Horror FPS bartop

[horseboy]

Get a Wico Command Control joystick for the Atari 2600. Easily the best topfire 8-way around. Also, it is definitely my favorite joystick to use with the 2600.

[ChadTower]

I have a whole big box of various 2600 style joysticks... some of them real leaf switch 8 ways.  Definitely a good suggestion and if I can't find a decent 8 way trigger PC joystick, that's another way to go.  That's only, of course, if the Happ stick does turn out to be too damn big.

[Havok]

That joy is too damn big for a bartop. Here's Chad, playing away on his horror bartop, scared sh*tless, yanking the crap out of that joy. I give you a day before you flip the thing onto the floor. Perhaps you can bolt it to the table?

[ChadTower]

Then I may have to bolt the table to the slab.

[rovingmind]

cripes, next thing you know he'll get really excited and his house will be upside down.

[ChadTower]

Holy ---fudgesicle--- I found my sideart... this is a pic from when we took the kids minigolfing at a local place called Monster Minigolf... I can't use this pic, but goddam, I'm going back to get a clear hi-res pic of this thing for the cab.

[rovingmind]

Holy ---fudgesicle--- I found my sideart... this is a pic from when we took the kids minigolfing at a local place called Monster Minigolf... I can't use this pic, but goddam, I'm going back to get a clear hi-res pic of this thing for the cab.

heh heh gotta love the evil clowns

[theCoder]

Ah, such a pleasant theme.  Let's invite grandma over for milk, cookies, and a quick game of CarnEvil.

[ChadTower]

Not much to say of late, picked up a new power supply ($7 after rebate), removed the CD drive since I'm loading everything on via thumb drive.

[rovingmind]

yes but progress is progress.  :|

[Stobe]

Ah, such a pleasant theme.  Let's invite grandma over for milk, cookies, and a quick game of CarnEvil.

I thought her favorite game was Chiller??

-Stobe

[ChadTower]

So, I was going through my Box Of Ancient Controllers (AKA crap I've accumulated) and found one of these.  This pic isn't mine, I yoinked it from an Ebay auction, but it's the same stick.  It's an old analog PC joystick, built pretty well, but the key is the number of buttons.  It's a trigger stick (on the other side) and there is also a button near the bottom of the trigger side.  I haven't checked yet to see how many of these are wired in parallel.  Even so, it might be possible to attach this to an 8 way base of some sort...

[KenToad]

Congrats on pics and good thinking ripping the latest from an auction.  I wouldn't use that stick, though, looks a little ... too ... phallic ... not that there's anything wrong with that.   

[barnes]

My game suggestions to you:

Alice is my favorite game of all time. Make sure its on there.

Look at the modding community. I've played the scariest games of my life from home made mods for commercial games.
-Afraid Of Monsters (HL1 Mod)
-Killing Floor (UT2004 Mod Online only though...)
-Hidden Source (HL2 Mod. By far scariest game.)
-No More Room In Hell (HL2 Mod..not finished)

Also, another new one is Penumbra. Its a strange new type of FPS, cool physics. Check that one out.

Good luck though, looks like it will be really cool!

[ChadTower]

   It's not quite so phallic in person.  I think it's the angle.

[shardian]

Hey man, this is a horror based cabinet. What would be more horrifying that having to use a phallic joystick to control your character.

[Grasshopper]

Alice is my favorite game of all time. Make sure its on there.

Alice is indeed a very good game. It would also be a good game to base the artwork around. That cat gives me the creeps.

[superbigjay]

Ah, such a pleasant theme.  Let's invite grandma over for milk, cookies, and a quick game of CarnEvil.

...I wouldn't use that stick, though, looks a little ... too ... phallic ... not that there's anything wrong with that...

Now it's really time to invite grandma! 
Jay

[ChadTower]

Alice does fit the specs of the machine, so I'll give it a whirl.

Status as of now is that the PC joystick isn't working so I'm repairing that.  If it takes too much more effort I'm going to just scrap it and build a proto panel with the Happ stick to see how it works.

[rovingmind]

if the controller buttons are wired in parrallel you could always re-wire it (provided you could enough small wire to fit through the shaft. 

I have an older saitek cyborg joystick plug version i've saved that i keep thinking about hacking onto a flight panel for afterburner,  it plays pretty sweet although it doesn't have the built in rumble motor.

I havn't decided which way to go for a controller though.  I'd rewire it so the hat-switches register as individual buttons, instead of combinations of the other 4

[ChadTower]

if the controller buttons are wired in parrallel you could always re-wire it (provided you could enough small wire to fit through the shaft. 

I think you could do it even if they're not.  It's only a few small microswitches and they do each have their own switch.  I don't see any kind of encoder chip inside, it's just wired to a small PCB with resistors on it.  It would be a much smaller challenge than finding a way to make the stick 8 way, though since it does work with the joystick port of a sound card, maybe analog would be enough.  I'll play with it once I get the stick fixed.  Also have to make sure this mini-mobo has that joystick port on it.

[Kaytrim]

Chad,

Looking at the thought process you have been going through and seing the StarCraft 2 is in the works has given me an idea.  I'd have to put some thinking on this but how about a war strategy bartop.  Games like the Red Alert series, StarCraft and WarCraft would be great to play on a larger screen.  Could you send me the information you found on loading the CDs into memory or what ever you are doing to remove the CD drive? 

