Famicom Space Battle Stick?

Started by satoshi_matrix, June 10, 2017, 09:56:46 am

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satoshi_matrix

I recently won an auction for something I had never seen before - an arcade stick for Famicom called the Space Battle Stick.

Does anyone here own one or know anything about it? The seller provided two images, but they're low res and hard to make out.





I'd like to know who made this, when it came out, how rare it is, and in general if it's any good. Considering I had never once seen it before in the 15 years I've been collecting Famicom stuff I assume it must be at least uncommon.

I did some digging through NES sticks and one that seems very similar is the Beeshu Jammer, which is itself a rare stick.



I'm wondering if maybe the Space Battle Stick is a red, smoothed out case Famicom varient of that? They both look to be the same size, have the buttons in the same place, the Select and Start buttons are the same exact shape, and they even both have the same weird cross hair sticker on the top left.

Did Beeshu have a presence in the Japanese market? Or is this just a clone of it, like the NES Advantage is a far inferior cheap clone of the all-metal Famicom ASCII Stick?


L___E___T

June 11, 2017, 02:15:15 am #1 Last Edit: June 11, 2017, 02:24:19 am by L___E___T
 



I have seen one before - but it is a rare stick.  I believe both are originally based on the later plastic Ascii stick - I forget the name, but the red space stick looks more familiar to me it in terms of the moulding etc.  

Some variants below:







For reference here is the original metal Ascii stick:


My for Sale / Trade thread
http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=9423.msg133828#msg133828
大事なのは、オチに至るまでの積み重ねなのです。

satoshi_matrix

No no, right, I get that the design of virtually all NES/Famicom/SMS/PCE/MSX/Amiga sticks is based on the basic design of the all-metal ASCII stick, and that includes the western-famous NES Advantage Nintendo officially licensed (which I suspect was actually manufactured by ASCIIware).

But if look at the design, the Space Battle Stick closely resembles the Beeshu Jammer. They both have the same crosshair in the same exact position, same size, position and shape of the turbo dials and Start/Select.

I have no doubt that both the Space Battle Stick and the Jammer are clones of the ASCII stick Jr, but that doesn't tell you much of anything because there are at least a dozen other examples of sticks no doubt based on that exact same design.

What I'm curious about is who made the Space Battle Stick and when. Did Beeshu have a Japanese presence, and how rare is this stick and how much do you think it's worth?

Some of these answers I can get myself when the stick arrives and I open it and look at it's pcb, but it's one of those things I'm wodnering if other Fmaicom collectors know anything about.

P

June 12, 2017, 03:44:00 am #3 Last Edit: June 12, 2017, 06:31:10 am by L___E___T
If it has any real arcade parts like the all-metal Ascii Stick and the CPS-Fighter has it could be a very good stick. But arcade sticks for old consoles are usually not that expensive I think (with some exceptions like the Ascii Sticks).

Those crosshair-shaped LEDs (I think they are LEDs?) can also be found on the Ascii Stick 2 Turbo. Although no crosshair.


[mods - URL was modified to avoid alarm - it's throwing up a web safety warning]

L___E___T

 



I see what you mean now, I guess unless anyone knows then it's a case of waiting to see when it arrives.  I would have thought Stealthlurker has one or both sticks perhaps?
My for Sale / Trade thread
http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=9423.msg133828#msg133828
大事なのは、オチに至るまでの積み重ねなのです。

satoshi_matrix

I'm not expecting real arcade parts from a stick of this vintage. The Asciistick is the exception, most sticks were all plastic. But juding from its base, the red Space Battle Stick is much thicker than the NES Advantage and that means it very well could be possible to modify with actual arcade parts. If that's the case, I'm going to throw in a Sanwa JLF and two 24 or 30mm buttons. I'm just not sure what color to go with. I'd normally go with red, but since the whole stick is red, maybe go with blue buttons? What do you guys think?

