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Sega Saturn Powered Bartop
Bauley:
Hello everyone :D
For as long as I can remember, I've wanted an arcade cabinet. Specifically, games like Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Virtua Cop...games that were popular in the mid 90's, that I remember playing at the arcades.
Now, the first thing you'd probably say is to build a MAME cabinet. Well, I did consider that. However, my Sega Saturn that I've kept for all of these years has been sitting in my closet collecting dust. I've always had a soft spot for my Saturn. It was the first "big" purchase I made with my own money (I bought it in 1996 when I was 12), and many of my arcade favorites from the mid 90's were ported to Sega Saturn. MK2, UMK3, Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, NBA Jam, Street Fighter 2...the list goes on and on.
So...I got this idea...what if I built a cabinet around my Sega Saturn. I googled building arcade controls for the Saturn, and found that someone had in fact done it!
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:7wwRNPEJJocJ:wrongcrowd.com/arcade/joystickp1.shtml+saturn+arcade+controls&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com
Now...my original aim was to build a full size cabinet. Unfortunately, I share a 700 square ft apartment with my fiance. As tempting as it would be to have my apartment look like this http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=110327.0, I decided that a bartop would be a far more logical solution ;D
I again googled bartop arcades for some ideas, and came across this Neo Geo build that I thought was extremely impressive, and so I decided that I would use Johnny Modder's cabinet as a starting point.
http://amoddinghomecompanion.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-fall-project-neo-geo-bartop-arcade.html
I've already started pooling parts together. I've already ordered and received the joystick and buttons from happ controls, the Sega Saturn superpad 8 that I'll be soldering the buttons to, and my fiance ordered an Ultimate Bartop Kit for me from North Coast Custom Arcades as an early Birthday present :)
As far as a theme, I have created a marquee based on the Nintendo PlayChoice arcade, and a control panel overlay based on the Sega Mega Play cabinet in photoshop.
BurgerKingDiamond:
That's an awesome idea. The saturn is awesome for arcade ports. There are a ton of great shmups. I hope this turns out really well.
jamesjones626:
i never thought of a cup o noodle box to experiment with control layouts. that alone to me is genius.
Malenko:
dont you want 9 buttons? 6 face buttons, 2 triggers, and start .Hope you have a region selector switch wires in, and all the good imports!
Save up and get MK Trilogy,lol
Bauley:
--- Quote from: Malenko on March 23, 2011, 08:38:22 am ---dont you want 9 buttons? 6 face buttons, 2 triggers, and start .Hope you have a region selector switch wires in, and all the good imports!
Save up and get MK Trilogy,lol
--- End quote ---
I had MK Trilogy...but I sold it. Just don't really care for it. UMK3 was the game I played in the arcades, and honestly it was the biggest reason that I bought the Saturn way back when :) I remember I went to blockbuster the night I got it to check out some games to rent...and it had just been released! I was a kid in a candy store :P
--- Quote from: pinballjim on March 23, 2011, 09:28:44 am ---I think 25% of the love for Sega Saturn was for the control pad (which was admittedly very nice). If you switch it over to an arcade setup, you're just left with the ports and all of those have been done better elsewhere.
:dunno:
--- End quote ---
I'm aware that there are better games to play, I am doing this 99% for the nostalgia and sentimental value :applaud: