A MOMENT WITH...
Going behind the scenes of a new multiformat arcade stick
Following a successful crowdfunding campaign that has raised over £110,000, TR Fight Stick is preparing to launch the Octopus – a multiformat arcade stick supporting Dreamcast, Neo Geo, Xbox, NES, SNES, PlayStation consoles, Switch, PC and more. Yunus Emre Sogukkanli and Dan Morelle tell us about how the company first formed and its plans for the future.
Yunus: My main job is actually director and stunt coordinator, and arcade games were my hobby when I was a kid, and I was creating some wooden stuff for myself because in Turkey there are no original arcade machines. Then there is a community on the internet, and talking with them everybody asked me, “Can you create these things and sell them to us?” In those days, I just told people, “I really don’t have enough time, and wood is not good for mass production.” I think in 2018 I decided, “Maybe I can create some things with metal,” because it’s OK for mass production. Then I created my first arcade stick – I just created the model, I didn’t know anything about designing or manufacturing. One of my friends was the mechanical engineer.
Dan: Yunus is actually being very modest here. First of all, he was a stunt director on Skyfall, James Bond, and when it comes to his industrial design, electronics and PCB engineering skills, he’s completely self-taught.
What kind of products did you make after that?
Yunus: The second product was a CPS-3 case – nowadays everybody just gets them in their home, and they’re very rare and unique PCBs so they have to protect them. One of my biggest challenges was the replica Mini Cute arcade cabinet. When I told the community, most people told me, “OK, you’re creating small boxes – that’s good, but this is a different area, you cannot make it.” Then I tell myself, “If you tell me I cannot make it, I should force myself.” That was not a commercial project, I just made it to prove myself to the community.
What’s the Octopus and why should readers be excited by it?
Yunus: My first idea was that there is no good Dreamcast arcade stick – there is an official arcade stick but it’s not a professional arcade stick. Professional arcade players and tourname
