Rasta-cade

[Ninja Supremacist]

Using Randy T's GP-Wiz32, DreamArcade buttons and a couple of super 8s, I created my controller.


The wiring is pretty good... that's a biased opinion, of course.


I didn't bother with a bottom panel for the first round.

It's a fighter stick measuring 28"w by 12"d by (3"h front, 4.5h back)  weighing about 15 pounds.  The controller is painted black with several coats of urethane.  It's taken a beating over the holidays so it's certainly durable.

After years of using MAME controllers with keyboard encoders, the GP-Wiz is awesome for a few reasons:

1) As a gamepad (hence GP), it doesn't matter if your guests get excited and start playing with the controller.  There are no keys to trip.  Let the joy ensue.  It's a bit defeating to the "indestructible" argument when nobody is allowed to touch the controller until a given game is ready.

Ok... so that's only one reason but it's a good reason.

Fears that MAME is difficult to control without a keyboard encoder are unfounded.  MAME32 v 100 had no issues with my GP-Wiz after properly mapping out the user interface controls.

Guess this makes me a yellow belt... more to come.

[dmsuchy]

Clean wiring.

[GreenKnight37]

Looks pretty nice.

Can two people fit comfortably at the panel?  And is this just solely for use with the computer, or are you eventually going to strip the parts and incorporate it into a full cabinet?

[markrvp]

Good job creating a strain relief for the USB cord.  One really neat thing about the GP-Wiz 32 is that it's incredibly easy to verify that the buttons and joysticks are working in the Gamepad Control Panel.

Kudos to You.

[Ninja Supremacist]

Two players being comfortable was my primary objective because it's a social piece.

To illustrate the point of dimensions, the x-arcade is 24 inches wide on top but only 20 inches wide in the chassis.  24 is, theoretically, good enough if the chassis is 22 or 23 inches wide.  My chassis is 26 inches wide.  I kept the depth as shallow as possible while maintaining a decent slope.  Fits nicely on the desk.  Works like a charm.

I still haven't found a use for the black buttons (#7 and #8)... it seemed like a good idea in the beginning but now I think I should have placed all four in the center for various MAME functions.  Putting the coin and player buttons with each player instead of the more traditional center top has been the best choice I made with this.

Since it takes only a few days to build a controller, I'm probably going to mount this into a cabinet or sell it on eBay.  I have some ideas for improving this like translucent competition buttons and steel handles.  My next controller would be seven buttons per player instead of eight.  Maybe a dedicated 4 way with the extra space available.  I'm tempted to go with two 49 Way sticks/GP49.