The Stupid Gamer

Every once in a while gamers have to take things into their own hands if they want to get the most out of their hobby. Timoe, of the BYOAC forums, is creating custom made arcade sticks for consoles, using only the highest quality authentic arcade hardware. In addition to quality components, Tim sports some solid construction and amazing style in his builds. You honestly aren’t going to find a better arcade stick out there.

You’ll have to contact Tim directly for a pricing quote as things are handled on a project by project basis. If you order more than one stick, I’m sure he’ll be willing to work out special pricing as well.

So far Tim has created sticks for the PC, PS2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. I personally am thinking of getting an Xbox 360 one built so I can finally stop screaming at my d-pad during Pac-Man: CE rounds. Also, a 360 compatible stick could be used on the PC via USB. See the pictures below for a look at his work:

To contact Tim, register at the BYOAC forums (http://arcadecontrols.com) and shoot him a PM. He’s pretty quick at responding, and he’s easy to work with. I’ve worked with him in the past when building arcade control panels.

Three more novels based in the Halo universe have been announced, including one that is titles Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. The first of the three novels will hit this November, while the other two will ship sometime during 2007.

I read the first three Halo novels around the time Halo 2 released for the Xbox and they were a pretty good read. The writing isn’t of the highest quality, but any Halo fan should be sucked into the storyline right from the beginning for the rich history and in-depth look at the characters of the franchise. In the meantime, fans of the series can check out the Halo Graphic Novel if they haven’t already.

The Halo novels are published by Tor and can be found in just about any bookstore in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section.