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Anyone know if its possible to BYO positional guns?
LordDamo:
--- Quote from: Tiger-Heli on November 09, 2004, 09:18:47 am ---
--- Quote from: LordDamo on November 09, 2004, 09:05:49 am ---Would be hard to do the same as the origonal without working (or semi-working) examples of these guns. I havn't seen them in arcades for years.
--- End quote ---
There's always Flea-bay!
--- End quote ---
True, too true. Had a look tonight actually. But, as im an Australian, they dont come up too regularly. And postage on these would be a killer from the US/UK - they would way a ton (postage wise), imagine the pair! Then tack on international rates and you got a no-go.
I'll still look whenever im online though ;D
Tiger-Heli:
--- Quote from: LordDamo on November 09, 2004, 09:23:09 am ---
--- Quote from: Tiger-Heli on November 09, 2004, 09:18:47 am ---
--- Quote from: LordDamo on November 09, 2004, 09:05:49 am ---Would be hard to do the same as the origonal without working (or semi-working) examples of these guns. I havn't seen them in arcades for years.
--- End quote ---
There's always Flea-bay!
--- End quote ---
True, too true. Had a look tonight actually. But, as im an Australian, they dont come up too regularly. And postage on these would be a killer from the US/UK - they would way a ton (postage wise), imagine the pair! Then tack on international rates and you got a no-go.
I'll still look whenever im online though ;D
--- End quote ---
I think there's an Aussie equivalent of it as well, but if the guns themselves weren't available in Ozland, that won't help you much.
LordDamo:
--- Quote from: Tiger-Heli on November 09, 2004, 09:27:40 am ---
--- Quote from: LordDamo on November 09, 2004, 09:23:09 am ---
--- Quote from: Tiger-Heli on November 09, 2004, 09:18:47 am ---
--- Quote from: LordDamo on November 09, 2004, 09:05:49 am ---Would be hard to do the same as the origonal without working (or semi-working) examples of these guns. I havn't seen them in arcades for years.
--- End quote ---
There's always Flea-bay!
--- End quote ---
True, too true. Had a look tonight actually. But, as im an Australian, they dont come up too regularly. And postage on these would be a killer from the US/UK - they would way a ton (postage wise), imagine the pair! Then tack on international rates and you got a no-go.
I'll still look whenever im online though ;D
--- End quote ---
I think there's an Aussie equivalent of it as well, but if the guns themselves weren't available in Ozland, that won't help you much.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, there is an Australian Ebay, I got my first lot of buttons from a seller on there today ;D
The guns were avaliable here, as in they were in arcades here - but no one want to part with them, must be as rare as hens teeth. I saw them on there once - but it was towards the tail end of the auction, and didnt have the cash at the time :'(
So, i've been toying with the idea of how to male my own ever since.
Do you recall the thread containing either 1-Up or SirPoonga where they came up with a circuit to drive the solenoid for the feedback mechanism?
Tiger-Heli:
--- Quote from: LordDamo on November 09, 2004, 09:53:44 am ---Do you recall the thread containing either 1-Up or SirPoonga where they came up with a circuit to drive the solenoid for the feedback mechanism?
--- End quote ---
It actually was 1Up, but I think Poonga was doing something similar with a Q-bert knocker . . . (and it was a long time ago).
I dug up my reference info on this and it's real similar to what I just posted :-)), but the link below doesn't work. You might try E-mailing 1-Up or Googling for it:
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What about machine guns?
This is not a major concern of mine, but I did a quick search of the archives of the BYOAC message board. This is where a solution is most likely to appear if someone figures this out. Actually, these can be interfaced. The machine guns (Operation Wolf, Operation Thunderbolt, T2, etc.) are actually just an analog joystick, so the same type of conversion that you would do for the original Star Wars yoke should work for these also. In fact, the newer guns (T2) use a solenoid to produce a recoil effect and this can be hooked up also although it requires a 24 V transformer to hook up. Unfortunately, the T2 guns also would fire slower as the gun heated up or ran low on ammo and I don't think this is implemented in MAME (yet!!!)
The following data was provided by 1-Up: Dave Widel did a hack on the driver for T2 so it sends the recoil signal to the caps lock LED, which can be used to control the recoil in the actual gun with a little electronics hacking. I've done this myself, and I'll post the circuit I used when my site is updated (very soon!!) Meanwhile, you can get the driver HERE (http://www.1uparcade.com/misc/wmsyunit.c - doesn't work) (right click the link and select "save file as" to get it). You'll need to replace the one in the Mame source and recompile Mame to get it to work.
The main problem I see with this is these guns were designed to be mounted at a fixed height and a fixed distance from the screen and to have a fixed amount of travel. I think you could play with the settings on an arcade cab and get something reasonably close, but it might be hard to get one calibrated correctly so that you could sight down the gun and shoot accurately when you are taking the gun on and off the desktop.
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Gunstar Hero:
I bought the guns that 1UP hacked and was selling on the Buy/Sell/Trade Board (lucky me!) and should have them tomorrow.
I'll be making a setup for my arcade cab in the next couple weeks (Yeah right. Well, with any luck. Stupid right-around-the-corner holidays. :P) and I will be WAY happy to offer any help I possibly can.
I'll probably have to ask at least 600 questions as well. ;D