A neat controller setup

[WildWeasel]

Okay, first off, has anybody seen the cockpit cabinet for Atari's "T-MEK"? The sit-down with two joysticks and two buttons on each? I couldn't find any decent pictures of it...

My idea has to do with those. Most of the times I've seen a cockpit cabinet, the current owner had taken off the original artwork and electronics. A while back, I thought of the most ingenious way to use such cabinets.

I would take the cabinet, mount my monitor up front, near my PC. I would then take a CH Products gameport splitter (availible at ShotBLT.com I believe), and two CH Flightsticks (not Pro, just the plain ol' FS). These two sticks would be placed on either side of the seat, just like T-MEK's original controllers.

Now, this came to mind because T-MEK was one of my childhood favorite arcade games, bar none. The dual joystick setup would be good for more than just T-MEK - it would work quite well in Vindicators, as well as Battlezone, Crazy Climber, and any Robotron-type dual stick game. Of course, the selection of games overall would be rather limited...and the Flightsticks are a bit loose compared to most sticks...but from my experience, they work quite well.

Just tossing my ideas out here, in case somebody could make use of them...

Heck, another idea. A standard arcade controller (a Slik-Stik or X-Arcade perhaps) that would fold in and out like the control consoles on the bridge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (or those bars on roller-coaster rides). Sit down, put your hands on the joysticks, or use the arcade controller for games like Street Fighter...

Man, I have so many ideas and not enough money (or house space) to try them out...

[Malachai]

That could be pretty cool, but if I had a T-mek sit down cab, I'd be playing T-mek all the time!  I wouldn't convert it to anything else.    Just my $0.02