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Author Topic: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls  (Read 16088 times)

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Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« on: October 24, 2017, 09:30:00 pm »
Just saw this- new reproductions in final testing.  Says they are doing a run of 500.   

Hopefully the copied link gets there properly...


New Star Wars Yoke with Aluminum gears (Alan-1)

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums%2Earcade-museum%2Ecom%2Fshowthread%2Ephp%3Ft%3D415071&share_tid=415071&share_fid=19164&share_type=thttps://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums%2Earcade-museum%2Ecom%2Fshowthread%2Ephp%3Ft%3D415071&share_tid=415071&share_fid=19164&share_type=t


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jdbailey1206

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2017, 06:53:42 am »
The fact that no one has mentioned a price is not surprising.

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2017, 08:54:51 am »
it will be ridiculously high for a toy since it involves engineering.

I sold a restored yoke with the control panel plate, RamControls USB interface, and the plastic shroud on ebay a year or two ago.  It sold for $550 if I recall correctly.

Then you'll need an Ultimarc A-pac to build the interface.

And at the end of the day the MAME emulation of Star Wars lacks the magic of a real machine due to the vector to raster process introducing timing issues into the gameplay.    But at least it is an option, that otherwise wouldn't exist beyond a $2500 game that is difficult to keep working.

wp34

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2017, 09:35:10 am »
I would love to build a cabaret like Le Chuck's at some point and initially was excited to read through that posting. 

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,152903.0.html

I agree with both of your comments on pricing though.  It looks so well engineered it will likely be beyond my budget.  It is however exciting to see someone working on a major product like this.



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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2017, 10:30:00 am »
hadn't seen that project yet. extremely well executed.  That should have been a real release back in the arcade era.

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2017, 11:46:18 am »
I would love to build a cabaret like Le Chuck's at some point and initially was excited to read through that posting. 

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,152903.0.html

I agree with both of your comments on pricing though.  It looks so well engineered it will likely be beyond my budget.  It is however exciting to see someone working on a major product like this.

I was thinking the same thing. Hopefully I can build a Star Wars cabaret someday like LeChuck's. I got on the list for one. Hope they aren't too expensive.


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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2017, 12:21:06 pm »
Lol.  This won't end well.


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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2017, 12:29:43 pm »
in the other thread he specifically says he isn't taking pre-orders due to what happened with ram controls.

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2017, 02:14:11 pm »
Oh yes, of course.  THIS time they'll warn you before they blow their load.  They promise.

 :lol

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2017, 03:28:01 pm »
it will be ridiculously high for a toy since it involves engineering.

I sold a restored yoke with the control panel plate, RamControls USB interface, and the plastic shroud on ebay a year or two ago.  It sold for $550 if I recall correctly.

Then you'll need an Ultimarc A-pac to build the interface.

And at the end of the day the MAME emulation of Star Wars lacks the magic of a real machine due to the vector to raster process introducing timing issues into the gameplay.    But at least it is an option, that otherwise wouldn't exist beyond a $2500 game that is difficult to keep working.
And now with Fred Konopaska's Raster-to-Vector CRT conversion kit, there is another option that is cheaper than an original machine.   
Granted his kit is a bit expensive, (and takes a bunch of work to install) last I heard it was $350? It's really too bad the KLOV cunts ran him off.  I've been following his work on his facebook group page and I gotta say it looks too good to be true, but the results look amazing.  I believe it can be installed on any consumer CRT, at any size.  Imagine a 39" Vector monitor!  :o
Say this yoke will be $350-500, buy a cheap CRT and Fred's conversion kit for around $400, build a cabinet, grab a old PC, install VectorMAME; You're definitely looking under $2500 for a multi-vector cabinet with a proper yoke and monitor to relive the glory.

Times are interesting on the vector front these days.

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #10 on: October 26, 2017, 03:08:06 am »
Just saw this- new reproductions in final testing.  Says they are doing a run of 500.   

Hopefully the copied link gets there properly...


New Star Wars Yoke with Aluminum gears (Alan-1)

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums%2Earcade-museum%2Ecom%2Fshowthread%2Ephp%3Ft%3D415071&share_tid=415071&share_fid=19164&share_type=thttps://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforums%2Earcade-museum%2Ecom%2Fshowthread%2Ephp%3Ft%3D415071&share_tid=415071&share_fid=19164&share_type=t


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Thanks for linking to my KLOV post / star wars yoke Alan-1 announcement.  I know I'm new over here, but years ago I found a lot of inspiration lurking here.  I've purchased a few i-pac's in my day! 

Most of my time is now spent working on teeth, running Flynn's Retrocade in Roy, Utah, and running a little company that does dental billing for folks.  I even created a pinball2000 virtual pinball back in 2014.  Although I've spent the last few years collecting restored arcade cabinets, rather than building MAME cabinets, the work done by this community is important to me.

