My First Build (Any and All Help Appriciated)

[Fishinfiend]

Hi, new here and I am looking at building an arcade machine. It will start out as a control panel and eventually turn into a full size cabinet.  What I am thinking is either making a 2 or a 4 person arcade with possible IR Light Guns. So, I have a few questions first:

1.   Why do most 4 person CPs have 6 buttons for player 1 and 2 and 4 for 3 and 4? Are there no games that use more than 4 for 3 or more players?

2.   Are there any games that are either 4 players or 2 player duel sticks that use 4-way joysticks or are those all 8-way?  I seen already SmashTV is a duel 8-way joystick games.

3.   I am in the states and new to Arcade Controls and I am wondering who makes good equipment and where to get it from? As I have been looking around so far, I have kind of been drawn to Ultimarc and there equipment.

4.   Any thoughts on spinners?

So, far I think I have decide on the color scheme of P1 Blue, P2 Red, P3 Green and P4 Yellow. Looking sort of like this:
http://retroarcadeslive.com/Images/neonfp.jpg
but with black, white and player color in that order from joystick.

Also, I believe I have decided on the player 1 and 2 layout of this but no pinkie row and add a 7th button by about the 63mm words on this design:
http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout/clusters36_m.png

The joystick that I am kind of liking currently is the Servostik from Ultimarc because easy change from 4 to 8-way modes by either software or push of a button.  Any other recommendations will be noted. 

For control buttons, I was thinking the Goldleaf from Ultimarc but will change if any better cause choose them for what I thought what would be nice no other reason.

I am debating on getting a track ball.  It would be nice to play Golden Tee and Bowling on it.  Any other games that would use it?

Looking at the I-Pac for the interface.

Also, looking at getting an IR light gun. I am debating between the Arcade Guns gun or the Aimtrak. Will be used for Duck Hunt on my RetroPie and after it is working it will be turned into a NAS Zapper looking gun.

I do like ChanceKJ build Flynn's Arcade looks and layout as well.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,135116.0.html

P.S. Sorry about the links for the pics.

[Fishinfiend]

Saved!!!

[Fishinfiend]

Saved!!!

[Fishinfiend]

Did a little sketch last night and I came up with 3 designs.  What do you think?  Which one looks like the best design?

The bottom right panal on the cabinet side is 38 5/8 in. from radius to radius and overall width for all 3 is just over 6 ft.  Is that big or is that about what they come up to for a 4 person machine?

[tomstewdevine]

Hey Dude,

Cool that you are wanting to build your own arcade.  Its a super rewarding process and tons of fun.  I think the main reason no one has responded to your post is because all the answers you asked have been answered hundreds of times on this website.

I would suggest scrolling through the hall of fame, and the recently completed threads.  They should open up ideas for you and answer a lot of your questions.

1.) No games you would want to play.
2.) All 8 way
3.) Ultimarc is fine
4.) Don't need it unless you already have a game in mind that you want to play.
- Lots of games use a track ball besides golden tee and silver strike.
- Ipac is fine
- No comment on your gun situation

IMO Personally I think you are trying to do to much with one arcade. Its going to be to big.  You are getting way ahead of yourself because you want things like spinners, guns and trackballs, but you are not even sure why you want them.  Also there is only a handful of 4 player arcade games, how often are you going to have 3 other people to play with at the same time. Once you beat X-Men, Simpsons and Turtles are you going to want to play it again and again? Also you mentioned duck hunt which is a NES game.  Are you wanting console games on your arcade, because they mostly suck playing with arcade controls. Maybe you know what you want and you are just going to do it, but after being on this forum for the past year or so I can honestly say that my tastes have changed drastically.  Before i built anything I thought it would be so cool to have 1 arcade cabinet that could do everything.  But after seeing a lot of projects come and go, and a lot of advice given from long standing members my taste in DIY arcade has been changed to appreciate the old school look of the original machines.  I would say Blip and Echo Base are the best examples of keeping it old school and modern at the same time and they are my two favorite cabinets in this forum.

But that is only one mans opinion, and I will be paying attention to your thread, good luck with your build.

[vwalbridge]

IMO Personally I think you are trying to do to much with one arcade. Its going to be to big.  You are getting way ahead of yourself because you want things like spinners, guns and trackballs, but you are not even sure why you want them.  Also there is only a handful of 4 player arcade games, how often are you going to have 3 other people to play with at the same time. Once you beat X-Men, Simpsons and Turtles are you going to want to play it again and again? Also you mentioned duck hunt which is a NES game.  Are you wanting console games on your arcade, because they mostly suck playing with arcade controls. Maybe you know what you want and you are just going to do it, but after being on this forum for the past year or so I can honestly say that my tastes have changed drastically.  Before i built anything I thought it would be so cool to have 1 arcade cabinet that could do everything.  But after seeing a lot of projects come and go, and a lot of advice given from long standing members my taste in DIY arcade has been changed to appreciate the old school look of the original machines.  I would say Blip and Echo Base are the best examples of keeping it old school and modern at the same time and they are my two favorite cabinets in this forum.

