Arcade

This page is dedicated to building arcade quality controls for use with your Pc. For now, the page will be filled with my current and past projects. At some later date, I will most likly add more specific details, Tips, ect.. to help the 'hardware challenged' to achieve thier own dream controls. For those new to 'Emulation', a quick note... With special programs, your PC can basically turn into an old arcade machine. You can play Pacman, to Xevious and more. Its a dream come true! For now, go to the link page for more info. Currently, Ive been ran out of funds to power my projects... but I do have time to update a bit due to recent unemploymnet. Being that I usually come up with some way-out designs... it means some tough prototyping. Proto's are a lot more expensive than you might think. You start buying parts left and right... and after you get it all together, something breaks, dosnt work good enough...ect. Pretty soon, your out a couple hundread, and you havnt gotten any closer to the end. Fortunately, you can only fail so many times before you get it right ^_^ !And a lot of times... you end up with something even better than you imagined. The first step tho... is planning. I spent probably 5 months just thinking about what I really wanted in my design. I researched others projects, and weighed thier 'goods and bads'. I came up with some ideas... and then I weighed them. I kept trying to find and fix faults, untill I couldnt make it any better... and soon, I had the most Innovative design at the time. The only problem was... could I build it?!!! So on my long journey, Ive actually rebuilt the entire set of 6 Panels twice now, as well as re-making some other parts along the way. Enough talk... on to the show!!! ^_-

This is a 6 way - Rotating panel design! I came up with this idea after many grueling hours of thought. I wanted a panel that played all the classics perfetly...with the correct controlls. An earlier idea I had, was to make sections that snapped out, but I realized that the transfer of parts would slow my gaming fun down...and each section could get damaged from transit. Lastly, there is the question of xtra storage space... of which I hardly have enough room as it is!

For those who have seen these before, Actually, you havnt. I rebuilt them all. The 4player pic is an old one for now, and doesnt have the red buttons up top anymore. Removed the 6way shifter, as it was problematic. I can always mount a good one to a seat later. Spyhunter wheel removed, as Starwars yoke can do the same thing, and added a Motorcycle controller. Buttons all lined up straight - instead of curved, as it was difficult to operate them in those configurations. A custom analog balltop sinistar joystack added. Custon spinner & Disc of tron spinner as well. Keyboard panel has locking access panel now.To the new... nearly every controller available. In fact, a few more may be added via swapping a panel out...or latchable attachment over the keyboard panel (keyboard mounts over the black access panel)

Shown left, the rear of the access panel. The 2*4 piece has a slit in it, so the lock can pass thru it. LOL - whoops, why lock it when the hinges are above the panel?! Ohh well, may fix that, yet, its not all that important. The lock was merely to keep the door closed anyway. You can see, the panels are Hinged together. This turned out to be a bad idea. The hinges will be removed, and all panels will be latched to the sides individually. This way, you dont have to remove the heavy set of 6 panels all t once to fix a singel problem. Also, it was a 2 man job to get it on, and was dangerous, threatening to danage the contols.

Shown above, is the 'Base'. Its primary support a 4*4, with dual 2*4s suppoting it, and all mounted to a 2*4 bottom. The sides were some sort of wall board, just quickly put in for a test. To stableize the thing, a large piece of MDF (thick, dense, particle board) links each side via 4 long bolts. that go thru it - then the legs. Also, the Mini Control panel is shown in its 45 degree play mode on the left, and on the right, its pushed back for service or rotation. The minipanel has all the start/coin buttons & all emulator function buttons. Its also telescopic. The reason, is because some games you play with a slanted 45 degree (or less) angle - like with the 4player panel... yet... some games like starwars, supersprint..ect, you may wish to have a complete 90 degree mount. The minipanel is shown at the 45degree angle, yet is can reach to the next panel forward, sitting right above the 90degree angled panel. The mini-panel was built becuase I needed a way to have emulator function keys available w/ any panel active. Also, it reduces the many duplicate start & coin buttons that I would have had to install - and I was already short on buttons to begin with. The minipanel has some problems, such as it should be mounted at a 'flatter' angle. Also, its eavy enough that it droops one the far end. I will make a new one, and it will have a 2nd arm on the opposite end, and also, the height adjuster (now using a coke can : )The buttons are placed on a piece of plexi painted black on the reverse side. Its not the best, but it did the trick. It also was designed with cat5 cable to interface... but there was too much cable and it was nearly impossible to dissasemble, so Im gona rebuild it with some sort of USB keyboard or simular, so that I only have one wire to connect/disconnect.A nice feature of the design, is that the space under the panel can hold the driving peddles safely. Also, a subwoofer may possible be added to the backpanel, using the box shape and the floor as a speaker box : ) A blacklight may be added? or something simular.

