"Another distraction from my VPin" Android & XBox LEGAL Bartop

[Maximus]

Time for a new mini/side project so I can procrastinate on my VPin some more.

CONCEPT: Create a 'legal' bar top that plays classic, casual & console games from legit sources using classic arcade controls.

Features:

- Single Player Bartop with 16:9 Panel.
- Classic arcade joysticks, buttons and trackball
- Dual operating systems, XBox and Android
- Front or side loading DVD Tray for XBox disks
- Wifi enabled Android OS with Play store to update & install new games


Why do I want to build this?

I get bored easily.    But apart from that, I think building bartops for people is a great hobby and potentially a way to make a little money on the side if you are that way inclined. The two issues that I see creating a fly in the ointment are the legalities of distributing copyrighted material for profit and also the fact that the new gaming market is competing for gamers' attention with modern titles.

I'd like to build a machine that enables kids from 1-100 years old to play classic-thru-new titles but using classic controls in an arcade cabinet scenario. The casual gaming explosion on iOS and Android has created many great new titles that take all of their cues from the classic games of the 70's and 80's, so why not play them in a classic 'enclosure' and bring some of that retro magic to new titles too.


Technical Challenges

In my head this seems like it should be easy enough to do, I want to...

- dual wire the controls so they send to both the Xbox and the Android OS at the same time
- use a 'mechanical' switcher to jump between the boxes instantly
- incorporate two analog joysticks with fire buttons for better xbox support
- use a trackball as a USB mouse on Android

I think I can achieve these things by hacking an USB game controller and using a USB interface for the trackball-mouse conversion.

[Superfrog]

I miss a beautiful mock-up picture   

I'm glad you can't sit still   

[Maximus]

So here's the first question for you gamepad hackers...

Would it be possible to hack a trackball onto an Xbox gamepad board to replace the right hand analog stick? I'm trying to minimize the physical input devices while retaining all the control options for all platforms...

Physical controller mapping ideas

- Analog Flightstick
  - Xbox: Left Analog Thumbstick, L1 & L2, A, B, X, Y, D-Pad
  - Android: Game controller left analog stick and L1,L2 buttons


- Trackball
  - XBox: Right Analog Thumbstick
  - Android: Mouse & Game controller Right Analog Stick (simultaneous)


- 8-way Joystick
 - XBox: Dpad, L1, L2
 - Android: Dpad, Button 1, Button 2


- 6 Regular buttons
  - Xbox: X,Y,A,B, R1 & R2 Buttons
  - Android: Gamepad buttons 1,2,3,4, R1, R2

- 3 Admin Buttons
  - Xbox - Back, Start, Xbox
  - Android - Back, Start, Home

[GIZMOGAMES]

Dont know why but i remember dgenetron using a mouse keyboard adapter for the xbox might be something to look at for incorperating yr design
the worst part of this is the hack of the analogue stick i guess hope someone has some insites for you regarding this but i truelly loved the flight stick for the xbox really cool design

[rablack97]

Yeah it's called a KADE now.

This what you want to do?

[PL1]

@GIZMOGAMES - Is this is the one you're thinking of?



@Maximus - I recommend trying 2 KADEs, one for the Android and one for the XBox.

Seems like you should be able to wire the controls in parallel to both encoders without causing the problems you might encounter using dissimilar encoders. (voltage differences, impedance mismatches, etc.)   


Scott

EDIT: Added divider and "@Maximus-" for clarity.  Video does not indicate my recommendation for this build which is still using 2 KADEs, Rodney.   

[rablack97]

DO not try that one it's a pain in the arse, and you have to find smartjoys to do it.

Although if you want to try it, i have some left over for when i was helping degenatrons perfect it.

Go Kade though so much easier to work with.

[Maximus]

The kade looks good for the usb mouse interface. Here's my logic layout



I want to be able to use the trackball as right thumbstick in Xbox mode for better aiming accuracy in FPS games. Also have button redundancy for player preference on the ABXY buttons. In Android mode the trackball has dual inputs as mouse and gamepad right stick.
The top switchable 8 way is dpad in both systems.

[Maximus]

I wonder if there is a 'decoder' that can take all of the USB outputs from a device and break it out to a bunch of terminals, that would be pretty badass.

[chopperthedog]

If doing switching of same controls to separate interfaces you will need to make sure to isolate/lift commons and all power from the unused encoder during the chosen game mode. I ran into that problem with my mame pc to jamma board switching with relays. Even though power was lifted from the jamma board while in mame mode it was still causing ghost button pushes and lock ups. Plus in jamma mode the pc was still being controlled. So I ended up lifting the +/-5v to the ipac in jamma mode.


good day.

[GIZMOGAMES]

Aha rablack yup thats what i remember too he actually managed to start a small buisiness model to make a more profesional looking piece of kit for consoles must try to locate it as im wanting a use for my xbox thats gathering dust with pure controls and it may provide a solution for my multiplatform system rather than the 2nd rate x-arcade sticks i have with every adapter for all the consoles

[Maximus]

Well, after looking into the available tech here and the likelihood of getting it working I dont think this is going to be worth the time and expense. I spoke with Kevin over at Kade for an hour or so this morning and learned some of the issues with the XBox360 device standards. Even if I changed to PS3 it turns out that Kade only supports one analog device at the moment so that wouldn't work either.

Physically hacking the XBox or PS3 pads has it's own analog issues too, if I dont get all the correct ohm specs on the external controllers then the likelihood of being able to piggy-back on the controller pots with accuracy is quite low.

Oh wells 

Scratch all that, Kevin and I put our brain balls together and came up with an easy solution, looks like I will be moving to a PS3 for the console part of the equation due to Microsoft making it difficult for people to build open source controllers. Also it means I am dumping the analog flight stick completely from the control panel which will clean things up a lot too.