Been swamped for a while doing artwork request's (and playing guitar hero
) But I finally found some time to work on some of "BGB's" messier bits. I wasnt very happy with the final dreamcast hack "product" or the mass of cables that it resulted in flowing around Bettys insides. I settled on an idea to solve this. I call it
DREAMBOXFirst thing I had to do was remove the second expansion slot from each of the dreamcast pad PCBS. Just used a dremel for this and sliced em about 2mm from the mounting place.
A Crippled Cylon Raider The dremel gave a nice clean cut. so I didnt need to worry too much about shorting out the cntrol i/o port on the dreamcast. I had to solder an extra 4 points to my original analogue dreamcast pad hack to key in the digital buttons. This way I can be gauranteed to be able to play everything. I originally thought just using analogue was the way to go.......until Space channel 5 wouldnt work
The Best £10 I Ever Spent Was On A Soldering Stand!!I soldered the 4 Hed directional points to a 4 way changover switch. Then soldered the digital directional points and then finally the line to the DB25 connector that adds other devices to Bettys control panel.
I used a large ABS project box to mount the hacks into. I used 4 standoff feet per controller to mount them to the box and cut the facia with 2 slots for VMU's.
The vmu's are removable as I still have to be able to pop em in the gun for confidential mission. I also cut 2 holes for the 4 way toggle switches. That way I can change from analogue or digital controls without any hassle.
I ran a cable grommet to the back of the box to allow the cables to the dreamcast to hang out with out the risk of getting snagged and put in the vga output board.
Who Needs Colour Coded Wire I Know What Each And Every Cable Is For The box is now completely tidy inside Betty and can be removed as one solid unit just by disconnecting the DB25 and vga cable. There is still room inside the "Dreambox" for a coders VMU slot which I will get around to at some point.
I have a couple more of these boxes on order as I also want to house my changover switch, ipac,etc. into one box as well. This will allow a nice modular feel to "BGB's" addons rather than a hack feel. Anyway her it is in all its the glory..............
The DreamboxNext Up:
The MameBox