To people who have just heard rumours of a cool lever, the story about how I met wazwuz probably isn’t that interesting. If you want to check it out though, you can have a look here.
Now then, shall we get started? Despite all of the different types of levers in the market, why is everyone talking about the Golden Lever? Why do orders come from all over the world such that it sells out the instant after it goes on sale? I’m sure you’re curious about the answers to these questions, but first, a little side note.
Let’s put aside how great the Golden Lever is for a moment. I think one of the main reasons the Golden Project has become so popular so quickly is due to its achievements together with the world champions. Lowhigh from Korea won EVO 2018 using Golden Parts, and Rangchu, also from Korea, won TWT 2018 similarly equipped with Golden Parts.
That being said, it was already a popular lever amongst the more lever-savvy players. I saw a number of people using Golden Levers as I travelled around to compete in the TWT.
So, what makes the Golden Lever so good?
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I used to never open up my arcade stick. If I ever felt like my lever was underperforming and needed some work, I would just go out and buy a new one to replace it.
Be that as it may, with the recent Korean lever fad, I’ve collected a good number of levers and took the time to disassemble them and understand their unique qualities and features. Thanks to this, I do believe I have some small amount of authority on the matter, though there may be more knowledgable players around who do not share quite the same thoughts. Just throwing that out there.
I can confidently say that I’ve used the Golden Lever the longest of all players across Japan, at this moment in time. I can also declare that I’ve disassembled it the greatest number of times… lol.
Anyway, that was quite some preamble. If I had to describe the lever in one word, this is what I’d say.
You can customize it however you like, and the parts are top quality.
Probably something like that. I guess that’s a bit more than one word, but whatever.
If you take a look at the Arcade Stick Indonesia (ASI) Store, you’ll see what I mean. I’d appreciate it if you could take a look at the store page for just a minute before reading on.
People that don’t know too much about levers might be thinking “what’s up with this shady store selling all of these random parts?”
Let me quickly explain to ease your qualms. There are two main types of products for sale:
- Parts to customize certain levers
- Golden Lever parts
What this means is that not everything for sale in the store is compatible with the Golden Lever.
However, most of the parts for sale are made to precisely fine-tune how the Golden Lever feels. All of the parts are extremely high quality. And when I say how the lever feels, I’m referring to quite a few things.
- Whether it’s light or heavy
- How big the diagonals are, and how quickly it returns to neutral
- The clickiness or smoothness of actuation
- How far the lever can be moved (the throw)
As you can see, there’s quite a lot that contributes to “how the lever feels”. With the Golden Lever, you can meticulously customize all of these properties to an astonishing degree. I’m quite confident that 99% of people will be able to make a lever that perfectly suits their needs. For example, you can customize it so that:
- The diagonals are easier to hit
- The tension is higher and the return to neutral is faster, to allow quick movements
- The up-direction switch is closer, and certain commands come out faster
- It’s easier to do half-circle or quarter-circle commands
- The throw suits you, by adjusting the thickness of the shaft
If you know exactly what you want, then it’s just a matter of putting the parts together. That’s what makes it so much fun! And that’s not all.
New tech discovered. Tilting switch ;). Love it pic.twitter.com/92vzoze7ks
— ASI | wazwuz (@wazwuz) April 2, 2018
In the video above, you can see that you can even fine-tune the angle of the switches to the millimeter. Since the position of the switches can be customized, not only can you customize the size of the diagonals, you can also do other cool things like making up-directions actuate earlier.
There’s also things like actuators (the part that presses the switches) with ball bearings inside, to give you buttery-smooth operation.
One of the things I was most impressed by is the fact that all of the important parts are finished by hand.
Battop is the interface from the lever to human. All Golden Battop finishing by hand one by one to ensure smooth surface. pic.twitter.com/PdLMK2rSA5
— ASI | wazwuz (@wazwuz) February 4, 2019
The battop is actually an amazing part in its own right. It feels great to the touch. It doesn’t get slippery, even if you’re the type with sweaty hands, so you can play long sets without worry.
The standard Golden Lever is already a quality product, but you can really make the most of it by customizing it.
What I mean is that the standard Golden Lever may not be ideal for everyone. Depending on the player, some might even have trouble using it. Even I couldn’t quite get used to the Golden Lever as it was given to me. I might even go so far as to say the standard setting should be slightly tweaked.
It might sound like a lot of work, but I’m really having a lot of fun repeatedly disassembling and fine-tuning my lever, because I can make all of these minute adjustments.
Conclusion
I suppose it’s about time for this.
They are high quality parts that can be freely customized.
I think this is the main justification for the price. All of the parts are extremely durable, so you should rarely need to replace them. I’ve never had a single part fail on me to this day.
At the moment, Sengoku Denshou is taking preorders for the Golden Lever (they might be sold out already), and Attasa has a booth at EVO Japan 2019, where they’ll be selling parts on-site.
I hope this blog post was useful for you, especially if you’re considering purchasing, or have already ordered a Golden Lever.
Thanks for reading.
Soruce: Yuu’s Blog