P


L___E___T

 



I'd go for black stick, red buttons.  Maybe even a red ball top.  Because the other parts look grey rather than white, I think white would clash.  But then again if the red is a different shade to the chassis that will also clash...  Anyway, looking forward to seeing and hearing more when it arrives!
My for Sale / Trade thread
http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=9423.msg133828#msg133828
大事なのは、オチに至るまでの積み重ねなのです。

satoshi_matrix

I can't wait to see who made the thing. Was it Beeshu? That's what I suspect, but that's just a guess based on how similar it looks to the Jammer.

satoshi_matrix

Okay! I got this stick at last and.......hoo boy is it interesting.

There is no branding on it except for the top left, which reads
077
Presented by SPACE International.


So...was SPACE International an actual game company in Japan's bubble economy of the late 80s? Has anyone ever heard of it?

In the bottom right corner there's some text I was curious about in the low res image the seller provided. Let's take a peek...



Um....I wasn't expecting Engrish Star Wars. Like.....WTF?

Here's a full shot of the controller:


and the bottom. Note the bottom plate is just plastic, not metal. This means the whole arcade stick is pretty light for its size.


Here it is next to an NES Advantage. It's virtually the same length and width.


But the two are very different in width. Here's a side comparison.


As you can see, there's a big difference in how the controller is angled. The good news here is there's enough room to mod in 18mm Sanwa buttons!


The bad news is it's going to take a dremel tool I currently don't have. The stock B and A buttons are spring loaded into these strange button hole shafts. I don't know how they were attached. The only way to figure it out would be break them. I do want to replace the buttons with Sanwa 18mms, but I feel bad doing modifications to such a rare arcade stick! :'(

In my search to discover who made this I thought I might find some markings on the board, but nope:






So this leaves me with more questions than answers. Just who made this? When? Can anyone estimate a date based on the chip surfaces?

I'm also curious what those four chips are. One of them is the 4021 of course, but what are the others?

P

Only conductive pad switches, I guess it's to be expected.
Although it's a cheap stick it looks neat and it would be a shame to mod it.

The Engrish text was funny.

The ICs seems to be (from googling):

4021 - Shift Register
4069 - Hex Inverter
4011 - Quad 2-Input NAND Gate
4001 - 4 NOR Gates

The shift register obviously combines the button data so it can be sent in a single wire like in all Famicom controllers. I guess the hex inverter and other ICs are used for the extra logic required for those turbo dial knobs, and maybe for the LEDs (what are those Bearing Monitor LEDs used for?) and stuff.

chowder

It looks pretty cheaply constructed, how does it feel to use?

Very cool though, I've never seen one before.

UglyJoe

http://gepachika.exblog.jp/20740652/

I have no idea what the page is saying, but maybe they know something.

MWK

Hey satoshi_matrix, I have that SPACE BATTLE / JAMMER Super Stick thingy, which actually is 919 and isn't as accurate as the box says, which of course doesn't surprise me :crazy:
I believe it's very similar to your 077 (Engrish text is also here) with only one major advantage - suction cups at the bottom 8)
AFAIC, despite what's on the box, these are all Taiwanese bootleg products, hell, there are even more of them >> http://mwk1.vot.pl/contrabanda/img/sb.jpg
Anyway - what is most important, it's made nice, it feels nice and it plays nice, so I can only recommend to grab it, if anyone, anywhere find one.

satoshi_matrix

Quote from: chowder on June 27, 2017, 06:46:05 am
It looks pretty cheaply constructed, how does it feel to use?

Very cool though, I've never seen one before.



"cheap" is relative. Because of how astonishingly rare this stick is, the bidding war for it came to over 5,000 yen.

It feels similar to the NES Advantage, but the buttons are better. They are contact pads and not microswitches, but they have some sort of sping mechanism built in rather than just oversized button contact pads like the NES Advantage uses.

I want to replace them with microswitch Sanwa buttons, but that will require a Dremel tool.