Atari Ultimate Fight Stick joystick mod

kwil

Complete noob here so please bare with me.  I just bought the Atari Ultimate Fight Stick (AUF) with trackball and built in Pi 3B+.  I'd like to swap out the 2nd player bat stick for a top fire joystick.  Does anyone know the best/ easiest way to do this?

Is there a USB top/ front fire stick that will work with no other modifications?  Ideally, I'd want a Tron stick, but these seem to be out of stock everywhere.  If not, I'd like to try to build my own using a hollow shaft.  There are multiple LED ball sticks that look like they might work for this purpose as they have hollow shafts.  Could I just remove the shaft from one of these, and swap it for the shaft that's in the AUF, then drill a hole through the top of a ball or bat for the switch?  Or will that not work due to the diameter/ length of the shaft? Is there a name/ model for the stick that's used in the UAF?  If so, I'd assume that a replacement LED version of the same model would work.  Or is there no industry standard and I'd just have to get measurements of the existing and replacement shaft?   Is there a better way to do this?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. 

TSTDavey

Hello @kwil thanks for posting on the Microcenter Community Forum. Unfortunately there's no easy way to swap out the joysticks on the Atari Fight stick to the top Fire joystick. The top fire stick wasn't designed for the Atari Fight Stick system. You may be able to install a Top fire stick in an full atari arcade cabinet it.

NickBiederman

You can replace the joystick by removing the 4 screws holding the joystick in and installing your new joystick, just like you could with a full size cabinet. There's several styles of top fire joystick available. While we can only guarantee compatibility with joysticks carried at Micro Center, the mounting hole layout is somewhat standardized so you can likely find a stick that will work. Watch out for the depth as the fight stick doesn't have much extra space under the joysticks.

We carry a Tron joystick. A few stores are out of stock but it may be available near you. It's a perfect fit in all our arcade products. 

kwil

Nick, the page you linked to states pick up only. I'm in south TX (San Antonio area).  Houston and Dallas are out of stock, and that's quite a drive anyway.  Looks like I'd have to drive to Georgia to get one.  I don't want it thaaaaat bad.  Any other way to get it?

kwil

Never could find a Tron stick near me so I improvised.  I gutted an old Wico Command Control topfire, and swapped shafts with the UAF stick, added a Radio Shack microswitch top fire button and a few other modifications to prevent it from spinning (which would cause the trigger wires to bind/ tangle.)  It works perfectly.  Now it's truly retro.