Email or PM would be fine, Thanks,
Kaytrim

[rovingmind]

i picked up a disc at a yardsale, i havn't looked at it yet but if you want it i'll mail you a copy. 

The title is HELL A Cyberpunk Thriller

wiki link

interactive story/game from 1994  Dennis Hopper does one of the voices.

[ChadTower]

Kaytrim, I haven't gotten that far yet, so far I'm working on the control scheme.  It turned out that Killing Time doesn't need the CD to run so I haven't worried about the other games to this point.  When I do I'll lay the info out here.  A C+C type bartop would be pretty cool if you could get a trackball down to the very very fine control you need for an RTS.  I'm not sure how you would end up with a larger screen in a bartop, though.  The biggest you could possibly go would be 19" and that's with a costly LCD.

[Kaytrim]

CRTs are much cheaper and I now know how to decase and mount them.    I am still in the thinking about thinking about it so no big rush at this point.  Besides I still have two projects to finish and another in the planing stage.  I am also concidering getting into the custom CP business.

Work in progress...
   Dad's Bartop
   FrankenMAME

Planing Stage
   Kaytrim's Casino
   Kaytrim's Custom CPs

TTFN
Kaytrim

[ChadTower]

Not a ton to report at the moment.  Got the joystick back nicely together and repaired, have to find the drivers for it next.  If this one works out I'll locate a newer version with the same button scheme, this one has seen better days.  The motherboard does have a joystick port, turns out.

Not much to see yet but this is where I am.

[ChadTower]

Joystick wasn't working at all... figured it was a driver issue since I hadn't installed any.  On a web search found this:

You dont need a driver for this one. Just go to start; settings; control panel; joysticks. Configure a joystick using 2 axis and 4 button. Calibrate it, then use it!

Did that, seems to be working okay now.  I can definitely see where an analog stick may cause an issue in gameplay on FPS... we'll see.

[ChadTower]

Okay, turns out as wired, this stick has four button lines.

1 - trigger
2 - either of the inner thumb buttons
3 - either of the outer thumb buttons
4 - a small button, trigger side of the stick near bottom where your pinky goes

[ChadTower]

Joystick directions

• Forward                       Up
• Backward                     Down
• Turn Left                      Left
• Turn Right                    Right

These seem to be working, but they work a hell of a lot better with the keyboard than with this analog stick.  Probably would work better with a digital stick, I'll have to slap a gamepad on there to test that theory.

Trigger

• Attack                           L Cntrl

Done, works, yay.

Trackball

• Look Up                         Page Up
• Look Down                    Page Down
• Side Step Left              Q
• Side Step Right            W

Not so good... it appears as though Killing Time doesn't have mouselooking.  In fact, it appears as though any control has to be configured via a keypress (or, with the stick, directions mapped to arrows).  This could be a real problem.

[Kaytrim]

A quick Google for Mouse2Key returned this link.   I don't know if this will work for your needs but it might be worth a try.

TTFN
Kaytrim

[ChadTower]

Interesting... I'll have a look in depth.  Thanks!  This is exactly why we have these project threads.

[rovingmind]

WIP update?

[leapinlew]

Interesting... I'll have a look in depth.  Thanks!  This is exactly why we have these project threads.

No, we have these threads so people can post a project announcement. This is pie in the sky till you cut a piece of wood.

[ChadTower]

Fair enough.  I've been consumed with the kids' baseball season and honeydo items lately.

[leapinlew]

Fair enough.  I've been consumed with the kids' baseball season and honeydo items lately.

Your lack of clever response infuriates me

[ChadTower]

Would it help if I said I have the MDF sheets but have never built a cab before... so I have to get some practice in before I give it a shot?  I may build the sawboard Drew talked about over the weekend to get a feel for cutting MDF.

[leapinlew]

Would it help if I said I have the MDF sheets but have never built a cab before... so I have to get some practice in before I give it a shot?  I may build the sawboard Drew talked about over the weekend to get a feel for cutting MDF.

First the jab: How did you get the MDF home? 

Second the serious and more sensitive side of Lew- make sure you wear a mask and protect yourself from the MDF dust. I wear a mask and cut outside.
<80's sitcom audience> - "AWWWWWWWWW"

[ChadTower]

First the jab: How did you get the MDF home? 

I hired pinballjim to haul it for me and then stiffed him on the payment.  He spilled the water and that wasn't part of the deal.  Plus he stole Sloth's Baby Ruth and it took Chunk 45 minutes to calm him down.

Second the serious and more sensitive side of Lew- make sure you wear a mask and protect yourself from the MDF dust. I wear a mask and cut outside.
<80's sitcom audience> - "AWWWWWWWWW"

Yep, I cut everything outside anyway, on sawhorses/picnic table.  No indoor place for me to cut.  I'm probably going to build 2 of them at once - one for this, one for a Dreamcast, which will be a different project in the near future.

[rovingmind]

you can come over to my house and practice by making shop cabinets.  I need alot of those.

  

[ChadTower]

Aren't you the same guy that wanted me to come over and build a loft in your shed too?