I think I learned the most from seeing what others have done or not done. So I'm putting this up so you can see I what I came up with in a SERIOUSLY hacked together project.
First off this project started as an exercise to learn. I knew absolutly nothing about arcade games, other than I knew I like them. I got an old Track and Field with the trackballs in BAD shape. No PCB, No Monitor...50 bucks. I figured I got 2 wico trackballs and a coindoor so I did alright...well
one thing lead to another and I ended up converting the whole cab. It was the style with the side pieces that came way out, they kinda blocked the view from the sides so off they came. So now I have a Lusid kinda shaped cab. My working skills are mediocre at best, but I have good intentions
So here's what I came up with some good some so-so...
*4 player CP (mainly 4 joys for my favorite game SMASH TV, but I figured if they are there might as well slap some button on there, the orientation of the buttons actually makes for okay 4 player spacing)
*hacked PC trackball with custom 8 ball insert
*2 Thrustmaster Nascar wheels hacked to 360 spin and to Wico Trackball optics and hooked up via Oscar's trackball mouse interface
*20" Monitor
* and an IPAC4 keeping it all straight
total cost with a donated 1ghz computer was about 250. Half the controls are x-gaming and half are Happs. Like I said I am using this project to learn,and learn I did. SMASH TV and Driving games like Off Road and Super Sprint were my main motivations, and I figured if I was going to have that CP...why not experiment with different setups.
anyways that's that, I couldn't have done it without the help of the great people on this list.
NY (Oh yeah this computer I am on is notorious for not letting my upload pictures to message boards, if it doesn't get through I will find a way to post)