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| Vater:
PART VI Before I get to wiring the CP, I neglected to mention the fix for getting the 27" plastic monitor surround to fit the new 29" monitor. I took a box cutter and did a pretty crappy hack job trimming off excess plastic, but it does its job: it hides the light coming from the interior of the cabinet while no longer blocking the corners of the screen. The serial number sticker didn't fit on the surround anymore, so I relocated it. I had ordered an I-PAC Ultimate I/O from Ultimarc for my control interface. First step was to test the connections and figure out how to use it. I started with the player 1 controls and also wired up the LEDs in the Tron stick. The annoying thing about this is that the cable that powers the I-PAC LED controls has a power connector for IDE hard drives. It wouldn't be a problem except that my PC's power supply has only SATA power connections, so I had to borrow a PSU from an older PC I had laying around. This was intended to be a temporary solution, so in the meantime I ordered a SATA-to-IDE adapter cable which I could connect to the PSU already installed in the cabinet. Nope! When I received and installed the adapter, the LEDs did nothing. So for now, I have a separate PC PSU sitting on the floor of the cabinet, which is no big deal, but kind of silly to think that I need a completely separate power unit just to light up one joystick. The entire month of May was pretty quiet...no real updates to speak of, but it did get some playing time. In June, however, I decided to disassemble the panel to prep it for paint. I spent some time sanding the entire top and front side, focusing especially on the roundover edges, with 150, 400, 1000, and 1500 grit sandpaper. Three coats of Rustoleum satin black later... Finishing Touches Now that the control panel was complete, I could wire it properly, permanently install the controller boards, and focus on cable management. I also came up with a solution for mounting the audio amplifier as well as the arcade monitor's video control board. And I installed a couple chains to keep the panel from opening too far and damaging the hinges (the original VF panel used a single chain mounted in the exact location as the left one is here; I added a second chain since this panel is so heavy). The Virtua Fighter Cabinet is essentially complete, but there are still a few things I'd like to improve on. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the cabinet hinges are my least favorite part of the control panel build simply because they give a little if any weight is put on the top of the panel. This was the primary reason I added the rails on the interior side panels, and they help, but don't completely eliminate the play, however slight it is. And the movement is very slight; the whole assembly is very structurally solid, but my perfectionism (OCD?) tends to focus on the little things that could be improved. One thing I didn't mention earlier that I had done years ago when I first built the PC that would run MAME: it's running Windows 7, and I wanted a way to boot discreetly, so I created this video to hide the Windows boot screens, with a nod to my favorite game. :) The monitor used to take a little longer to warm up, which meant the Dell BIOS screen wasn't seen at all...not sure what happened, but the last couple times it's been visible for a split second. For some reason, when Hyperspin loads, it takes several seconds for the FPS to get up to speed (it started up beautifully in this vid, which is rare), something I would like to fix if possible. It's a really old version (in fact, most of the software on this PC is old...about 10 years old, to be exact), so maybe it just needs an update. Here are some other improvements I hope to make eventually: 1. Add a CP overlay. While I was never fan of the game itself, the original Virtua Fighter cabinet is such a stunning design (the mirrored glass marquee is one of my favorites, period), and I really like the mirrored side art and metallic control panel. My plan initially was to draw up a larger version of the original CP design and have it reproduced on the same or similar material. Unfortunately, none of the vendors who specialize in arcade cabinet art have the means to reproduce the reflective metallic overlay the original has. It would likely cost a small fortune to get this done professionally, or I may just settle for a non-reflective overlay with standard colors. 2. Power the flight stick LEDs off the PC so I can remove the additional PSU from the cabinet. 3. Clean up the wiring a bit more inside the cabinet. 