Lizard Lick Package

Yes my Sanwa buttons finally arrived from Lizard Lick. I have already installed them and took it for a test run which I have to say they are totally worth every single penny. There is a huge difference in response time between my stock Hori buttons and the Sanwas.

There wasn’t much in the package considering it was only meant to ship buttons.

Lizard Lick Package Opened

The buttons wrapped with air tight bag.

Sanwa Button Package

Package unwrapped.

Sanwa Button Package Unwrapped

The button itself with the white ball top.

Sanwa Button

Sanwa Button Back

Sanwa White Ball top

And now on to dissecting this big block of plastic.

HRAP3

The back with the back plate removed.

HRAP3 Back Plate Removed

More screws inside concealing the actual wiring of the stick.

HRAP3 Back Unscrewing

Finally with all the screws removed you can take off the front plate which the stick and buttons are mounted to but be careful since the wire is “taped” down.

HRAP3 Inside

A shot of how the wiring and back of how the plate looks like.

HRAP3 Inside Back

The Sanwa stick that comes with HRAP3 has a standard square gate that all Japanese arcade machine use.

Sanwa Stick

Make sure you label each wire for each button (Yes, I used my Gundam marker >_>) or else you might forget the wiring layout and if you do you’ll be in for a big surprise when you start playing.

HRAP3 Inside Labeled

I used a Phillips head screw driver to pry off the quick disconnects.

Prying Quick Disconnects

A comparison of the Hori stock 24 mm and Sanwa button which are used for my start + select.

24 mm Hori Stock / Sanwa Buttons

These are the 30 mm Hori stock and Sanwa buttons used for your main functions.

30 mm Hori Stock / Sanwa Buttons

With all the wiring removed you can clearly see how simple a stick is. You can even make a stick out of a pizza box if you really wanted to.

HRAP3 Top Removed

HRAP3 Back Removed

And after snapping/screwing all the screws back in and reattaching all the quick disconnects to the new buttons, we have a full Sanwa stick that can be found in arcades in Japan.

Before:
HRAP3

After:
HRAP3 Full Sanwa

Now I have left over stock Hori buttons and a Sanwa ball top which I can save for back up just in case my buttons decide to die on me or I can install them in my Mayflash stick!

Stock Hori Buttons / Sanwa Ball top

Overall, Sanwa does live up to it’s name so don’t cheap out and not buy or mod your stick with full Sanwa parts because you’ll regret it!