| Price | Etsy |
| Release | November 14, 2025 |
| Compatibility | PC |
| Dimensions | ~8.7″ x ~5.9″ x ~2.3″ |
| Weight | 1.73 lbs |
| Cable | ~1.52 m |
Introduction
BD Retro Mods has been around for years—generating an impressive sales record with customer satisfaction—and it makes many kinds of lever and leverless controllers for retro consoles, such as the Sony PlayStation Custom Arcade Style Combo Controller, which will be the focus of this article.
By the way, you might have seen Brian of BD Retro Mods on his own podcast—or as a guest on another podcast. That said, let’s dive into this arcade stick!
Performance
The ball-top joystick’s gate is octagonal, and the buttons are Sanwa clones. There are eight of these buttons, and they’re in the comfortable Noir layout. Despite the arcade stick being compact in size, its buttons are fully sized at 30 mm.
You can activate turbo to press a button once and then have that one press result in multiple rapid presses. The 16 mm turbo button can be found on the side, which is where you can also find 16 mm PS and “clear” buttons. As for the 12 mm function buttons on the top panel, they’re for start and select.
At the arcade stick’s bottom, you can find square-shaped rubber feet per bottom corner. This way, the arcade stick can stay in place while you play your favorite retro (or modern) game.
Hardware
The arcade stick uses a third party control board, and it was made with the PlayStation 1, 2, and 3 in mind. This means that its cable, which approximately comes out of the center back, has two ends:
- One cable end for PlayStation 1 and 2
- Another cable end for PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 cable end is USB-A, so this means that you can insert it into your PC as well. You might need a software layer to translate DirectInput signals into XInput—thereby granting you access to PC compatibility. This process should take you no more than several minutes without technical expertise—and can be done for free.
Appearance
The arcade stick is essentially a black plastic enclosure with black acrylic on top. You can go for the PlayStation color scheme if you want. Another option would be to pick the colors of each of:
- Joystick
- X button
- Circle button
- Square button
- Triangle button
- Other main buttons
- 12 mm buttons
Just note that the 12 mm top buttons have some of the least color options, namely black and white, whereas the 16 mm side buttons only come in black.
Otherwise, from a top-down view, you should be able to see 10 screws on the arcade stick: four screws for the joystick and six more screws elsewhere.
Conclusion
BD Retro Mods’ awesome controllers range from having one to eight buttons, and their ability to be compatible with both retro consoles & PC means that you can enjoy retro games as well as modern fighting games, which the arcade stick in this article can be good for.
- Octagonal joystick gate
- Big Sanwa-like buttons
- Five function buttons
- Turbo functionality
- Comfy Noir layout
- Two cable ends
- Color options
- Rubber feet
- Acrylic & plastic
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