Opening the Retro Fighters D6 controller, and modification
I recently purchased a Retro Fighters D6 dreamcast controller, and really like it. However, I wanted to get it open; both so I could potentially mod it, and for the sake of being able to repair it in the future. I couldn't find much in the way of resources for opening this controller, so, now I have successfully done so, I thought I'd document the process and its guts and structure.
This thing was a pain to open. Me and a friend spent a long time unsuccessfully trying to figure it out, only to realise there's a secondary shell we were prying at. What we needed to do was to get our spudgers/pry tools between the outer and inner shell, and work them towards the clips. Here's the process:
Start at the top, from the rear side of the triggers. Get a pry tool/spudger between the two layers of the rear shell and work towards two clips - one on each side of the usb-c port. The part you are attempting to remove is the outer back plate (white piece), which comes away from the grips (grey). You do not want to be prying up the internal shell too (see photos), as that is screwed on.
After placing something (we used a cut up loyalty card) where the clip is to hold it open, work on the sides, down towards the grips. There's a clip on each side here. Get something in there to hold it open and block the clips from re-engaging.
After those, don't continue down the grips along the side of the controller. Instead follow the back plate round to the back of the controller, following the same process. There are 4 clips at the bottom, as shown in the photos. It may take some trying to get these to pop loose, but keep at it.
Once the back plate is off, there is the inner plate which is simply screwed on.
I think the photos serve as a better description of what needs doing, so I've tried to be thorough. After going through this, I really didn't want to have to do it again. So we marked out the screw locations on the outer shell, and drilled through. Now that the two plates have been clipped together again, the shell can be opened simply by removing the screws. I expect that you don't need all of these screws for it to be sturdy enough, so you may get away with fewer holes drilled (if you decide to do this).
I've also included photos of both sides of the board in for the purposes of documentation.