SlikStik Quad Unit

[GreenKnight37]

Hey there,

I'm just starting to consider building my own Mame cabinet, and I was trying to find any opinions on the SlikStik Quad control panel unit.  The thing is expensive as hell, but seeing as I dont know any electrical or wiring, I'm leaning a bit towards it.  That or perhaps buying the blank unit for a lot less, and just figuring out how to wire it myself with a ton of help from places like this website.

But in either case, what do you think of the Quad unit?  Are the controls comfortable?  Would you modify it in any way?  Does it fit four people well?  Any problems with it?

I'd love to hear any advice, opinions, or whatever!

Thanks,
Scott

[Inaba]

When I was initially wanting to have a cab and cp ... I looked into the SlikStik stuff.  I  too thought they were ridiculously expensive.

So I made the silly decision to build my own cp... which snowballed into my own cab, which in turn kept snowballing into my current project of building a "furniture" cab, one that's built out of Oak (Birch actually) and looks like a piece of furniture.  You might have seen a couple cabs like this.

Anyway, I digress.  To answer part of your question:  Yes, the SlikStik is expensive, however after going through the whole ordeal, I came to the conclusion the SlikStik really isn't *that* much more than putting one together yourself.

After adding up all the parts of my own CP, which rivals what's on the SlikStik CP with a a few differences (no 4 way, but a DoT spinner, HAPP 360's and a topfire, etc...) - the price was about $150 less than a fully built SlikStik.  Given all the time and effort I put into the CP (and my total lack of experience) - the $150 would have been worth it from a purely financial standpoint.

However, that's not to say I'm sorry I built my own.  I'm not in any way.  I'm very proud of what I came up with (even if  my first attempt wasn't the greatest) and I'm proud to show not just the CP, but my first cab to people.  They are amazed and think it's doubly cool when I tell them I built it myself from scratch.

That said, you can buy the SlikStik, and it will be only a tad more expensive than doing it yourself, but you will have merchandise, and nothing to be "proud" of, which, I think in the end, is worth far more than the dollars you will save buying a SlikStik.

So build your own if you have the time (you can learn the skill).  

[eightbit]

The harder part of buillding your own is probably the woodworking. Many people don't own the tools or have the space to do even simple woodworking.

The wiring part is easy. You don't need to solder, you don't need a multimeter. All you have to do is connect some buttons to a clearly labeled circuit board with little screw downs and plug the cable coming out of that board into your pc.

Pre-built controller reviews-
http://retroblast.com/reviews/controller1.html