Mk9 Arcade Stick really only needs 5 buttons.

[Howard_Casto]

I wanted to make a custom MK stick so I've been researching the oddball button layout that MK9 has.  The layout is as follows:

    X    Y
      RT
    A    B
LB

A, B, X, Y and RT are defined as you would expect.... the attack buttons with the block in the middle.  LB is the Tag button by default, which seems odd considering it would only be useful on tag matches and thus be unused half of the time.


Anyway, people playing the game on a gamepad know that there are more buttons used than that.  RB is used for throws and LT is used to change stance as well as being used with block for X-Ray attacks.  You might know from the in-game tutorial that you can press X+A to do a throw instead of RB but you might not know that this is the case for all the "special" buttons as well. 

X+A = Throw
Y+B = TAG
A+B = Change Stance and thus A+B+RT = X-Ray

So really the LB button is there as an extra button to make some of these combos easier. 

MK allows you to have several presets for controllers that are accessable any time to select your character, so I would suggest those with the stock stick make the following presets:

Preset 1:

All buttons default values except the LB... set that to throw. 

This is the best layout for normal play since x-rays don't require directional inputs (and thus are easy to pull off even if you have to press multiple buttons) and tag flat out won't be used. 

Preset 2:

All buttons default values except the LB... set that to Chnage Stance. 

This would be useful in the challenge ladder as you somtimes need to change stance in the limbless Kombat stages.  Also x-rays can be done by pressing LB +RT, which I suppose would be useful if you really have a hard time doing x-rays. 

Preset 3: 

Set all to default. 

This would be the preset to use in Tag matches. 


As for custom stick builders.....

You could nix the extra 6th button all-together and make a 5 button layout.  You could stick with the classic MKII "X" layout or use this one instead...

   X  Y
   A  B
RT

Because the Block button has been moved to the side, your 4 main buttons would be much closer together and thus it would be far easier to pull off the combinations needed for tag, throw and change stance.  This layout is also more arcade classic friendly and would work with pretty much everything except street fighter games. 

Speaking of which, I've come to the conclusion that a SF layout probably wouldn't work well for mk, mainly due to the way you can remap buttons.

On my mame cab I have the following layout.

  456
  123
7

Obviously this works well for sf as aside from the 7th button (for neogeo and MK3) it is a sf layout.  For MK I map both buttons 5 and 2 to block and run to 7 so it's essentially the MK "X" layout with two buttons where the center of the x should be.  This works great and that is what I was going to use on my 360 stick, but MK9 doesn't let you map things that way. 

See you can't map a action to two different buttons, so One would have to put block on the top or bottom middle button, not both.  This would free up an extra button for the special combinations, but it would be very confusing during gameplay. 

So for me personally I might actually make a dedicated MK9 stick due to this mapping issue. 

I hope some of this info is helpful.  I'm working on a MK9 stick design based on the official one but a bit smaller.  I'll post plans and button layouts when I'm done. 

[Donkbaca]

I haven't played the new MK at all with a controller, seems like it would be weird.  It really has a great, arcade fighter feel.

My buttons are like this:

   1 2 3
   4 5 6
 7

Just like you HC.  The way I have it mapped is 1 is FP, 3 is BP, 4 is FK, and 6 is BK.  2 is switch stance and 5 is block.  7 is tag.  It works well, and to do an x-ray, you just push the two middle buttons.

[Howard_Casto]

I thought building a stick for this game would be nuts when I first read this, but I gotta admit MK is pretty tough to play on a 360 controller.  It doesn't help that they did crap like switch out moves that used to be button presses into combinations of d-pad and buttons, either... like Sub-Zero's slide.

Well the reason for the changes in the moves is three-fold. 

First off, that damned dash function screwed things up.  Any move that used back back or forward forward had to be changed.  That means they screwed up guys like Liu Kang, Raiden and Scorpion pretty bad.

Secondly, the 3d Mk games added a lot of moves and the inputs have evolved a lot over the past 10 years.  Many of the cruddy directional inputs are leftover from Armageddon.  I guess they figured most players would be younger and be used to those movesets instead.

Lastly the combos I listed above killed a lot of moves.  Sub-zero's slide that you complained about would activate a X-Ray, for example. 


I think most of the changes are acceptable, but I really wish they would have just ditched the dash concept and kept 90% of the moves as they were back in the day. 


Btw just an update.... Malenko was nice enough to measure his stick for me, I've got a template about halfway done and I'll realease it soon.  I'm also making a cpo template for the game that will essentially be blank except for button labels and colored rings around the buttons, like on the official stick. 

[Malenko]

Btw just an update.... Malenko was nice enough to measure his stick for me, I've got a template about halfway done and I'll realease it soon.  I'm also making a cpo template for the game that will essentially be blank except for button labels and colored rings around the buttons, like on the official stick. 

I'll be measuring the box tonight for ya. Did you need any other pictures taken?

I dont think I can scan the top, because the plastic may reflect the light too much

[Howard_Casto]

Nah, I think we are good.  I don't think scanning the cpo is necessary anyway.  The goal isn't to make a bootleg version of the pdp stick afterall. 

I've already modified the layout slightly by tightening up the space between the buttons.  That just allows for better button combos.  Of course I'm doing everything as a photoshop document, so It would be quite easy for a person to throw a umk3 template in there and move everything else around to match.  (I'll probably do that actually). 

I also found a website with all the krypt artwork on it, so people will have source material to make their own cpo design. 

[HaRuMaN]

Malenko was nice enough to measure his stick for me

No mangle needed...   

[Malenko]

Malenko was nice enough to measure his stick for me

No mangle needed...   

12 inches.......
















....starting at the spleen.