But that is only one mans opinion, and I will be paying attention to your thread, good luck with your build.

+1 right here ^.


I remember seeing this thread but forgot to comment. Now it has bubbled up again so I'm throwing in my 2 cents. I like what tomstwedevine had to say. You seem very well organized but you might be biting off a huge mouthfull of work. Those control panel renders are absolutely massive. Are you sure you want a CP that big?  In addition, there seems to be a lot of wasted space. Especially on the ends.

I'm personally not a huge fan of 4P games because there are not a ton of them and you usually need 3+ players all the time to really get the full experience. Don't get me wrong...nothing wrong with a 4P cab. I just think a 2P cab is more "right sized" and hits a sweet spot. I don't want to discourage you from building a 4P cab, it's just a lot of work and one would want to be sure to use it enough.

Good luck. The more pictures you submit, the more feedback you will get. 

[EMDB]

P.S. Sorry about the links for the pics.

You can add [ img ][ /img ] tags (without the spaces) around the link to let them show inline like this:

[yotsuya]

Since you're asking...

#1. The only thing in this hobby that is over 6 feet should be an actual upright cabinet, not a control panel.

#2. I like the fact that you did your research with the amount of buttons per player. Good for you.

#3. Do you really need three mouse buttons by the trackball?

Good luck!

[rablack97]

1.  No sir, there wasnt a 4 way streetfighter game ever built, hence 4 is the max for p3 and p4.

2. No sir, there wasn't a dual action pacman every built, hence the restrictor plates on 8 ways sticks for conversion.  A single 4 way jstick on a CP looks like crap if you have spinners and tball included.

3.  Tornado Terrys, Twisted Quarter, Ultimarc, Paradise Arcade are who i use.  Ultimarc isn't in the states but Andy ships fast.

4. You won't use it unless your a tempest junkie or plan to pop a steering wheel on it for driving games.

5. Tball, unless your a bowling, goldentee, millipede, centipede, or missle command junkie you wont need it.  You don't need any buttons for the tball on your control panel.

6. I-Pac has also been the go to encoder.

7.  Lightgun, MEHH, its a hell of chore to conifg for MAME games.

Really dig into what your gonna play and how much company your really plan to have over, after the hype dies down, you dont want F-15 Skyhawk sitting in your living room with only you and a buddy playing it.

Learn from those that have been there done that, you dont need every peripheral known to man sitting on that CP, as my man Yotsuya would say keep it classy and easy on the eyes.  In a few months you want to say hey thats a nice machine, not damn i think i did too much.

Have fun regardless and good luck, and its your machine, do whats you want, folks will give you advice, your at liberty to use it or ignore it man.

[Aceldamor]

You can sort / filter by control type.

I'd check out what spinner and TBall games there are and make your decision based on that.

I personally liked Marble Madness, Rampart, Crystal Castles, as well as some of the "Party" Tball games like GT and SS Bowling, so I went Track ball. Additionally, you could always just use one of the axis on the Tball to act as a spinner and do it that way if your TBall has some spin on it, not as efficient, but an alternative to trying to decide between the two.

[Token]

Lots of good advice so far.

I'll just add a bit more...

The CP is too wide, even for a 4-player. Too much empty space, and no need for those trackball buttons.

You need a start button for each player.

I would recommend that unless you have some specific light gun games that are must-haves, reconsider the light guns. They are expensive and challenging to set-up.

For the trackball and spinner, make a list of must-have games and see if they require these controls. I initially planned on a spinner until I realized there really weren't any spinner games I had to have (but I kept the trackball!). You could also do the same for 4-player games.

The best advice I've read here is to take your time and research before cutting wood or buying controls. Looks like you are doing that now, so kudos!

Have fun and good luck!

[harveybirdman]

Also Widescreen cabinets are ---smurfing--- stupid err are the devil err I mean asthetically unpleasing in my opinon, if you're going LCD mount it vertically like Token did in Moonshot!

[Fishinfiend]

1st narrowed up the CP to 48 in. will post plan tomorrow.

2nd there are at least 3 games that I would like for Tball.

3rd I would like 4 sticks for SmashTV.

4th the light gun is just a side project for a RetroPie system. Anyways if I was to do light guns it would be in a 2 sceen dedicated cab to play Time Crisis on.

5th if spinner is for basically racing games then that would be another cab.

6th like the idea of mounting sceen vertically.

7th what admin buttons are all needed?  For volume i am going to have a knob by the power buttons on side or back or back of CP will decide when that far.

8th where an you search for games by control type and players?

Thanks for the help so far.

[rablack97]

There's a few program out there that will create your mame xml based on the criteria you want, Romlister i think it is, and dons hyperspin tools is pretty good too.

Admin buttons....

GO, Exit, Pause are the norm, some folks have a tools/menu button for the mame menu.

Then just start and credit for each player.

[PL1]

7th what admin buttons are all needed?