With that being said, part of what we are creating is a plug and play yoke to USB adapter.  I've attached pictures of it.  It has LEDs that help trouble shoot if buttons are working, etc.  We included a dip-switch to switch between the device being recognized as a mouse or a gamepad.  But I think we're going to dump that feature and keep it only as a gamepad.  In our MAME testing, it seems to work better that way. 

We're setting the price at $500 for the yokes and $85 for the adapter.  We will have a run of 500 3 months after we're finished testing it in our arcade.  We've found a flaw in the atari designed plastic thumb buttons, so we want to have them retooled as black stainless steel instead.  The aluminum gears are working great!  So much better than the plastic / nylon originals--right?

If you are in Utah, come visit Flynn's Retrocade (www.flynnsretrocade.com) to test the yoke yourself on our star wars cockpit.  I'd love to know what you think and if you have any ideas on how to improve it!

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #11 on: October 26, 2017, 02:42:01 pm »
$500 + $85! That definitely doesn't seem like a community price.

pbj is going to have to give a lot of blood and pee samples to afford this one.

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #12 on: October 26, 2017, 02:46:38 pm »
Considering a complete ROTJ just sold on here for $250

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #13 on: October 26, 2017, 03:33:47 pm »
Considering a complete ROTJ just sold on here for $250

I've seen a lot of used parted-out of machines Atari star wars yokes go for 650 this year on eBay.  Most are going for around 500.  Who knows what kind of condition they are in.  We've been wanting to do this for a long time, but the economics didn't work until now.

We wish I could sell it for less.  The yokes cost a lot to make. Our first factory we were going to use in California wanted $1500 a yoke to manufacture it.   We're getting them for a lot less now, but they are still very expensive to build with or without aluminum gears with a minimum order of 500 paid for in advance by us.  We are NOT collecting pre-order cash to fund it.  We'll never do that.  But it is important that we break even over time so we can offer more high quality products like this in the future. 



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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #14 on: October 26, 2017, 05:11:09 pm »
$500 + $85! That definitely doesn't seem like a community price.

pbj is going to have to give a lot of blood and pee samples to afford this one.

No worries.   PBJ is curing feline aids so he should be able to afford one for everyone here with the revenue he pulls in.

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #15 on: October 26, 2017, 07:07:32 pm »
I was selling hydra yokes 12 years ago for $250-$300 and they would sell almost immediately, and those aren't even proper star wars.

Considering a complete ROTJ just sold on here for $250

I've seen a lot of used parted-out of machines Atari star wars yokes go for 650 this year on eBay.  Most are going for around 500.  Who knows what kind of condition they are in.  We've been wanting to do this for a long time, but the economics didn't work until now.

We wish I could sell it for less.  The yokes cost a lot to make. Our first factory we were going to use in California wanted $1500 a yoke to manufacture it.   We're getting them for a lot less now, but they are still very expensive to build with or without aluminum gears with a minimum order of 500 paid for in advance by us.  We are NOT collecting pre-order cash to fund it.  We'll never do that.  But it is important that we break even over time so we can offer more high quality products like this in the future.
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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #16 on: July 04, 2018, 01:57:06 pm »
Hi guys.

Happy to report that we've made a lot of progress on our star wars flight yoke repro and USB interface.  We're calling it the Alan-1 Flight Yoke and USB adapter.  The yoke is an improved version of the original Atari design with aluminum gears (small and large) and aluminum thumb buttons (to keep them from breaking so easily).  Our team in the factory has said that they should be ready for final assembly in a few weeks.  I'm not sure when we will take delivery, but I thought posting this update would be newsworthy.

Our USB yoke adapter testing has helped us improve the code and make the response of the curser in Star Wars much more like the arcade--a real improvement over the RC version.  We have LED's the light up on the chip with each button press (there are 4 that register differently) as well as the XY movements to help with troubling shooting.  We'll be compiling a manual with detailed MAME settings instructions to get the best results.  Some images the recommended MAME settings for the adapter & other yoke images are found here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-r8_ZdzZ_wpbrvQTK8TPzmhE6UDffRu5?usp=sharing

Read more about updates and progress by following the link below

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=415071

Thanks for your patience and interest.  Long live Atari!

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #17 on: July 05, 2018, 10:19:11 pm »
As long as I was able to flip hobby money into it and not pay cash I would have no problem with that price.

$500 + $85! That definitely doesn't seem like a community price.

pbj is going to have to give a lot of blood and pee samples to afford this one.
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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #18 on: July 17, 2018, 11:01:33 pm »
is there a list to sign up for one of these?

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #19 on: July 18, 2018, 09:17:57 am »
is there a list to sign up for one of these?

Go here and read on.  This is where most people are claiming both the controller and board.

