arcade plans

[crtrrss]

hi!  i found a working neo geo on craigslist near me for $75! i will sell all of the original parts except for a few wires and the monitor and make money off this thing! im going to replace the control panel with a cool rotating one i found online ( heres the link  http://1uparcade.rmfx.com/arcade-const-panels.html   ) his control choice was kinda weird so im designing my own. the panel has 3 sides and so far i only have 2 designed ( 1 for racing and 1 normal arcade) and i need suggestions for the 3rd side. im going to use chrome rimmed rgb led buttons from ultimarc with a ipac and a pacled64! its going to look awesome! also planning to add this usb lcd screen to the machine for various reasons ( heres the link to this to  http://www.ebay.com/itm/180833562988?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649  ) and hope that it could work with a front end and display the title of the game or the weather or some function from a front end. even if it will work, would the touchscreen part work with it too? and help is appreciated.   

[Dawgz Rule]

My suggestion is to keep it simple.  I think it will be difficult to squeeze in a steering wheel (don't forget pedals) and still maintain all of the necessary clearances.  Also, be sure you have a good purpose for the LCD beyond the cool factor.  Do people really need to see the weather?  Find the games that you want to play and focus the construction of the cabinet around those games.

[paigeoliver]

It is notoriously difficult to integrate racing controls onto a normal machine, even with a rotating panel. This is largely due to the fact that there are a whole bunch of different kinds of pedals, wheels and shifters and one kind can't always sub well for another kind.

Steering wheels.
360 degree optical steering wheels are common. Many titles that use them expect 2 or more of them.
270 degree analog steering wheels are also common.
Bounded optical steering wheels are less common (Roadblasters is one).

Pedals
Different games use either analog or digital pedals and will want anything from 1 to 3 of them.

Shifters
Different titles will expect anything from 2 speed to 4 speed. (I think some of the really new stuff has even more gears). Mame is also notoriously bad at handling arcade shifters because despite everything they say about emulation accuracy being most important they always hack the game drivers to work right with keyboards instead of real shifters.

Buttons
Many titles are unplayable without one or more buttons on the steering wheel or shifter.

Also, a standard Neo Geo doesn't have enough clearance between the panel and the monitor to put a rotating setup on it and doesn't have enough room in the cabinet to raise the monitor to create the clearance. The 1UP machine was scratch built in order to have the proper clearances for the rotating panel.

I have done a lot of multigame builds and have usually found that it is a heck of a lot cheaper and easier to do multiple machines with different controls than it is to try to do some of the more esoteric stuff you see people doing in order to support more games.

[crtrrss]

thanks for the advice. I realize that steering controls will be hard to integrate into the machine, but its doable. Since im not going to spend about $400 for each racing control, im going to use 2 $20 ps2 racing controls and have the pedals hidden behind the coin door when im not using them. Plus, the ps2 steering wheel has buttons on the wheel, so i can use those as the shift stick control.

[crtrrss]

would all of these things like the rotating control panel work on a Golden axe cabinet?

[paigeoliver]

Golden Axe was most commonly  a kit game, so I have no idea what sort of cabinet yours is in.

It will be difficult to retrofit a rotating panel onto most machines for the same reasons I mention about the Neo Geo, not enough clearance before the monitor starts and not enough room to move the monitor up.

[crtrrss]

ok thanks.

[crtrrss]

i went ahead and bought the neo-geo machine. Everything works. Anybody interested in buying the control panel, marquee, boards, and or other parts? ill post pictures in a sec. If youre interested, send me a message.

[crtrrss]

the marquee

[crtrrss]

the control panel

[crtrrss]

the main board.. theres other stuff that i will upon request that im too lazy to list and post pics of

[crtrrss]

wow....... for some reason, the website wont allow me to post thee picture of the boards, but you can just look it up on google

[paigeoliver]

It looks like your Neo Geo is a conversion kit in a Smash TV cabinet.

[crtrrss]

it was originally a super high impact cabinet

[paigeoliver]

Ah, it was hard to tell from the pictures.

[crtrrss]

so could i still put a rotating control panel on this machine?

[menace]

Having done a rotating panel in the past, I can speak from experience--its a pain in the rear and only you will be able to do it reliably.  Your guests will end up using whatever panel you show them because they willbe too intimidated to turn it.

Might I suggest swappable panels.?  While still not guest friendly it is way easier to build, gives you a multitude of options and still has a very good cool factor to it.  I converted my rotating panels to swappable on my last machine and was very happy with the results.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=12683.0

[TGov]

If the monitor is working then you got a really good deal.  The rotating panel is really ambitious and I am not sure how you are going to incorporate it.  Best of luck though.

[paigeoliver]

I can't think of any sane way to refit that machine with a rotating control panel.

[Endprodukt]

One arcade machine can't do everything... get an upright racing cabinet if you really need it. Don't do everything on one machine - it's a mess.

[crtrrss]

ok im going to take your advice. im moving in about a year and i only have enough room right now for 1 machine. when i move, ill build a sit-down machine