Here is the heart of the system. There are 2 hex shaped panel sides. Each 'side' has 2 hex shaped parts bolted together. One smaller than the other. The panels sit on the ledge that is created. Each side has a 1 1/4" pipe and flange attached to it. There is a 1" diameter - (heavy and thick) black metal pipe that run though the entire base. The flanges have holes drilled though right though them and though the pipe. When the pipe is turned, the sides turn with it. Note... that there is a nice large hole for all the wires to pass in/out of the pipe. Your pipe must be very strong and thick to accomplish this without risc of breaking or bending the pipe. I believe mine is 3mm thick. Very hard to drill though! (ate at Least 2 bits on me!) Make sure all measurements are correct before drilling, as you wont want to re-drill! I messed up a tad, and the left side is a little too close to the base. It rubs a little, yet not bad enough for me to re-drill! (thank god :) The panels attach via arcade panel clamps. There are only 2 shown, and I need 4 more clamps per side to finish the job. The arcade clamps are VERY strong if installed correctly, and nothing tops them. They are however, very expensive... but well worth it. You definitely dont want you panels falling off, sliding..ect.

Right, you can see how it works. The metal pole, is attached to another pipe flange. This flange however, is used correctly and fits onto the pipe end...although, Ive reversed the way it is mounted to the large disc. This is because for the brake to work, both surfaces must be smooth. This also meant that all bolt heads had to be below the surfaces. I had to drill out a little past the surface, and even grinded the boltheads flat to help.The clamp is a special vice grip for use with drill presses. Its shaft wasnt long enough, so I had to make another one by grinding and drilling a long bolt. The vice can rotate, so you can easily remove the large wheel/bar. It is stronger than imagineable, and nothing moves this thing when its clamped! However, on accident, I didnt have it tightened all the way once, and I rotated the machine. It scratched the paint a bit. However, once I tightened the adjuster, I found I no longer had to worry about future problems... because of its incredible strength.The small circle is mounted to the base leg. The larger moving circle is pressed tightly to the cab leg circle, and it acts as a large disc brake.

Left - shows the brake closed then open. Notice the small gap between the disc when opened. On ther right, you see the underside of the clamp. I added a small 'stopper' so that the clamp didnt fall too far down when it was open. Also, it keeps it from spinning 360degrees and losening the bolt up.Note, that I miscalculated the distance of the left panel side, and its too close to the base. Make sure to leave about 1.5 cm just in case the base 'shifts' as it did in my case.

To make the Sinijoy, was not the easiest thing. At first, I started out using those black rubber tie-down straps. They were too tough, and almost broke the stick! Next, I was given a link to a guy who makes sinistar replacment spiders. But he couldnt make me a custom spider, with a larger center hole... so I was out of luck. However, he recomended Bike tire tubes. Excellent Idea!!! I took tubes, cut them up, and used those metal rivit things with holes in them (cant remember the name). To keep them from ripping at the mounts. I used a Topgun Fox2 pro from Thrustmaster. It hacked pretty decently. I had to cut most all the base off... and used metal post to keep it about 1cm above the custom cut metal mounting plate. The center has a platic post that I cut down a bit, then inserted a plastic spacer and a metal rod for the new balltop.Then, since the size of the hole of the center rivot was too large for the small metal shaft... I again used a plastic spacer (used in happ joysticks), that just fitthe rivot, yet didnt pass through it. It was all very lucky! The original test: 1 band wasnt enough. I added a 2nd set of bands, and that worked great! The game was now has Perfect control !!! ^_^ BTW... the size of the entire thing, is the size of a standard Happs Trackball mounting plate. (6" * 6" ) The Ball-Top, is a painted wooden ball. It took several balls before I got the perfectly centered hole. Make sure the hole is 'tight' (slightly smaller than rod) and use wood glue or simular to keep the ball from falling off.

Ahh - one of the best Motorcycle games deserves the best controller :) I first got my fix of Super Hang-On for the Sega Genesis. I tell you... some of those tracks were next to impossible! The game is Lightning Fast, and at times requires you to cut through the trees as a shortcut to win. The Sounds are smooth as well. The only recent cycle game that I feel tops it or at least comes close is 'Redline Racer' a 'MUST HAVE' Pc game. Shown above is the control mounted to the test shell. There are 2 buttons One for Turbo's, and an extra one for ? :) The Right bar is the Throttle control. Also, there is a working Brake handle right behind the left grip. My poor old mountain bike sacraficed its precious Handlebars, and brakes!

Shown right are the various parts I made to get it going. A new idea popper into my brain... I used the wheel holder as a motion limited and spring return system all in one! (The first part on the left) You can see, that there are 3 holes in it. The bottom one is for the control wires to pass thru. The other 2 limit the motion of the wheel to about 45 degrees each way. The Middle piece set is basically the 'Pin' . It keeps the wheel from moving in/out, and slides from left to right. Also, you can see there is a large Gear attached to a wooden dowel. That goes inside the shaft of the main wheel. The last part is the adjustable depth steering pot holder. I mounted a gear to the pot by shaving the pot into a thin line shape... then elongated the gears center hole with a rotozip bit. The holder is an aluminium ruler bent into 2 "L" shapes. Wow that worked good :) (A lot of these are 'accidental ideas' or as Bob Ross would say... Happy Accidents :) I kept making measurement mistakes for the mount depth... so came up with the idea for an adjustable one :) The other gear attached to the dowel was screwed into place using the centerhole, and a mini screw was also put beside it, to keep it from sliding (too small to see).

Unfortunately, the main shaft was a little smaller than the shaft holder. This created a bit of 'Play'. Luckily, the return spring (coupled with gravity :) keeps the thing in one slanted downward angle. Also... since the ruler potholder is flexible, it matches any odd play movment without slipping a gear. The Bottom Washer is what the entire assembly rides on basically... and 2 nuts were placed on top of each other to keep them from falling off. The top nut must be glued in place least it slip down and tighten.

Shown above is the Left side of the guts. Its hard to see whats happening in there. The copper part is actually the left bar holder. By accident I cut the left bar too small so it had to be screwed in place in the frame instead. Next to that is a microswitch that is shown activated. You cant see it... but the brake line comes in from the hole in the bottom... and attaches to the spring Via a cabletie. When the brake is squeezed, it pulls the cabletie into the switch and activates the brake switch. Also very hard to see, is a recent addition: A Magnetic reed switch (small green tube under spring) is placed near the switch. A powerfull magnet is resting just below the cabletie (attachesd to the metal cable). When the magnet is over the reed switch... it tells mame to turn off the brake. Mame actually uses a 3rd pot for the brake... but its too late for modifying that! SO, that should suffice. (unfortunately as of now, mame doesnt auto-release the brake... so I had to add the reed switch. The Spring is attached to the Screw-eye (which doubles as a nice wire placeholder.

Shown above is the Right side of the guts ... or the Acceleration side. I started out by taking the shaft of the right handle bar... and realized it fit perfectly into a copper pipe. I then decided to use the pipe as a means of holding the bar in place. I cut the copper pipes ends and folded them down (like opening a bananna) and used the flaps to mount the pipe to the sidewall of the unit... When thinking about it even more... I realized that by cutttint the a horizontal cut into it... i could even use it to limit the degree of turn! (shown more clearly, and later adopted into 'the rear' of the unit) A screweye passes through the handle, and into teh wood dowel gear. It rides on a smooth plastic washer, and a spring is mounted under it all - to return it to the top. Originally ... I didnt use a gear for this. It was direct mounted to the pot. Unfortunately, windows didnt lthink that it moved the pot enough... and so windows games (Redline Racer) wouldnt work correctly. Mame seemed to be ok with it... but I had to fix it for windows as well. The gear was accidentally mounted at a slight angle (using an 'L' brace). This actually worked t an advantage... because it makes it easier to re-adjust pot gears to perfect center when you first set it up (just slide it down and the gear can move freely :)

As for the rest of the unit... I made the bottom shape first out of partical board. Then the hollow middle layer was standard 2*4 (the shape just fit!) And the top layer was MDF (shaped at about 32 degees for the outer edges) MDF is smoother than most wood and is cheaper. The 'jewlry box' so to speak was then needed to be placed at an angle of 45 degrees. To do this... I placed two 2*4 sections side by side and cut them 45 deg. I cut a hole through them for the shaft to go through... and screwed them together as well as mounting the main box. Trubo butons were added last because I wasnt sure how to add them! I decided on screwing 2 hollow dowels into the sides of the unit. Each has a doorbell switch. Funny that when I tested them... they didnt work at first! I found that they were Lighted, and required a nice voltage to power the lights. I dont think its possible to supply that, so I opened each switch and removed the lights... and now thw switches work fine... what a pain that was !!!! : ) Lastly, is the Brake. It was also a real pain. I recoment using high test fishing line as the activating wire (too late for me). Bending that metal cable into a way that operated soothly without too much friction was VERY tough. I added a metal spring as a guide for it to travel from the outside of the main box to the inside because the metal cable would have eventually sawed into the wood if it was just a wood hole. It even had some roughness with that. Much fiddling later, and it seems to be only mimimal sawing of metal on metal. Should hold out for a few years at least. Well, thats about it. When I get a chance, I may post some pencil drawings of a few of the more hard to see parts. Untill then, feel free to email me if you have a question.

