Games
The Buttercade Bullet Xtra Knob
I really didn’t know what to expect with this one. The knobs on top of joysticks have historically come in two styles and three sizes, bar one notable outlier. Pretty much every joystick ever made had either a ball, a bat, or SNK’s weird tear-drop knob that only came with their Neo Geo CD sticks.
That’s been expanding a bit in recent years, with Seimitsu’s Nobi Bullet knob, and some strange capsule-shaped units from Korea. Bumpy ones and soft ones, and Sanwa even released a limited edition hairy knob, about which perhaps the less said the better.
Bats, balls and bullets. And that weird SNK thing on the left.And then this thing. It’s a bullet shape, more or less, but it’s hollow and you can see through it like it’s more of a cage for a very small and powerful insect or angry li’l dinosaur. It’s a 30mm-class bullet shape, with a standard 6mm thread that’ll fit just about every joystick ever made. The most interesting thing on the spec sheet is that it weighs a mere 10 grams, where the normal 30mm ball weighs exactly three times as much.
The Buttercade Bullet XtraAnd that’s the biggest selling point. Sure, its 3D printed with an expensive nylon fusion process, making it very grippy, and the open design allows some airflow, but it’s the lack of mass that matters. Someone will surely tell you, probably with enthusiasm, that this will improve your game. Less mass, faster response! I leave this to the philosophers to debate. It’s a knob, it works.
What I found most remarkable was what it said about the joystick mechanism it was connected to, and equally, what it said about other weightier joystick knobs.
It turns out that heavy joystick knobs act as dampers, their mass performing a shock absorbing function that you would never notice until it’s not there anymore. The heavy ball just eats up the small vibrations and sensations travelling up the shaft. And that’s no bad thing, it’s absolutely unnecessary for play or comfort.
But the lighter Buttercade Xtra knob allows these sensations to reach your fingertips, and wow. After installing this, I could feel so much more of what the mechanism was doing. The click of microswitches, the friction of the pivot, and the not quite perfect alignment when the stick was returned to centre were all revealed with clarity. It gave me a new appreciation for some mechs.
There’s not much else to say about this. It’s lighter, and if you’re paying attention to what it tells your fingers about the actions of the joystick mechanism, it’s more transparent about all of that.
It’s not for everyone, I’m sure, not least because it only comes in grey or black. And it’s expensive, six times more expensive than a sold knob. But I think it’s great, and if you get a chance to try one I think you should, and see if you agree.
The Buttercade Bullet Xtra has a 30mm diameter, the same as most joystick knobs, and the same as Seimitsu’s Nobi bullet knob. It is about 5mm shorter than the Nobi, and has a recessed thread that sits another 5mm inside the knob, so it sits even lower on the joystick shaft. This contributes to the lighter feeling, as there’s less mass at the end of the lever. It also makes the stick feel like it has a shorter throw from one side to the other.
You can buy these from CQB (in Australia) or direct from Buttercade, and probably other places as well. They also come in spheres, capsules and eight-sided SNK rotary style.
--NFG
[ Nov 22 2024 ]
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