Anyone know where i can find Rediculously small joysticks?

[Hoagie_one]

i think i want to do a micro cab.  I think i can pull it off with an lcd adn a micro itx Mobo, i can use radio shack buttons, but i need a tiny joystick.

Any ideas?

[RayB]

You're thinking right along the same lines I am for a similar mini-project (which I have in my head and will probably never get around to!)

I plan on cracking open one of these for the small joystick:


http://members.shaw.ca/susanmc/500xjaf.jpg

It's an 8-way and it's microswitch. And it's just proportionate to Radio Shack pushbuttons. In fact, you might be able to cut the plastic off the shaft and make it look like a small ball-top!

Google or search Ebay for "Epyx 500 XJ".

~Ray B.

[Tahnok]

Hmm... if you want a really small joystick you could try taking apart an old cell phone and using one of those thumb joysticks. I was thinking about doing this myself, that is, if I could one of those 8mm trackballs.

[Hoagie_one]

i found a place that has a kit for one of those laptop joysticks that controls the mouse...but its $150.

need something alot cheaper.  Might have to hack a joypad or something

[Hoagie_one]

pic of it

[RayB]

That's too small. Did you see my post above?

[Hoagie_one]

That's too small. Did you see my post above?

Thats what im going for...Rediculously small.

lol

[lkench]

Don't forget the Amiga PowerStick.  They sometimes show up on ebay...

[javeryh]

Someone around here made a micro galaga cab and used a nail for the 2-way joystick... if I remember correctly...

[Hoagie_one]

Someone around here made a micro galaga cab and used a nail for the 2-way joystick... if I remember correctly...

Found it
http://arcade.laweb.nl/PocketGalaga/

I dont know if i can compare to that

[Martoon]

I plan on cracking open one of these for the small joystick:


http://members.shaw.ca/susanmc/500xjaf.jpg

Woohoo!  Thank you RayB!  I had one of those back in my C64 days, and I loved it.  The past couple weeks I've been thinking how great it would be to get one (for emulator use), but I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called.  I was thinking of trying to describe it in a post here and see if anyone could identify it, but you just took care of that for me.  Thanks!



To bring this back on topic:  Hoagie_one, for a really tiny joystick, I think your best bet is going to be to look at a variety of toys.  You might even find something at a thrift shop/flea market etc.  There's a lot of cheap handheld games, most of which have D-pads, but I've seen a few with tiny joysticks (sorry, can't remember any specifics).

[MoonDog]

Woohoo!  Thank you RayB!  I had one of those back in my C64 days, and I loved it.  The past couple weeks I've been thinking how great it would be to get one (for emulator use), but I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called.  I was thinking of trying to describe it in a post here and see if anyone could identify it, but you just took care of that for me.  Thanks!

I had a pair of those for my C64 as well and they were the best joysticks I ever owned!  I've been thinking about them lately as well.

Lots of good memories in this forum! <snif>

[patrickl]

Someone around here made a micro galaga cab and used a nail for the 2-way joystick... if I remember correctly...

Found it
http://arcade.laweb.nl/PocketGalaga/

I dont know if i can compare to that

I built that one, but it's really only for 2 way joysticks. I don't think it will translate to a 4-way (or 8-way) stick. I had a red bead to go on top (it looked like a tiny ball top), but that got lost during a party (with lot's of kids around).

BTW, people played on that machine the whole party. I was amazed they could stand the thiny stick, but it worked fine. So size really doesn't matter in this case  

[froggerman]

Have a look at this micro joystick made by knitter switch. http://www.knitter-switch.com

[Hoagie_one]

i cannot find that on there website.  what is the cost of that joystick?

[patrickl]

If you don't mind that example, why not buy one of those PDA joysticks? They are pretty cheap and quite easy to find as well. Trouble I had with those is that they don't come with a shiny metal stick and I couldn't figure a way to mount a stick on them securely (of course also that I liked building my own joystick)

I'm talking about something like this: http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/32138.pdf

[Lilwolf]

Also, design everything else and then find the space you have.

Someone sells a low profile ball top on ebay that looks like it would work for a bartop unit... but not for a DonkeyKong handheld hack.

If you get too small... it will suck... Too big and it wont fit.

One thing that you could do is get a thumb pad style joystick... and glue a grinding bit ontop of it.  I did this a long time ago and it worked great.  Its a metal stick in a rounded / somewhat wide course wafer.  Then glue this directly to the suction cups that make the connections on the thumb pad.

