build. While it is super easy to do instant D,F jump specials, B,F ones are pretty hard...

this is a new layout I am thinking of... basically it adds a smaller up button to the button of the device... allowing basically identical UP buttons usage for 360/720 and instant air jump specials. All you have to do is hit the up by moving your thumb a tiny bit below what it was originally doing.

In this build I also removed the combo button and adjusted the thumbstick and pad buttons.

Yeah I can understand that being useful. One of the “benefits” of button-boxes is the fact that they make instant airs more crisp. Certainly after getting used to one I’ve found it much easier and more consistent (also more fun, I like the clucky-clacky of the keys haha).

 

[Jynks]

I received the final frame from my mate for the MixBox. Hear are my thoughts on the actual build if anyone is interested in this layout to other MK players.

• The new Block Button (replacing the original up button on a hitbox) This works extremely well. Feels natural and I would not want anything changed. In fact it will be hard to use anything different already. It also works astoundingly well as the drive rush shortcut in SF6
• The up button above the L,D,R buttons, the "W" in the wsad, is a little to far to the right. It should be moved so it is more vertical over the L,D,R buttons. There is a slight "right" movement of the finger when pressing the "w" that feels a little awkward. Might just be muscle memory from my MixBox. It is not in the classic wsad postioning.

• This is my old FightBox layout. I really like how the new movement buttons look a little closer together but I also prefer the placement of the UP button in this example. Splitting the difference between these two up button positions would seem to be the perfect option. Basically, the UP needs to be moved a little to the left.
• The 2nd Block Button that was supposed to be the duel function button that I couldn't get to work, should be removed
• I know this is counterintuitive, but Thumbstick Left (TSL) and Thumstick Right (TSR) should be swapped. MK only uses TSR. I only included TSL to be "complete". It would be much better as a true MK stick to either remove the TSL button to the side of the box again, completely removing it from the face of the controller. Or swap TSL and TSR so TSR can be pressed naturally with the index finger.
• The old duel button that we could not get working and instead made a block button is redundant. I doubt I will ever use it.... time will tell. It will be removed in the next version.
• The 2nd Up Button on the left of the WSAD works well for Street Fighter 360 and but I find it hard to pull off a 720 move. I was able to get it to come out a few times, but not with percision like on a hitbox using the thumb button for UP. I mainly play MK so in hindsight I probably could have gotten away with removing it completely.
• I'm 6F2. The entire movement button section of the left hand could be moved left a little more, so there is some space between the hands. The size of the device would easily allow this, I think.
• There is a slight problem in doing instant jump charge-specials and B,F specials. So you need to do U,B,F,1 for example very quickly, so they jump and instantly do a special. On Hitbox this is no problem due to the thumbbutton being used to do UP. Instant hadouken inputs like U,D,F,1 work very well, but still not as well as on a classic hitbox. I think an additional up button under the main block or moving the 2nd UP button from the left of wsad would solve this. I think moving would probably be fine but adding a would work perfectly as well.

Here is the new "Final Layout v6" and the comparison to the one we have built so far. The main changes are...

• The ONLY buttons moved is the entire WSAD keys section to the left as a single group and the TouchPad Press and Thumbstick Button.
• The W up button above L,D,R is moved to be more "above" the D button. Like I spoke about above. Just moved to the left some more to make it feel more like wsad.
• The touchpad press button and the thumbsticks are moved away but kept on the face for easy activation, but also to be well away from the hands during normal play.
• A new UP button is placed under the large Block button.

• Rieko's command grab and parry is trivially easy
• Sindel's instant air u,d,f,1 thing is fairly easy. I think as the movment is new I miss a few and it is harder from P2 side, but all in all I think it is aceptable and after a while will be no issue.
• Gief's 360 is trivilly easy. It can even be easily done as a hope. No problems
• The 720 is still very hard. I did get it out a few times, but rarely. I think this is not really working. Maybe after some time with it I could get it 100% but 720 on a hitbox with the old up is super simple.

My main conclusions besides some small tweaks is that the Thumb Up button was put there for a good reason by the HitBox guys. My next version will have one as well. There is room for a comfortable press up by simply moving my thumb a little lower. I think I can keep the UP and the Block on the thumb in a future build.