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Ram Controls?
Havok:
--- Quote from: Daviea on January 06, 2007, 11:52:58 pm ---I've got no set timeframe, but I intend to release reproduction SW upright, SW cockpit and MH dedicated cabinets.
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That is great news - I would love to see a reasonably priced kit that I could assemble, and wouldn't cost a fortune for shipping. I'm interested in the SW cockpit!
--- Quote ---As for the buttons, are you talking about the buttons that mate up with the cones? I have these available and they're currently listed on my website. Here: http://www.ram-controls.com/order-cones.html way down at the bottom of the page. I have the LED and the non-LED versions available.
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Yes - those were what I was referring to. I didn't realise you sold them as well. Thanks for the response, and I'll be checking in at the website to see your progress!
:applaud:
Xiaou2:
Thanks for the replies, Sounds good.
As for other replicas..
Maybe something that part replica & part mod...
The Best shifter Ive ever used was in the Hard Driven sit-down games.
It would be great to have these for use in many driving games
in mame, and even PC.
However, since Hard Driven only has 4 gears and reverse.. It would
be better to modify them to a 6 gear + reverse setup. This would be
great for Ridge Racer! :) And many other racing games.
Of course, some convincing would have to be done to get the
mame team to allow propper gear functionality.
And for non mame, it may be good to have a multifunction
board which you can select how it outputs the data. So,
if in 6th gear.. it might send 6 keystrokes (or joystick buttons) in a row to
switch the gears in games that do not support direct gears.
And a dual mode.. so that it can support games that allow digiital
input, and an analog mode, for those games (like hard drivin) that
allow true analog gearing.
Hard Drivin also had the best pedals and Force feedback wheels...
however, that may be pushing the extremes. As mame doesnt
support force feedback yet :( And the atari wheel unit would be
way too costly I believe.
The best thing about Driving controls, is that the PC sim people
might jump all over them... as I do not believe there are
too many high quality, extrememly durrable, and realistic
feeling sim controls...
Daviea:
The repro cabinet projects are coming along very slowly. It took awhile to get all the dimensional drawings ready. The toughest one was the SW cockpit as it uses quite a bit of wood. I finally found a cabinet which had been completely torn apart and I had it shipped to me ($450 for shipping. Ouch!) I received a pallet with a pile of wood pieces stacked about 3ft tall. I used the bits and pieces to create my drawings. The wood was severely damaged, but it was good enough to get exact dimensions. The artwork was another story. It was destroyed and impossible to use as an original sample.
The artwork for the cockpit is going to be a bear. I'm still not sure I'll be able to offer the artwork at a reasonable price, but I'm trying. First, I need to find intact (ideally NOS) artwork to start with. This will be the most difficult task. From that point, I need to create new vector drawings, using the original art as a template. Then I can determine the cost to produce maybe 200-300 sets. I know that the cabinet will use a lot of material for the artwork, so I can see that cost going up and up every time I think about it.
The MH dedicated cabinet was tough, too. I didn't want to disassemble a perfectly intact cabinet to get my drawings, so it held me up a bit. The artwork for this game is already available, though somewhat on the expensive side.
I never thought about repro'ing the shifters or wheels. I have a few wheels for Hard Drivin' packed away in storage. I'll take a look at them when I have the time to dig 'em out. If they're complete, it shouldn't take me long to figure out if I can repro them. From memory, I don't recall anything too special about their construction so I could probably repro them. The only concern I could imagine is construction of the actual steering wheel. That may be an issue, but I won't know for sure until I have a sample in hand and research the subject. As for the shifters, I'm fairly certain that I don't have any of them in my possession, so I'll need to pick up a couple before I can comment. You think there would really be a market for these? Honestly, I've never been much for the driving games, so I never bothered looking into them.
Thanks, more to think about now. If anyone has spare NOS artwork for SW (upright and/or cockpit) or MH I can borrow for awhile, I'd be very grateful.
David Adams
RAM Controls
MaximRecoil:
--- Quote from: Daviea on January 06, 2007, 11:52:58 pm ---Are there any other Atari or non-Atari repros I should start considering?
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I know you are primarily concerned with Atari stuff, but I'd like to see the 5-way Super Punch-Out!! joystick reproduced; or even a set of parts reproduced to convert a normal Nintendo joystick to an SPO joystick (longer shaft, the brass "bell", and an L-shaped stamped sheet metal bracket for holding the 5th microswitch). The "conversion kit" would probably be pretty easy for someone with your abilities and resources to do, but I don't know how much of a market there is for it. The SPO joystick is probably one of the hardest Nintendo parts to find.
Be nice to see a reproduction of the "Big Blue Button" used as the KO punch button on Nintendo PO/SPO machines too.
Kremmit:
There's still no solution for the Frontiline/Tin Star/Wild Western controller, either.
In all fairness, though, I don't know how much market there is for any of the suggestions in this thread, mine included. Probably not as big as the market for the parts you've already announced.