Here is a shifter I made recently. My original design was too deep and didnt fit next to the spyhunter panel wheel (which is even deeper) I was forced to re-think the design... and luckily... it is even better and cheaper :) The parts consist of a 1/2 inch diameter metal pole (found at chase pitkin or homedepot). Next is a wooden dowel ( I cant remember the size... but probably the largest available) And finally a standard light switch (one with a really strong 'snap' to it) All you have to do is shave down the edges of the switch to fit the pipe... then drill a hole in the pipe above the switch top (make sure to 'de-burr' the hole so that its not sharp arround the edges). Also - you will need to drill a small hole right through the pipe and switch top - and insert a locking pin of some sort (currently not shown), or a small screw.The top is trickier. The Dowel must be sanded and shaped as desired. Then two 1/2" holes are drilled into it - intersecting themselves so that the wire can go through. Soldier the wires to the Happ switch, than test it. Glue the switch in place with Hot Glue (make sure the wires are in place first) When the metal pole is ready... feed the wires through it... then glue the top into the dowel. Before gluing parts...Make sure the length of the pipe is not too high or too low when mounted under your wood control panel. If using a metal panel... you may want to mount the switch lower by inserting a wood spacer. That will give room for the wires to hide out of site. Also, the final touch is to make custom Bezels so the you can not see the interal switch (a small piece of plastic with a hole just big enough to allow the shaft to go thru...that also covers the entire shifter hole and moves with the shaft) . Tools recomended: 1/2" Drill bit or Router bit 1 Bit large enough for the wire size used (dont remember what I used) Pipe cutter or Metal cuting device like those cutting disk. coarse sand paper... or grinding wheel to de-durr metal pipe edges. (you may be able to use a stong screwdriver and chisel the metal that is loosenedfrom the fresh cut) 1 Hot Glue Gun 1 Soldering Iron Screw driver Safety Glasses

The 2 pictures above are close ups of Spy Hunter. The pic on the Left is from my new Panasonc 27" tv with svideo input. The Right, is my pc monitor. Notice the way that the picture changes when being displayed on a tv. Colors blend smoothly... and change in value. Look at how the trees look much better on the tv, than the pixelated svga version. Also, there is much more smooth color graduations. Look closely at the dirt road and the grass. Note that certain color become almost invisible... and act as either a highlight or a shadow. (Like the odd pixel here and there in the grass and road) The Panasonic comes about as close as it gets to arcade perfect display... without the problems and limitations of a real arcade monitor.

Heres an example of a real arcade monitor -vs- Pc monitor. As you can see... the color difference in the road is dramatic. This is because of the way that pixel colors blend together with older arcade monitors. Also because the 'shadow-mask' (what most call scanlines- but its really not). There are also limitaions of color depth and brightness with each pixel... and the actual physical location (spacing) of each color per pixel. Look closely at the car closeup, and see how a single visible pixels color gets altered depending on what color its next too. Note that a single pixel will almost be transparent... while two same colored pixels side by side will produce a brighter and more visible impact. Hopefully someone will make a filter type effect that changes the color values per pixel before it lies them down... by looking to see what colors are near first... and then altering for the final resullt... and laying it all down blended properly. *dreams

***** UPDATE ***** Below are 2 pics that show the difference between Svideo and Composite. Of course, I used the exact same tv, Video card (Ati Rage Fury 32meg), and Digital camera. AS you can see, the left is the composite image. Most all details come through... but, some information does get lost. Most notable theough... is the MAJOR color loss. The colors take on more 'greyish' hues... and a lot of them get lost. This affects the clarity and impact of the image. Also note... that if you try to compensate for this by trying to turn up the color to its max on your tv adjustmnet... your colors will 'bleed' into each other... and will cause the other details to dissapear in tthe saturated mess you have created. Anyway... some may find this picture acceptable... but I personally couldnt take it. Think about it... once you buy the display... you have to live with it. Why waste money on something that drives like a pinto when for only a few more bucks you can get a ferrari?! ^_^ Hope this helps people in thier desigions for thier projects. Im very happy with my choice... I only wish the same for all of you.