So, in early 2020, I did a sizeable mod project of an Arcade1Up to create myself a multicade. Initially it had a very simple control board, but then I upgraded to something more robust, and now I'm plotting something a bit crazier. But I need help.
My personal multicade is an Arcade1Up Space Invaders(because I got it stupidly cheap) which I widened to fit an ASUS 22" IPS monitor. Seem overkill for retrogaming? Well, this ain't no Raspberry Pi build, this bad boy rocks a Windows PC running LaunchBox/BigBox and implemented games on Steam like Guilty Gear Xrd and the entire BlazBlue series as well as PS2 emulation. It's not coming to conquer anyone's super gaming PC of course but not many people go this route for an arcade build.
But there is a shortcoming with it: Many Windows games simply don't acknowledge the existence of the Xin-Mo arcade encoder I use. I can get around this by using Joytokey to make everything to keyboard inputs, but setting that up for every game can be annoying, AND it's one more thing to have to run the background all the time. So I've been looking for alternatives, and in the process of doing so I stumbled on this:
https://www.amazon.com/SJ-JX-Controller-Joystick-Raspberry/dp/B08FJ74TPLUpon seeing that, and thinking about the analog sticks, I was hit with a genius idea. I can use that to play games that prefer usage of an analog stick(such as Starblade - a gem of an arcade rail shooter that I missed back in the day) and even make custom analog stick caps in the form of a flightstick-style control to make it feel more properly arcadelike.
HOWEVER.... Is this better than my original idea? You see, the control panel I use is not attached to the arcade cabinet. I used one of those Microcenter two-player enclosures(the ones that can also be bought pre-packaged with a Raspberry Pi running Atari games), and it's so hefty that it doesn't NEED to be bolted down. This mean I can easily remove it and, say, swap it for another control panel that has other forms of input on it...?
So I was thinking of building a custom control panel with a cheap flight stick, racing wheel, and pedals, as well as possibly spinners and a trackball. I could do BOTH of these projects, or I could just do one or the other.
Thing is, I've heard that some PC driving wheels don't play well with Retroarch or MAME. And thus, why I'm here...
I need advice on whether the alternate control panel idea is even worth pursuing, and the best way to do it if it is. I need to know what the most ideal parts would be, what the cheapest parts that will work are, and most importantly I need USB encoders for my main control panel that have a hope in Hades of being recognized by most Windows games like Killer Instinct - preferably ones with analog stick options, but as long as the second control panel idea is in play that's not an absolute requirement.
I'm not the sort who can drop money on having multiple arcade cabinets, so turning this into my ultimate multicade is the best way to go. I've abandoned many an arcade project in the past(fortunately all in the planning stage), but this I've definitely got to go forward with - whether in one of the forms outlined above or something new conceived of in discussing this.
Looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts on the idea and seeing what components you can recommend for it! I'm really excited about this project and I hope to start it shortly after Christmas.