I somehow missed this last reply of yours. Thank you for pointing me to this. I find it interesting that someone is trying to market a retro stick like the UNITHOR. Good to see they are using microswitches as well. After us breaking several controllers when we were young, my older brother built his own with microswitches from Radio Shack. Then I saw the Epyx 500XJ come out and I've been playing with a couple of those ever since. Personally, I don't see the UNITHOR beating the 500XJ... but that's me. I never understood the flight-stick style -- too hard to hold, too much throw, too much assigned to one hand.
Okay, after fiddling with a 500XJ just now, I can say the switch on the fire button is too heavy by today's standards. It could be dropped to 1/2 or 1/4 the current force, and then it would be truly awesome. I'll add that mod (or 3D-print project [even though I don't yet have a 3D printer]) to somewhere near the bottom on my todo list.
I also have some fuzzy memory of players holding the 500XJ wrong and trying to press the button too high, and/or using their finger tip to press it when they could use their middle segment instead.
The Mindscape Powerplayer/Powerplayers is another favorite with microswitches. I should get one someday to give it a try... done.
That's awesome, great idea 👍
Unfortunately I don't have the skills to do anything like this myself, but after doing some reading online, I thought of a project that I'm getting some help with. It involves creating a Bluetooth version of my favourite joystick that was actually originally for the SNES, by putting in the board from a wireless 8 bit do mini Bluetooth joypad instead. Still work in progress, please see photos 😀
