Punk Workshop Arcade Joystick

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I recently picked up some stuff from Punk Workshop, a small manufacturer of arcade controls based in Hong Kong.  One of the things I ordered was their joystick, and buckle up, there's a lot to cover.

Tl;dr - It's fine.  It's $20, it's well made, it works.  It's fucking weird but you won't hate it, probably.

I ordered the silicone rubber variant, which uses (you may have guessed) silicone rubber instead of a spring as a return mechanism.

It's not a new idea, Crown has been doing it for a while, and back in the 8-bit days (the 1980s) rubber was often used for joystick mechs.  But in the modern era it's unusual, and I wanted to try it and see what it was like.

Well, it's ...  Fine, I guess.  There's nothing wrong with it, and if you're looking for a smooth joystick experience this is a good one.  There's not much to say about it, it doesn't use a spring and there's no reason it shouldn't be as effective, and that's exactly what it is.

But then I wonder, what's this joystick doing that other joysticks aren't?

And I don't have an answer.  It's very well made, it's very cheap, and it works.  Perhaps that's enough?


Interestingly the stick uses standard microswitches attached to a PCB, but they're hot-swappable.  Unlike Sanwa and Seimitsu, who solder their switches to the PCB, PWS uses a metal clip that the switch slides into.

Like the rest of the stick, it's very effective, and basically forgettable, though you'll appreciate it if your switch ever needs replacing, something that happens every decade or two.

Also interesting is the connector on the PCB.  Where Seimitsu, Sanwa and pretty much everyone offer a 5-pin plug connector, onto which the socket on your harness is plugged, the PWS stick has a receptacle on the board.  This means the stick ships with a short plug-to-plug cable.  And again, this means it just works, and it doesn't make a fuss about it.

It's sort of weird though because their website shows photos of joysticks with plugs, not receptacles.  Obviously a model change and the photos haven't kept up, but it was still a surprise.


The shaft is a quick-release type which makes it easy to transport, and install.  The shaft is very thick, thicker than most, and this does cause some interesting behaviour.

I've gotten used to Seimitsu's sticks like the SELS-70x and the Nobi, which don't have rotating shafts.  Those sticks are weird, but I find it a bit un-awesome going back to a shaft that just rotates freely.  And sometimes when playing with the PWS stick the shaft will rub against the gate, and it rotates beneath your fingers.  It's a subtle feeling and you get used to it, but I feel like it should be mentioned.

Also I found I was occasionally sliding the shaft upwards a bit during frantic play, and while it was never enough to cause it to disconnect, it would snap back into position with an unexpected clack.  It's something else you'd probably get used to.


I think it's a big larger overall than many modern mechs, and that's because the silicone rubber mechanism requires two gates, on the top and on the bottom.  I'm not sure why, my theory is that there's no central fulcrum and so the shaft is free to move laterally, but this doesn't really seem to happen when I tried to do it.

So there's a gate on the bottom,

and there's a gate on the top.

It uses a weird 30mm spacing, which is between Seimitsu's 40mm and Sanwa's 23mm.  I needed to make an adaptor to fit my Astro City cabinet, which used the old Sega mount, and the result is a plate that is like no other.

And when you're disassembling the stick you'll be slightly annoyed about the two different sizes of Torx screws used.  The bottom ones are smaller than the top ones, so you need two tools to open it up (which, to be fair, you'll only do when you're swapping the gates, or taking pics like some internet nerd).


Something else that's weird is the knob.  Unlike every other manufacturer, the knobs from PWS don't have a metal threaded insert, it's just raw plastic.  It works fine!  There's no reason not to do this, but it's gotta be mentioned.


I don't have much to say about this stick, really.  It works fine, it's very well made, it's very cheap, and that makes it a good buy, I think.  I won't be adding it to my regular controller rotation because I didn't get the octo-gate when I bought it (they were out of stock) and I don't like square gates.  Also, I have a lot of expensive mechs that I am used to and just don't need to swap for one that isn't exactly what I want.

But if I was building a stick and liked a very smooth stick?  A quick release shaft?  There are a lot of reasons this is a good choice.

But it's weird.