History of the Fightstick

Remember arcades? That place you’d go with your friends after school and spends pockets full of quarters on Street Fighter and Galaga? Before your time?

That’s fine because remnants of the arcade have made their way into our homes. And no, I’m not talking about the Street Fighter cabinet in your uncle’s man cave. I’m talking about controllers!

Specifically, the joystick and buttons are used across virtually all fighting games. Taking on various forms over the years, this setup has moved from giant machines to portable gamepads.

This, is the history of the Fightstick.

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[Akshonmedia]

Hey everyone, we want to let you know that we appreciate your support and the feedback on this video. We read all of your comments and take them to heart and will strive to do better in the future.

[Reaubocop]

Mark "MarkMan" Julio is the reason why Madcats started making quality fightsticks and his passion for the FGC is why we can buy insanely high-quality fightsticks today. I'm kind of stunned you guys didn't even mention him in this video.

[mxcascade]

Minor correction for 13:41
Smashbox's competitors B0xx and (now mainly) Frame1 are considered the go to options for rectangle style controllers in the smash community.
Smashbox was more the initial spark which spiralled off into b0xx after Hax$ left the Hitbox team to make his own version, and then Greg Turbo left the b0xx dev team himself to make his own spin on it.

[MetAlexTHVK]

Man, I remember feeling like the coolest kid when I played NES games with the NES Advantage. That would cement my love for playing arcade ports with a stick when possible besides fighting games. Playing Streets of Rage 4 with a stick is great and I can't wait to play Cowabunga Collection with it with my fam.

[alecpanic]

for anyone potentially interested in these controllers the term hitbox can refer either to the brand or the layout and imo other brands have succeeded in making better hitboxes than hitbox and are worth checking out.

Madcatz success in fightsticks can be directly correlated to markmans efforts while working in the company and their new line of fightsticks after the company's revival are truly not cut from the same cloth.

The creators of Mas sticks passed away in 2021 in a tragic fire. Recently their work has been carried over anew and creator scanline city has taken up the challenge of developing both traditional mas sticks and a new model that if I remember correctly, he had collaborated on with the original creator before their passing.

[burakeren]

Small pet peeve: The stick at 10:27 is not TE but SE. Cheaper version with non-sanwa parts.

[strippinheat]

It's funny to think about how SF1 standardized the 6-button set up when the game original used a joystick and two gigantic plunger buttons that you would smack with various degrees of force to get the three different strengths. Imagine if that had taken off instead. Thankfully, they were horrible to use and maintain, so the 6-button style became a cheaper solution.

[dragodadragon]

13:39 I’ve seen my fair share of smashbox players but there is by no means a consensus among the smash community. Ultimate players are more likely to use a smashbox, but melee players use B0XX/Frame 1 almost exclusively since they’re specifically developed for Melee.

The main advantage smashbox has over its competitors right now is that because B0XX/Frame 1s have such long waiting lists, if you want to get a box controller without waiting 6 months for it smashbox is your only solid option.

[grinbrothers]

Neat history lesson with a surprising amount of more modern gaming history coverage with the discussion of the HitBox controllers and such. It was fascinating to learn about and always interesting to hear the love given to the old school arcade scene (something I never truly got to see by the point I was gaming).

[superdog]

Most, if not every, smash player I’ve seen use a box have a different layout than the smashbox, usually called the b0xx or frame1

[chrisgrudge]

It’s weird they said six buttons became the standard yet the two fighting games they mentioned that were incredibly popular were fatal fury and mortal kombat which aren’t six button…

in fact most snk fighting games are probably 4 buttons, and neo geo dominated the arcade scene.

SEGA’s Virtua Fighter which was a huge deal in the 90s was only 3 buttons. NAMCO's Tekken and Soul Calibur are both 4 button games usually.

6 buttons was very much not the standard back then.

What makes this weird isn't that it's inaccurate (there are some other inaccuracies too in the video), but they almost directly contradict themselves as they state the "fact".

[okanut]

Very cool video! All the different tech and customization that can go into a fightstick fascinates me. You can really express yourself with the controller.

[arbetor]

As a fight stick collector this really makes me happy
Once I've sorted some stuff out imma get back into collecting

[anakinchromosomewalker]

when I was 7 in the mid 90sh I would refuse to play a game without my ascii arcade stick for my ps1, I remember being so amazed that I can play all my favorite games like in my town's local arcade, playing 2d platformers, shot em ups, 3d platformers, party games, and fighting games where my go to games at that age as I was usually to young for any other game (I used that weird Namco controller for racing games and had a light gun for light gun games, I was a spoiled little shit thanks for my dad being a hardcore gamer at that time lol)

[CDages]

Just to be clear Hori was a already considered a top of the line arcade stick manufacturer well before the advent of the MCZ TE1. As a matter of fact, Hori had the license in Japan to produce SF4 branded arcade sticks.
Good content tho.

[dshim]

very fun to watch, thank you for the information and also to comments below for more information. i got into fighting games last year and just recently built my first custom fightstick (a mixbox with wasd keypad) few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. after playing around this for a while i'd love to build another one (and hopefully improve in these fighting games)

[PresidentPixel]

This dude sounds like Sakurai’s English voice dub explaining the history of a character during a Smash Bros. Presentation 😂😂😂

[Poloc]

Thank you for all your videos Forreal man you really keep me entertained after a long day of work keep it up

[hadamana]

This was a really cool video. I have no interest in esports, and don't really even play fighting games much. My love for arcade sticks runs strong, though, for all kinds of games [Spelunky, anyone?]. I learned a few things about them today, and it makes me happy! You rock bunches!

[k-berry]

- Street Fighter's motion inputs were just an easter-egg for highly skilled players
- Street Fighter's 6 button layout was an after-thought after their experiment with pressure-based buttons failed
- Street Fighter 2's combo mechanic was the result of a bug that the dev's thought was funny

It almost feels like the Fighting Game genre was entirely built of accidents