Advice for building standalone arcade controller/s

[Barkuti]

Hi everyone,

I'm getting hot over the idea of building a standalone controller for some "true" arcade gaming; my intention is to have a moderate sized box with a joystick and eight buttons or so (more is always welcome) to play some late 80's/early-mid 90's fighting and shootem' up games.

I'd probably make more than one (first just one to try  ), but they must be standalone. I've thought in going the USB gamepad hacking route, as I play on a non dedicated windows machine.

[m3talslug]

I'd go USB over any type of encoder or hacked keyboard.

All my projects involve using an analog Playstation 1/2 controller and using adapters to make the joystick compatible with the PC and all the other consoles in the market.

If you want more detail about it you can always visit my site at http://tobywong.50megs.com.

I play a variety of games and I found the layout I used for the "magneto" joystick allowed me to play the most games using the smallest amount of space.

[Yander]

http://www.gearxs.com/gearxs/product_info.php?cPath=97&products_id=1547

You might need to pick up 3 of them but they are USB and the price is right. Plus free shipping. Never tried them myself though.

[Zombie]

i used a Gravis Xterminator PRO (USB).



i think it had about 16 buttoms but only using a few of them

[Barkuti]

To Yander: forgot to put the place where I do live in the profile, hehe, Spain here   (guess they wouldn't ship me for free lol)

Nice joysticks m3talslug, really like the artwork of the "magneto" one.

[alphasqorner]

I'd go USB over any type of encoder or hacked keyboard.

All my projects involve using an analog Playstation 1/2 controller and using adapters to make the joystick compatible with the PC and all the other consoles in the market.

My 2 cents....

Using a playstation controller hack is not a bad idea.  Then all you would need to do to use the controller on a computer is to get a psx to usb adapter.  But the one gripe (only one, but it was a big one) my friends and I had with this adapter (we each got one of these at our local fry's electronics http://www.neoseeker.com/Hardware/Products/Soyo_KikyJoy/) was that there was a split second lag between pressing the button and it registering in the pc.  For most games, in mame, this really isn't a problem, but with games that required joystick movement and button combinations (ie throwing fireballs ala SF2), it was a bit difficult to throw fireballs consistently because of this "lag".  Maybe it may be a bad brand of adapter but this adapter was sold (in Fry's stores) along with DDR  for PC so people can use their DDR pads on a PC.....(that game does require perfect synchronization with button presses to the music....)

On another note,  using a keyboard encoder (I use Ultimarc's IPAC2), this "lag" is non-existent and I can "throw fireballs" easily and consistently.  I don't play much with  non-PC game systems (ie playstation, gamecube,etc) anymore so I guess that's why I don't need the playstation connection.

But, I guess, whatever floats your boat...

To Barkuti:  A keyboard encoder is definitely better then a keyboard hack simply because ghosting is non-existent, no soldering, and the keyboard encoder is way,way smaller to fit in a box.  
Now, Keyboard encoder vs usb gamepad hack???
One thing is, the keyboard encoder only needs one usb connection  for up to 2-4 players (depending if you get the ipac2 or ipac4 from ultimarc), where you would need 1 usb connection per player [with a game pad hack](up to 4 usb connections!!).  
Another thing , an IPAC2 keyboard encoder will go for $40.00+12shipping.  Now, if you're able to get 2 "satisfactory"(meaning, it may be a cheap/no-name-brand/used/whatever but you don't care) usb gamepads, for $10.00 each, then fine going that route is better.  But usually, a decent game pad will go for $15-$20(at least a year ago).  Consider that math, then decide.  Plus, again, no soldering with the ipac, just screwing in wires.  

Well, I guess that may haven been 4 cents or more...

Have fun with your new project!