Will this work?

[KiwiRed]

I'm new to the idea of arcade controllers, but i'm taking the plunge (may my wallet forgive me) and have come up with a concept i'd appreciate some feedback on.

I'm looking at a sidewinder gamepad-hack based interface, with the electronics in an interface box that sits at the PC, and separate controllers for each player (up to four, if i can get my hands on four gamepads - they're expensive down here in New Zealand), with a couple of different layouts for 4-way and maybe 4-way-diagonal games.  Plus cabling through to the serial port, just in case i decide to try my hand at a mouse-hack for a spinner or trackball at a later date.

Anyway, feel free to have a look at the concept so far, and let me know what i've forgotten.  (It's 3am - i'm sure there's something!)

http://www.inet.net.nz/~kiwired/controller/

Thanks!

[Frobozz]

Looks feasible to me.  

[Elkor]

I don't see a problem with it.  nice modular concept.

[hyiu]

yes... it should work... actually, I have a similar concept... because I figured that if I can "reuse" the joystick / button hardware, I can save myself some $$$.  So, my joystick is just a joystick with 10 buttons, all wired to 2 cat5 connectors... (I have network cables lying around in my house... and network cables are very easy to plug / unplug)

then I hack a sidewinder and put all circuity into a radio shack project box with wires dangling out on 2 sides... 1 side is the gameport plug, the other side has 2 cat5 plugging back to the joystick...

it works great !!!... by now, I have made 3 joysticks !! (ALL to the same wire config...), finished 3 sidewinder hack, 2 playstation hack, and 1 sega saturn hack. and
basically, they're all interchangable on the fly....

last week... I have friends come to my house and play.. and we can actually play VF4 on ps2 using my psx hack... heee heee...  

according to my "plan"... I'll do 3 more joysticks.... (well.. some for my friends...), then dreamcast hack, xbox hack, and finally my cabinet !!!!.....

the good thing is, once I finished the joysticks, I can just concentrate on the hack and it can plug right into the already finished joysticks !!!!

I'm trying to post a website showing what I have done... I've done some write ups.... but I can't get my hand on a digi cam... so, no pics for now..... (I know... that sucks... ) that's why I have not been posting my site... hopefully... I'll be able to get a digi-cam soon....