Who needs a frontend?

[Le Chuck]

This idea wouldn't work for builds with huge game lists but if you're doing a limited list, maybe 10 or so, I think it might be neat to see a bank of buttons that switch between the games.  Could be a good use of a keyboard hack if you don't have the extra inputs on an encoder. 

Maybe a nice metal plate with the name or easily identifiable icon engraved.  Maybe just a single row on the bezel at the base.  The 10th button (or whatever) could even go to a menu if you don't want to lock yourself into just those 9 (or whatever) specific games. 

Would be a great use for a long bank of those old radio buttons I like so much, the ones that when you press one the other one pops up. 

Might be a neat feature on a cocktail build, put one set of buttons on P1 side and a different set of games on P2 just to mix it up.  Thoughts?

[yotsuya]

You could probably do it with a KADE and AHK. Might look cool - reminds me of a 70s vintage-type game

[Generic Eric]

Might be a neat feature on a cocktail cockpit build, Thoughts?

[wp34]

Would be a great use for a long bank of those old radio buttons I like so much, the ones that when you press one the other one pops up. 

I like it.  Mix your idea with a "Steampunky" design and you could have a cool build.  My kids only seem to like a few games anyway--plus whatever I'm currently playing.  10 buttons could work.

[keilmillerjr]

You could use one button like neo geo mvs. Press it to switch game. No need for millions of buttons.

[jdbailey1206]

Your front end would come in hand for those who want to put 50+  buttons on their 2 player control panel.

[screamingtiger]

Why not do a mind interface and control it with your thoughts?   

[pbj]

Sounds confusing as hell to me.  How are you going to make it quit PacMan and start Galaga when you're pounding the Galaga button 30 seconds after you get tired of Pacman?

[Le Chuck]

Sounds confusing as hell to me.  How are you going to make it quit PacMan and start Galaga when you're pounding the Galaga button 30 seconds after you get tired of Pacman?

A single AHK script would manage it all.  It would do the following more or less:

Listen for a, s, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, z

If a, s, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, z kill current process

If a run script 1
If s run script 2
If d run script 3
.
.
.

You could use one button like neo geo mvs. Press it to switch game. No need for millions of buttons.

This would be trickier and could be frustrating, especially if you accidently pass it and have to go around the horn through a dozen or dozens of titles.  Might as well have an FE

You could probably do it with a KADE and AHK. Might look cool - reminds me of a 70s vintage-type game

And word. 

[yotsuya]

And word.

I'd do a Pong machine that did Pong, Gotcha, and Rebound. Thanks for the idear, Sir Charles.

[Generic Eric]

Is this stemmed from that boombox thread awhile back by any chance?

Also, where do you find buttons like these?  Are you going to craft a mock-up or do you have a 5 position mechanical switch like this?

[jdbailey1206]

In all seriousness though if done correctly this would make a very interesting looking cab.  I keep thinking about markc74's Blip build mixed with the picture below.



It would be cool to make it so the labels next to the buttons interchangeable in case you ever wanted to switch up games.

Or even have a small switch like the Atari had to select your game...

[PL1]

Maybe a nice metal plate with the name or easily identifiable icon engraved.  Maybe just a single row on the bezel at the base.  The 10th button (or whatever) could even go to a menu if you don't want to lock yourself into just those 9 (or whatever) specific games. 

Paradise has color inserts for LED buttons here.  ** For some reason the page isn't loading right now. **

You can see a few of the color inserts in this pic.


You could also print your own inserts on Avery 18665 or 8665 clear stickers.


Scott

[Le Chuck]

Those are okay but I wouldn't want those myself. I'm leaning much more towards the audio box style posted above.

[SavannahLion]

I kind of miss those old analog radio buttons where you had to push hard to change the dial to a factory set position. Last car I saw it in was the family Mustang. Been meaning to hunt one down for a cab idea. The pot can be read by an AVR or suitable to yield keyboard inputs.

Just saying. I love the tactile feedback.

[PL1]

If you prefer the bank-of-buttons approach, there are a variety of choices available here.

http://www.surplussales.com/Switches/SWPushB-2.html


Scott

[Le Chuck]

If you prefer the bank-of-buttons approach, there are a variety of choices available here.

http://www.surplussales.com/Switches/SWPushB-2.html


Scott

That's where I got my cheap sets to play around with when I was feeling out how I wanted to do the NRFT (RIP).  I bought several of the $3 four button sets two years ago.  Vendor was reliable at least, I think some of the stocks on that stuff are very limited, others not so much.  I might go with $25 15 button bank as they are all linked.  Would be pretty easy to hack it down to fewer but I think 15 is a nice number of games.  The mil spec 9 back is sweet but it it's $75 and also isn't linked which creates issues with multiple inputs pressed at once. 

Is this stemmed from that boombox thread awhile back by any chance?

Not really, I first had the idea to use a ganged bank of switches as a unique way to do a shifter for driving games.  Didn't go anywhere but the idea to use them was now floating into the back of my head.  That bumped into this other idea I had to do very small silver raised relief space man spiff and aliens whenever whoever was thinking of doing a Spiff bartop, then both of those collided with a way to really idiot proof my builds as the longer I'm doing this the more I'm becoming convinced that even simple menus are beyond the grokking of most folks out there.

[Le Chuck]

Side topic to roll while we're doing this:

What would be your list of games?  Remember to taylor it to a dedicated CP of some sort, this isn't the type of thing you'd frankenpanel imo (or at least obviously frankenpanel ).
 

