Need assitance with mini-cab controls...

[conseit68]

As well as the full size "Back to the Future" cab I am building, I am almost complete on a mini-tron cab. I am at a loss on the control interface that i will require. My control panel consists of (1) spinner, (1) 8 way top fire joystick, (2) standard buttons, and a hand full of admin. buttons on a seperate hidden panel. The three questions that I present to the board is:

1 - Which control interface would work best for me while keeping a budget and ease of use in mind?

2 -  How many admin. buttons would be required, keeping in mind that I would like to keep to as few as possible.

3 - Is there a document or site that shows games that are vertical/horizontal and buttons used? So that I can make a list of games to be played on this mini-machine.

Thanks in advance for everyones assitance with my ignorance.

[Witchboard]

I would say with the limited number of buttons the most affordable method would be a keyboard hack and a mouse hack for your spinner.  Is it a push pull spinner?

Notice I said most affordable... not easiest. 

[paigeoliver]

Keyboard hacking the older heavy clicky keyboards is usually a piece of cake (they HAVE to be clicky), unless you get one of the rare ones with a metal backing plate that is non-removable (I have only ever encountered ONE of those).

[MinerAl]

1. Look into a gamepad hack and an Oscar Controls USB optical interface (pre-done mouse hack).

Another way to go, if you are sticking to MAME(tm), is to get an IPAC VE for the buttons/joystick.  I love that thing, and it's an order of magnitude easier to wire than any kind of hack-it-yourself solution.

What kind of spinner are you using?  If you are ordering one, see if they also sell an interface and get one shipped with it.

2. As for admin buttons, if you use an IPAC or a KeyWiz all you really need is a shift button and maybe a coin button or two.  Everything else can be a combo of the shift/shazam and one of the buttons on the CP.

3. Search these boards.  The topic has come up before.  I did and found JoyMonkey's list of vertical games.

Post pics of what you come up with!

Good luck.

[captainpotato]

I'm using a MiniPAC for my minicab. As for admin buttons, I have a 1P, 2P and a coin button - that's it. The MiniPAC takes care of the rest.

[conseit68]

Thanks for the assistance thus far. The spinner that I planned on using would be a plain model (not a push/pull), so maybe the mouse hack would work for me. Now, as far as the keyboard hack, I don't believe I am up for that challenge. I was thinking maybe a "minipac" or "keywiz eco 2" but am not sure which one would be more appropriate for my needs...

[sc1103]

If you go with the Minipac, you could probably hook the spinner up to it, as it does have a model for trackball support. Im not entirely sure though.  If you really wanna check, email Andy and check out the site.

[conseit68]

Ok folks...
True to life mini-tron cab is asmost complete within the building process. And I still have the question of which encoder to use...the controls on the panel will be as follows:

1 - standard spinner (don't know who I am going with yet though)
1 - 8 way joy (I am tring to find / make one with a top fire button)
2 - standard buttons
1 - set of admin buttons (would perfer as few as possible)

I would perfer the cheapest route of course on this one as all of my monies are being alloted to the "back to the future" cab. I am hoping that Randy or andy could chime in to this post and send me on a direction, but I know there are a ton more super geniuses here so all help is greatly appreciated.

[Tiger-Heli]

Cost will be a wash when you figure in shipping.

Best bets are hacking an IDE cable and using either the minipac for everything - $29 plus shipping (yes, the non-optical board without harness will control the spinner).

or

$10 for the oscar mouse hack for the spinner and $23 for either the KeyWiz Eco 2 or the GP-Wiz 32.

You don't want Andy and RandyT BOTH to chime in, trust me about that!!!