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #20 on: November 28, 2018, 08:33:37 am »
The yokes have arrive and are for sale!

please visit www.alan-1.com if you would like to purchase.
The USB adapters aren't finished yet, but should be ready to go over the next eight weeks.

Thank you for your patience.  We took about 10 months to test these in arcade environments.  We discovered three issues during that time and incorporated fixes for these issues into the final design.  The result--these star wars yokes are rock solid and better than the original design with aluminum gears and aluminum thumb buttons.  It feels as smooth as butter.

Long live Atari!


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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #21 on: November 28, 2018, 08:51:39 am »
It looks great - but that is out of my price range.  Good luck though!

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #22 on: November 28, 2018, 08:57:45 am »
Imagine that. Somebody managed to develop and bring a product to market without begging for pre-sales, deposits, or Kickstarter "investments".

Kudos to you.

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #23 on: November 28, 2018, 10:25:10 pm »
Thanks Mike!

We'll never ask for prepayments.... EVER.

Hopefully our USB adapter chips will be ready soon.
We're working on new WG6100 deflection boards with modern designs (sss www.alan-1.com dev blog).  We've also got a prototype atari paddle with a usb connection to get authentic paddle games play on a raspberry pi / retrocade setup. 

What other products would you like to see developed?

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #24 on: November 28, 2018, 10:54:35 pm »
Imagine that. Somebody managed to develop and bring a product to market without begging for pre-sales, deposits, or Kickstarter "investments".

Kudos to you.
Are these licensed products?

I seem to remember Atari holds the rights to them.  Unless you are calling them a different name.  ::)
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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #25 on: November 28, 2018, 11:14:12 pm »
Atari's patents would have long lapsed on these.
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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #26 on: November 29, 2018, 07:26:52 am »
Atari's patents would have long lapsed on these.

Lets call and find out.  ;D
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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #27 on: November 29, 2018, 10:41:23 am »
Atari's patents would have long lapsed on these.

Lets call and find out.  ;D

We can call the AtariBox team.
They aren't doing anything right now.

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #28 on: November 29, 2018, 02:21:05 pm »
Atari today,  is nothing but a Name.  Its not even close to being the same Company as it once was.
Its unlikely that any of the same employees / leaders,  are part of any of the modern Atari brand name(s).

 Not sure about Patents.. but some of them tend to be registered by the actual inventors / designers.  Not by "Atari".

 But of course... it makes sense that Jealous Snowflake ARK,  would want to rain on everyone's Parade.
To people with NPD... they enjoy making other people suffer... and they have no problem blowing up Businesses,
and destroying peoples lives,  to that end.


 Personally... I think the product looks good... and Id love to be able to justify it... but no longer can.

 One might consider the possibility of making  DIY  "Kits",  that users can assemble and wire themselves... for a reduced price.

 Also, the number of units is pretty low... which drove up the costs,  and makes it harder for those whom wish to get hold of
them (at a later time when money Might be freed up) ... even harder.

 Asking for more product ideas sound cool... but if the SW yoke is in total,  about $600  (I think Atari got them in bulk for less than 200$)..
then what will the  simple-pot  Paddles cost?  >_<

 You seem proud that you didnt have to ask for Kickstarter money... and thats fine,  if you feel that way... but Had you
actually kickstarted it... you could have probably got the costs Far Lower... and satisfied far more people in the process.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2018, 02:23:37 pm by pixel »

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #29 on: November 29, 2018, 03:51:58 pm »
Imagine that. Somebody managed to develop and bring a product to market without begging for pre-sales, deposits, or Kickstarter "investments".

Kudos to you.

When you have your own starter capital.......



Had you actually kickstarted it... you could have probably got the costs Far Lower... and satisfied far more people in the process.


I hadn't thought of this, though the issue with someone else's money in any format is you have to answer to them, etc. Relax a bit. The project turned out. A next run can be done a different way if they desire.

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #30 on: November 30, 2018, 07:54:43 am »
Atari today,  is nothing but a Name.  Its not even close to being the same Company as it once was.
Its unlikely that any of the same employees / leaders,  are part of any of the modern Atari brand name(s).

 Not sure about Patents.. but some of them tend to be registered by the actual inventors / designers.  Not by "Atari".

 But of course... it makes sense that Jealous Snowflake ARK,  would want to rain on everyone's Parade.
To people with NPD... they enjoy making other people suffer... and they have no problem blowing up Businesses,
and destroying peoples lives,  to that end.


 Personally... I think the product looks good... and Id love to be able to justify it... but no longer can.

 One might consider the possibility of making  DIY  "Kits",  that users can assemble and wire themselves... for a reduced price.

 Also, the number of units is pretty low... which drove up the costs,  and makes it harder for those whom wish to get hold of
them (at a later time when money Might be freed up) ... even harder.