[brihyn]

It would have to be some of the most classic games, and something like this makes me think of space-based games
Space Invaders, Defender, Galaga, Gyruss

[Le Chuck]

I think what I would really like to see would be 10 gang linked set of toggle switches.  Don't think I've ever seen linked toggle switches tho (when one goes up another goes down) but that would be awesome.  You could do it with toggles without having them linked, you just have to get the script to listen for the most recent input and ignore all others, that or just do it with momentary toggles.  That would be easy.  A row of little silver toggles with custom raised relief chromed character icons above each one.  Could be cool.   

I might do that on Starfighter and just lose the FE entirely.  Seems like a row of black toggle switches would be right at home on the console.

[SavannahLion]

Just remembered these. Have you looked at something like the Omron A8G? Digikey has them from around $9/per for the SPST or $12/per for the DPDT. They're pretty cool as I'm sure a decent control circuit can be constructed around them or maybe an MCU with a few NPN's in the mix can do the trick. It's worth a look anyways.

I'm sure other manufacturers make something similar for cheaper and places like Ali-Baba and eBay will probably have them as well. I came across the Omrons on one of my quests, kept a mental note, and haven't really dug any deeper into it. Good thing I thought to download one of the datasheets because I wouldn't have remembered how I found them.

[jdbailey1206]

I looked a little today but couldnt find any momentary toggle switches like I assume you want.  Found plenty of non momentary toogle switches that would fit the bill.  Ill looking again when I have access to my laptop in about an hour.

[Le Chuck]

I looked a little today but couldnt find any momentary toggle switches like I assume you want.  Found plenty of non momentary toogle switches that would fit the bill.  Ill looking again when I have access to my laptop in about an hour.

Momentary toggles are dime a dozen. Ganged linked toggles not so much.

[ChanceKJ]

'Nuf said.

[jdbailey1206]

I looked a little today but couldnt find any momentary toggle switches like I assume you want.  Found plenty of non momentary toogle switches that would fit the bill.  Ill looking again when I have access to my laptop in about an hour.

Momentary toggles are dime a dozen. Ganged linked toggles not so much.

Do they have to be gang linked?  Once the gangs move in the neighorhood turns to ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

[Louis Tully]

.

[IAmDotorg]

At the risk of being pedantic, push buttons and scripts ARE still a front-end 

Cool idea, though.

[Le Chuck]

LT - like I've never thread jacked anything myself

It's all cool, that's why the thread is here. I think your first step is to get comfortable launching games from simple batch files. I'll eventually be doing the switch feature but I've got to get Space Base out into the wild first. That said if you're willing to wait I can hand hold through it with ya.

Everything mala does to start a game you can do in like two lines in notepad so it's doable to get the setup you're after for sure.

At the risk of being pedantic, push buttons and scripts ARE still a front-end 

Cool idea, though.

When I think FE I see it tied to GUI in my mind. This is like the anti-GUI but I get what you're sayin

@jd, yes. The gangs are a necessary evil for this distribution process.

[yotsuya]

I'm still thinking of a Pong/Rebound/Gotcha machine using a switch to change games.

[dkersten]

Interesting concept.. I think it would be awesome if you could find the right set of old switches and keep the theme retro to the era of the switches you find.  But I am not seeing the coolness factor with just regular arcade buttons.. The scripts should be the easiest part..

If you went with a bank of toggles, you could even go so far as to set up where different combinations opened different games, and depending on the math scheme you used, you could technically have hundreds of choices of games that way.. instead of just pressing 1 for game 1, you toggle 1 for game one and hit "go" to exit your current game and launch the new choice.. If you toggle 1, 2, and 5, you get game 25 (or whatever crazy scheme you come up with).  Heck, you could make it binary and half the fun would be trying to figure out the binary sequence for the game you are thinking of playing.. 4 toggles could do 16 different games.. OR, do a NASA theme, make them all safety toggles, and have a "LAUNCH" button that sets off a countdown with lighting and sound effects, then launches into the game you chose with your combination of toggles..

[pbj]

At the risk of being pedantic, push buttons and scripts ARE still a front-end 

[Louis Tully]

.

[brihyn]

So you've now jacked with my dreams!
The last few days I've been tossing around the idea of building a cab based on Pong plans sometime in the future (too many projects!). Been working through lots of details in my mind should I ever have time.
And night before last, I end up dreaming about this cabinet, but it has your pushbutton idea to pick the games.
So yeah, thanks for that!

[Le Chuck]

If you start having the dream where you're in sun god robes and there are thousands of naked women throwing little pickles at you... Well, let's just say that we would need to talk.

[yotsuya]

If you start having the dream where you're in sun god robes and there are thousands of naked women throwing little pickles at you... Well, let's just say that we would need to talk.

Le Chuck has some pretty elaborate kinks.... 

[Le Chuck]

If you start having the dream where you're in sun god robes and there are thousands of naked women throwing little pickles at you... Well, let's just say that we would need to talk.

Le Chuck has some pretty elaborate kinks.... 

[ChanceKJ]

If you start having the dream where you're in sun god robes and there are thousands of naked women throwing little pickles at you... Well, let's just say that we would need to talk.

...Get out of my head!

[xefned]

I'm curious how the ganged switches would work. Wouldn't the keyboard encoder register that as say, the "s" key being held down continuously? Or is that even a problem?

[Le Chuck]

I'm curious how the ganged switches would work. Wouldn't the keyboard encoder register that as say, the "s" key being held down continuously? Or is that even a problem?

After you tell windows to ignore stuck keys it won't make a difference. The trigger is when the switch closes, not when it opens. The script just needs to listen for the first instance and the only listen for a different input.

[nitrogen_widget]

Toggles would look good on a cab with flight stick games like after burner and space harrier.

A multi position rotary switch with a tiny steering wheel as the knob for selecting driving games would be cool.