Every year, the gurus over at Shoryuken’s Tech Talk forum hold a vote for what they believe are the best products of that year. This vote allows people in the community, including modders, vendors, store owners, suppliers, and even company representatives, to honor both new arcade and fighting game related products as well as the people and developers behind them.
This year’s awards saw some changes with the creation of a new category that effectively splits the previous “Best New Arcade Stick (Non-Custom)” category into two categories. The new “2014 Arcade Stick Revision of the Year” honors those arcade sticks that have been released within the calendar year that, while not exactly totally new designs, bring with them enough updates to an existing design. With this, the “2014 New Arcade Stick of the Year” is then reserved for fresh products that aren’t just evolutions of existing ones.
So without further ado, here are 2014’s winners.
2014 New Arcade Stick of the Year
- Winner
- Runners-up
Jasen Hicks from Jasen’s Customs had this to say on winning this award.
I’d like to thank the Jasen’s Customs Family for nominating and voting the Panzer Fight Stick as the SRKTT 2014 Arcade Stick of the Year. Its been an honor to see the PFS go from a fun side project to the go-to stick for many members of the FGC. The competition in this category is tremendous with a lot of great sticks and cases from some major players. I am extremely grateful and humbled by this award.
2014 Arcade Stick Revision of the Year
- Winner
- Runners-up
- HORI Real Arcade PRO V4 Hayabusa
- Razer Atrox for Xbox One
Mad Catz’ Mark “MarkMan” Julio on the Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- Tournament Edition 2 winning this award.
Mad Catz would like to thank our customers and the community for the support they’ve given us over the years. We will continue to support fighting game fans and enthusiasts in a big way in the next few years and we hope you’re there with us for the ride. Keep fighting the good fight.
And his own personal thanks.
The SRK Tech Talk community is a vital source within the gaming community. It is because of the great minds and hard work of these dedicated individuals that we have evolved the products so much within the past few years. I am a proud member of this community and can’t wait to do more. Personally. I’m putting on my design hat (maybe for the last time) for some key products that we plan on rolling out in the future. The past 6 years I’ve spent working in capacity for this community & the fighting game community as a whole has been extremely memorable to me. I’m going to make this last fight count!
2014 Tech Talk Company of the Year
- Winner
- Runners-up
Jasen Hicks had this to say on winning this award.
Engineering and design are my passion, it’s in my blood. To be recognized by not only one but two awards is surreal. I can’t thank the community enough for supporting and recognizing the hard work I have put in over the past year to establish Jasen’s Customs. Being named the SRKTT 2014 Company of the Year means more to me than most will ever know or understand. Never settle. Keep fighting!
2014 Tech Talk Accessory of the Year
- Winner (TIE)
- Runners-up
Here’s what UD Game Tech’s Brian “undamned” Grissom had to say on the UD-USB Decoder winning this award alongside Phreakmods’ Crossbone.
I was honored to simply be a nominee for this award. At the start of the voting I never would have dreamed my device would tie with Phreakmods’ Crossbone adapter. The UD-USB Decoder was a great benefit this summer at Evo 2014 in both the “Tournament of Legends II” and “X-Mania USA” events as it allowed players to use their personal controllers on the arcade cabinets. It was reward enough to see something I created benefit those tournaments, so this award from the Tech Talk community makes a nice crown.
Meanwhile, Phreakmod’s Clayton “Phreakazoid” Knight had this to say.
It’s an honor to receive this award for the Crossbone PCB. It’s even better that I get to share the award with Undamned, since the USB Decoder is going to be a very useful tool in the coming year. The Crossbone was designed as a way to simplify getting your setup to the current gen, which I believe has been able to help many in the community do, especially the Killer Instinct players who, until recently, have been a little limited on options. This community has given me an outlet to expand my skillset and have some fun with it. I enjoy making products that simplify things and save someone time and energy, and I’m glad that people genuinely like what I make. I look forward to finally finishing and releasing more useful things that I have in store for the community.
2014 Custom Arcade Stick of the Year
- Winner
- Runners-up
2014 Arcade Stick Mod of the Year
- Winner
- Runners-up
Paradise Arcade Shop’s Dr. Bryan Armitage had this to say on the demo stick winning the award.
It is a privilege to accept the award for Stick Mod of the Year in 2014. I am truly amazed by the creative talent in the group of people here, and to even be considered for an award is something I appreciate more than I can say. The TE2 Stick mod we presented was the evolution of the Kaimana Board that won Product of the Year in 2013. While our shop is officially just Susan and I, what we have come to love is the community and community involvement in our shop, and our lives. We hope to live up to the high expectations of the community while bringing new products out to the market, and look forward to getting to know more of the FGC ohana in the years to come. Mahalo from Paradise Arcade Shop.
2014 Custom Arcade Stick Builder of the Year
- Winner
- b15sdm
- Runners-up
2014 Tech Talk Modder of the Year
- Winner
- Frank “FrankCastleAZ” Harrelson
- Runners-up
- Clayton “Phreakazoid” Knight
- Matthew Gummo
- Pnoy Pryde
- Sam “b15sdm” Kurd
Here’s what FrankCastleAZ had to say on winning this award.
Although I’ve tried my best to help people out in the forums, start SRK TT hangouts, and document some of my work including my time consuming project on revitalizing 11 TE and 2 SE sticks, I believe there are many modders out there who are better at it than I am. This is why I was blown away to have to have received so many votes from my peers in this category.
Thank you all so much. The only reason I have the knowledge and ability to customize the arcade sticks and arcade machines I love so much, is due to the resources on SRK TT and the people who helped communicate and document those resources for everyone’s benefit. I’ll continue to do everything I can on my end to help promote SRK TT, encourage people to get into arcade stick modding for the fun and experience of it, and help out those who need help as an individual here on SRK in the forums, and at convention/event panels as the owner ofAZHP Gaming Special shoutout to one of our sponsors Paradise Arcade Shop, who helped me finish a ton of arcade stick and candy cab projects with product support. There’s no way I would have been able to get as much done without their help.
2014 Tech Talk Member of the Year
- Winner
- Lukas “Darksakul” Peruzovic
- Runners-up
- PresidentCamacho
- Matthew Gummo
- Timothy “Moonchilde” Purcell
- Victor “Vicko” Ramirez
- Susan” SusanInParadise” Armitage
Darksakul had this to say on winning this award for the second year in a row.
For the second year in a row I am baffled how I even got nominated or even won.
No I am not trying to saying this just to be modest, I really don’t feel like I deserved it.Everything I helped other people with, is built on the hard work of others
It is those other people, many who work in the background, unseen who accomplish more than I have but are not recognized.
I just happen to post more that others, that disproving glare of my Darth Vader Avatar and my cynical ways than made me overshadow these unsung heros.
2014 Tech Talk Rookie of the Year
- Winner
- Tim Deserada
- Runner-up
- PresidentCamacho
Here’s what Deserada had to say on winning this.
What an honor! Seriously, thank you all for your support. I’m glad to have helped around the forums, and I’m privileged to have gotten to know you all by way of our exchanges here and in hangouts. Looking forward to a bright future for SRKTT!
For more on the 2014 SRK Tech Talk awards, be sure to head on over to the official thread in the forums.