[Dekelia]

You could take a stick off of one of the original micro cabs:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4315&item=8133745292&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

[RayB]

That's a good idea. Those sticks don't feel all that good though. They are kinda squishy and they use these metal bendable contacts in a circuit board. He'd have to cut out the circuit board.

I have a dead Coleco PacMan I might trade for stuff.

[MonitorGuru]

Look for some SUNCOM joysticks for the Atari 2600/Commodore 64.  They were about the size as the Epyx 500XJ and made out of basically a leaf switch (though the shaft of the stick was actually grounded and acted as the connector to the 4 directional leaves) Whereas the 500XJ was a microswitch based one.

The XJ probably will withstand harder play, though the suncoms definitely outlasted the original Atari bubble-click-button circuit board sticks.

[Hoagie_one]

JUST HAD A REALIZATION.  It's not the micro cab that i want to do, its a portable mame handheld

I'll use a joypad and buttons.

Have to fugure out how to power it though with a rechargable battery.  
hmmmmmm

[patrickl]

Yeah you better first decide on the size. The size of the cab or otherwise the size of the stick. The rest will follow from that. My microcab is 1:6 scale so logically the  stick was shrunk down to size accordingly (allthough it's a bit taller). It's a lot smaller than the stick on those portable toys.

[Bgnome]

if you have a particular type of digital camera, you can go this route: http://digita.mame.net

there has been some limitied work in the gp32 area: http://www.gp32emu.com

sominfo in this thread too:
"Ultimate handheld emulation solution?"
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=15;action=display;threadid=24346

[Lilwolf]

You really should wait for this

http://www.i4u.com/article1551.html

And build something else in the meantime.

[Hoagie_one]

cool, they stole my idea....lol

[Stingray]

The person who designed this idiotic thing clearly has never played a portable game system. The angle of the screen to the controls is all wrong, plus it isn't foldable.

-S

[Hoagie_one]

at $500, its not quite what i would call the greatest.  I'll just pay the $150 for the New nintendo ds and wait for the haxors to make all the emulators for it

[RayB]

If what you want is a portable MAME system, then all you do is buy a Dell Axim.

[Lilwolf]

I'm not sure if it really will be 500.

but for a board that currently goes for 100, then a FULL 640x480 lcd (guessing, but I would say goes for 150) and then the 802.11 and USB... Then the packaging.

I don't believe you could build one for that cheap.

Of course... you could do a IPac -> donkeykong handheld conversion that is pretty !@# sweet!

[froggerman]

If what you want is a portable MAME system, then all you do is buy a Dell Axim.

Does anyone have experience with a MAME version that will run on Windows CE devices?

[Xiaou2]

 Of course... 500 mhz hardly runs mame anymore.   They keep upping the specs, so even older games do not run very fast.

 Im still running an amd900... and its barely passable on some games.   I fired up a PIII 550 the other day, and just loading the darn mame32 games list verify when it first runs,  was taking too long for me.  

 Im sure the technology will get better.  I think Id wait to make a handheld for a bit.  But a bartop sounds like a nice portable project to me.

 

[Tahnok]

If what you want is a portable MAME system, then all you do is buy a Dell Axim.

Does anyone have experience with a MAME version that will run on Windows CE devices?

Is there such a thing? So if they could hack the DS to run  Windows CE like they were talking about it could run MAME?

[Minwah]

Found it
http://arcade.laweb.nl/PocketGalaga/

That's just  great, hadn't seen that before

As for a little joystick, how about a Gravis Gamepad, the type with the mini joystick which can be screwed into the centre of the D-Pad?  I used to have one but I can't find it...

[Martoon]

I have an old iPaq PocketPC with the 204MHz cpu, and ran MameCE3 on it.  It runs lots of the old classics at full speed.  I'm sure the more recent PocketPC's (with 624MHz, etc.) will run even more games.

[GodSend25]

If your still looking for a mini joystick why not pickup a NGPC (Neo Geo Pocket Color) off ebay.  its a great little system, but it has by far the best thumb joystick I have ever used.

[Hoagie_one]

on the subject of the Neo Geo Pocket Color, anyone know how easy it may or may not be to hack it to use the screen?

[Goz]

What about the GP32? These things are small (about the size of GBA), have a 3.5 hires color screen, can play movies, mp3's, have emulation software for SNES, Sega, Atari ST, NES, 2600, PC Engine, ZX Spectrum, MAME (only some drivers), Commodore 64, MSX, GBA.

These things are only about $150 from lik sang and have removable storage (Smart Media).

Here are a few links

http://consoles4u.8m.com/gp32.html
http://www.lik-sang.com/list.php?category=126&
http://www.gp32emu.com/

-Goz