 Asking for more product ideas sound cool... but if the SW yoke is in total,  about $600  (I think Atari got them in bulk for less than 200$)..
then what will the  simple-pot  Paddles cost?  >_<

 You seem proud that you didnt have to ask for Kickstarter money... and thats fine,  if you feel that way... but Had you
actually kickstarted it... you could have probably got the costs Far Lower... and satisfied far more people in the process.

If memory serves - Atari used some designs of the military controls that was installed in tanks.  I would be in favor of making Star wars yoke control kits, and $600 isn't very expensive if you had to restore an aging classic, but this isn't a new design and making replicas can get you into hot water.  I would prefer Atari making $600 to be honest.
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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #31 on: November 30, 2018, 08:08:57 am »
That’s all well and good, but a) “Atari” as it was doesn’t exist anymore and b) even if it did, this probably isn’t a project they would tackle. They’d probably be making gambling machines like Midway.
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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #32 on: November 30, 2018, 08:54:43 am »
Let me answer a few questions.  I really hope to help keep arcades and the emulation community thriving.  This is a hobby for me and not a real business.  I've loved Atari and classic gaming long before it was ever considered "classic".  I'm not proud about not collecting prepayments, but I didn't want to do what the folks at Ram controls did and take prepayments and not be able to deliver.   

I wish we could have sold these for a lower price.  Someone on this thread said that Atari manufactured these in 1983 for $200.  I'm not sure where that stat came from but assuming that its true, because of inflation, $200 in 1983 = $505 in today's' dollars--according to these websites:

https://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=200&year=1983
https://www.saving.org/inflation/inflation.php?amount=200&year=1983
http://www.in2013dollars.com/1983-dollars-in-2018?amount=200

That actually makes me feel pretty good about the value we are delivering.  These controllers are so complex--it just costs a lot to build them in 1983 and in 2018.

I like your idea of selling kits that you could put together yourself.  I'll investigate that so we could pass those savings onto hobbyist.

Over on KLOV, people are reproducing old game parts all the time to help keep these games running.  Patents expire after 20 years. These yokes are no longer covered under patents, so they are perfectly legal to sell.

https://www.export.gov/article?id=How-Long-Does-Patent-Trademark-or-Copyright-Protection-Last

Lastly, we are calling them Alan-1 Flight Yokes--to avoid any licensing concerns.

The Atari Paddles are so much simpler to reproduce.  I don't have any quotes yet, but I'm certain our USB version would be inexpensive.  I'm building it really for me, so I can play Kaboom! and warlords in style.


leapinlew

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #33 on: November 30, 2018, 04:17:54 pm »
I would like to purchase one of these, but I'm waiting for the USB controller so I can purchase it as a bundle. Any ideas when both will be available?

I can make myself available to do some beta testing. :)

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #34 on: November 30, 2018, 08:03:07 pm »
I would like to purchase one of these, but I'm waiting for the USB controller so I can purchase it as a bundle. Any ideas when both will be available?

I can make myself available to do some beta testing. :)

Thanks for your friendly reply leapinlew.  We are currently testing these and should have many produced over the next 6 weeks.  The firmware is as good as we can get it for now. If a newer version is released, users will be able to flash the chip and update the firmware.

For sure the USB flight yoke adapter will be released by march 1, 2019.  I expect it to be sooner, but I don't want to over promise.

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #35 on: November 30, 2018, 09:06:37 pm »
That’s all well and good, but a) “Atari” as it was doesn’t exist anymore and b) even if it did, this probably isn’t a project they would tackle. They’d probably be making gambling machines like Midway.

Or crowd funded consoles with an emulator and an amd APU?

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #36 on: December 02, 2018, 03:55:44 pm »
The only issue with the USB controller is no extra inputs. Kind of surprised me.

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #37 on: December 02, 2018, 05:29:45 pm »
The only issue with the USB controller is no extra inputs. Kind of surprised me.
Why? It’s not for dirty 6000 Gamez MAMErs.
***Build what you dig, bro. Build what you dig.***

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #38 on: December 05, 2018, 02:40:22 pm »
The only issue with the USB controller is no extra inputs. Kind of surprised me.
Why? It’s not for dirty 6000 Gamez MAMErs.

He mentioned MAME here or at klov. A dedicated yoke cabinet would need at least one input to exit games.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2018, 02:47:20 pm by Mr. Peabody »

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Re: Repro Star Wars yoke- not ram controls
« Reply #39 on: December 05, 2018, 08:04:00 pm »
Excellent idea!
Not sure why we didn't think of that!

We should include a lot of iPAC features into version 2.0 to eliminate the need for a yoke adapter and an IPAC.
How many buttons should we consider including?  Just 1 for exit?  or perhaps exit, player 1, player 2, coin drop left, coin drop right?

Love some brainstorming here.