4. There are still many, many things to do on the software side. I have MAME working well, but it will take a lot of time to complete the control maps for every game. Plus, with the U360, I need some way to launch different mappings for games that need it (Q-Bert). I know LEDBlinky does this but I have no need for such a robust application when all I have is a single LED joystick and a few games that require different joystick maps. Still figuring all this out. I also have the MESS and Nestopia emulators and a plethora of Atari, Colecovision, SEGA, NES and other roms that I need to eventually configure, but that will come in time. For now I'm enjoying playing the classic arcade games of my youth, and I've actually had a few family gaming sessions with the wife and kids... And finally, the before and after, exactly 10⅓ years apart: Thanks for reading. I'll post to this thread if I have any new updates. |
| Malenko:
--- Quote from: Vater on July 23, 2021, 02:12:20 pm ---Actually it doesn't at all. It blocks Akira's face on the bezel, which is not a concern for me. :) --- End quote --- Despite the label, that's not Akira. I won't give you feedback on the CP because you don't want to hear it/care/its already done/etc ; so I'll just say congrats on getting it all done. Really clean job with wiring too. |
| Vater:
--- Quote from: Malenko on July 29, 2021, 02:24:21 pm ---Despite the label, that's not Akira. --- End quote --- That's hilarious. I've had this thing for a decade and never noticed. ;D Shows you how much I play VF... I never meant to imply I didn't want to hear feedback just because I expected it to lean a certain direction. Otherwise, why post my build? Yeah, you're right, it's done and I likely won't change anything, but I still welcome feedback. --- Quote ---I'll just say congrats on getting it all done. Really clean job with wiring too. --- End quote --- Thanks! The mess of wires I had before just kept nagging at me, even when the panel was shut. Definitely happy with the final result. |
| lomoverde:
Looks cool. :applaud: Do you find your forearms fouling on anything when using flightstick/spinner or trackball ? I once had an idea to build a pedestal and am still researching the options. |
| Vater:
--- Quote from: lomoverde on July 29, 2021, 03:32:30 pm ---Looks cool. :applaud: Do you find your forearms fouling on anything when using flightstick/spinner or trackball ? --- End quote --- Thank you! I have no issues when using the flightstick and spinner combo. In fact it's a perfect setup for me, it feels right (trying my best to remember playing an original Tron cab). For the record, I'm 5'9", so not terribly tall, and my arms go nowhere near the front 3 joysticks. Shorter players might. My daughter's just shy of 4'11", I'll see if she has any issues (she played Tron once and wasn't a fan, lol). Here are the only issues that have come up so far, and they're pretty minor: - When playing trackball games, I try to control the trackball with my right hand when possible. My left hand can occasionally make contact with the red ball-top joystick, but only if I'm getting into it. I admittedly don't play too many trackball games; Centipede/Millipede and Crystal Castles are among my favorites, and they are setup with either a left hand button or both right and left, so no issues there. Games like Golden Tee or Bowling that require a hard swipe toward the monitor, that's when things can get a little dicey: I can accidentally hit the red buttons before the trackball, or smash my forearm into the flightstick after the trackball. - When playing the yellow P1 controls, I have occasionally touched the red ball-top with my right wrist when really getting into a fighting game. Doesn't affect gameplay at all. - When playing fighting games using both P1 (yellow) and P2 (blue) controls, I occasionally hit wrong buttons which can be frustrating. That's the downside of having 8 buttons in that particular layout (not to mention trying to remember so many different button layouts the original fighting games used. When designing the panel, the placement of the flightstick and spinner were tough, but it was even harder to figure out where the red ball-top and the two red buttons should go. I had to consider how close the ball-top would be to both the P1 controls and the trackball. I originally used the exact distance between center of joystick and center of left button on dedicated Galaga cabinets (6½" apart, so the joystick and left button were each 3¼" from center of the panel), but when I built the mockup it was evident the joystick needed to be just a tad further from the trackball (and I still had a little wiggle room between the P1 controls), so I went with 7" instead (3½" each from center). That half inch actually made a big difference and the trackball feels less crowded. |
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