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| x-arcade...regretting every minute of it... |
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| severdhed:
a few years ago, i purchased an x-arcade 2 player unit, mainly for fighting games on the xbox and dreamcast. i used it alot for the first 2 weeks, then it got packed away in its box. then about a year or so ago, i pulled it out of the attic and decided i was going to use it on a pc with MAME. this went on a for a few days, then i decided i wanted to build a dedicated mame cabinet. i found an empty cabinet and got it all set up and made a brace for the x-arcade, but i still wasnt happy....so i finally decided to take the x-arcade apart and build my own panel. this turned out to be a wiring nightmare. i didnt want to destroy the x-arcade in case i wanted to put it back in it's original enclosure...so i had to make dozens of wire extensions because the wires are very short. this involved alot of wire and crimping on connectors. took forever and looks horrible, but it works. well, time went by, and today i started changing some things on my control panel. adding a few buttons here and there, i put it back together only to have alot of really strange problems...some of my buttons were acting like some of the other buttons...and this is when i came to the horrible realization that in the world of x-arcade... ground isnt always ground. instead of extending all of the ground wires, i was just tapping into grounds that were close by, but this doesnt work. suddenly, buttons are identical to other buttons instead of being unique. the x-arcade circuitboard is strange. the buttons are divided into groups of 4. there are a bunch of 5pin wire harnesses. each one has it's own ground for that group of buttons..but if you dont use the right one, things get all screwed up. so, to make a long story short...i have put so much time and effort into getting the x-arcade to work with my custom panel, and have run into so many obstacles..that it really wasnt worth the money i saved by not buying a real keyboard encoder. i guess i'll just have to save up for an ipac or a keywiz or something.... just please take my advice, if you are building your own panel, dont use an x-arcade...you will end up regretting it if you do |
| NickG:
I agree, the pcb is retarded for building your own controller. Yet, if you wish to connect your controller to many devices the x-arcade is an easily attainable option. I found a more versatile PIC-based DIY option today while browsing around at Makezine. It looks like a good project and worthy of learning how to program a PIC. (I have never messed around with one before.) It seems the DIYer's on Shoryuken.com have set this up for more consoles than the X-arcade. I may get into this if the X-arcade people don't make adapters for the latest consoles by the time I get around to buying them. Dreamcast and Xbox don't seem to be on the list at first glance however, so controller hacking and custom discrete connectors may stilll be my best option for cross format compatibility. |
| Malenko:
so buy an Ipac2 or something and just use the cherries and buttons and sticks from the Xarcade. My XArcade is out of commission, the circuit board got destroyed when I moved, wanna sell me yours? >:D |
| severdhed:
the x-arcade is great for console use, and even for pc use, as long as you dont want to open it up and change anything on it. personally i think the controls are too close together for 2 adults to use. i had a dreamcast in my cabinet for a while, but the only game i ever played was ikaruga...and it seemed silly to have all that extra crap to deal with for just one game. so now I could easily get away with an ipac or something. if i do end up getting real encoder, i will put the x-arcade back together and use it with my consoles. i really hope they get around to making a xbox 360 adaptor before too long. alot of people seem to like to bash the x-arcade sticks and buttons, but i dont have a problem with them. I think they work/feel fine and for the price, you can't beat them. If i do end up getting an ipac, i plan on ordering a set of sticks and buttons from x-arcade. they might not be the highest quality, but when you can get 2 8-way sticks and 20 buttons with switches all for $30...sounds like a good deal to me. |
| btp2k2:
The sticks and buttons are fine, what I would STRONGLY recommend is throwing out the X-Arcade microswitches and replacing them with cherries. The stock X-Arcade switches are way too loud and have a funny push to them....they are too tight or something. |
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