The FAQ is your friend.   

http://newwiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?title=FAQ#Number_of_admin_buttons


Scott

[matsadona]

Go with a full cabinet from start, and don't be ashamed of doing a 1:1 copy of the uprights at this site: http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/

Stick with 2 players. Keep it simple and finish the project. Sooner or later you will build a second project, then you can have spinners or trackballs (instead of joysticks).

Go with the servo sticks, since classic games like Pacman can't be played properly with 8-way sticks. Having both 4-way and 8-way sticks on the same panel only gives you a nomination to the Frankenpanel awards.

Decide if you want to have click or leaf buttons. Buy one of each and build a simple mock up and try them out for a while.

If you miss the old console games - buy a Raspberry Pi and keep them away from the arcade project.

[Fishinfiend]

There's a few program out there that will create your mame xml based on the criteria you want, Romlister i think it is, and dons hyperspin tools is pretty good too.

Yes ROMLister is correct, but I can't create the master xml file to do the searching. Could you or possibly someone else in the forum supply me with one?

Go with servo sticks,

I was planning on that for my joysticks.

If you miss the old console games - buy a Raspberry PI and keep thme away from the arcade project.

Already got an Pi with a pair of both NES and SNES controllers. Now, I would like an IR gun to play Duck Hunt and after I get that working I am going to gut an IR gun and install it in a Zapper for the total NES feel.

So in other words drop guns, Pi, and console games.

Go with a full cabinet from start, and don't be ashamed of doing a 1:1 copy of the uprights at this site: http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/

I am going to go full cabinet but first I am going to build the panel or at least a mock up and get that up and running before I finish that cabinet because then it is easier to configure and troubleshoot the CP in the comfort of my desk with out having to stand up at the cabinet.

[Fishinfiend]

Here are my updated designs.  Top panel is a 4 person and bottom is 2 with 2 joysticks per person.

Top CP is 48 by 18 and bottom is 34 by 17.75.

Middle 2 top buttons are pause and exit and the rest are player buttons.  For player coins I was thinking of getting a coin door and rigging the eject buttons with a switch so when pressed that player would get the credit.

Side question:
How hard is it to swap out JLF restrictor plates to go from 4 to 8 or is a LS-32 easier? The reason I asked is cause I would maybe like this on the middle two joysticks.  http://www.focusattack.com/jlf-link/

[Fishinfiend]

Just placed my order with ULTIMARC. Went with just 2 joysticks to start out with and the Happ buttons but either way I think my cp is going to look similar to my 2 person 4 joystick layout.

Here is what I ordered:

1 - CBCL01GRN Classic Pushbuttons from Happ Controls.
Color: Green

2 - CBCL01BLU Classic Pushbuttons from Happ Controls.
Color: Blue

1 - CBCL01YEL Classic Pushbuttons from Happ Controls.
Color: Yellow

6 - CBCL01WHT Classic Pushbuttons from Happ Controls.
Color: White

6 - CBCL01BLA Classic Pushbuttons from Happ Controls.
Color: Black

3 - CBCL01RED Classic Pushbuttons from Happ Controls.
Color: Red

1 - I-PAC 2 Interface.

1 - CTUB01 Optional Trim Bezel for U-Trak

2 - CSS01REDBL ServoStik
Color: Red Ball Top

1 - PSSC01+LU02 ServoStik Control Board

1 - CBCL01ST2 Start Logo Pushbuttons White.
Logo: Start2
 
1 - CBCL01ST1 Start Logo Pushbuttons White.
Logo: Start 1
 
1 - CTUT01WHT U-TRAK FlushMount Arcade Trackball.
Color: U-Trak CueBall white

[Fishinfiend]

Recieved my order from Ultimarc and all I have to say is that was fast.  So, I did some mock ups of the CP, and what do you think?


https://flic.kr/p/CmB7TL


https://flic.kr/p/CKBWje

[Slippyblade]

Recieved my order from Ultimarc and all I have to say is that was fast.

Yeah, Andy is known for having insanely fast delivery times. 

[Fishinfiend]

Sorry for such a big break but was figuring out how to do  before cutting but either way this is what my cp looks like before paint and rounding of corners.

Still trying to figure out a theme, any suggestions?

[Fishinfiend]

Back from a big break on the project here is what I got designed for my marquee and FE.

[Fishinfiend]

Sorry here is a Screenshot of my FE.

[Fishinfiend]

Got my computer for it and my coin door and did a little bit of cutting and building of the cabinet.

Also what height do you put a coin door at?

Side note, 22 clamps to hold the 2 sides together when copying side one to side 2.

[JDFan]

Back from a big break on the project here is what I got designed for my marquee and FE.

One thing -- In the marquee you might want to make the design a bit smalle and leave a border around the whole thing -- remember you are probably going to have bracketing holding it in place that will cover some portion of the marquee and the way it is right now it will cover up quite a bit of the lettering.

[Fishinfiend]

One thing -- In the marquee you might want to make the design a bit smalle and leave a border around the whole thing -- remember you are probably going to have bracketing holding it in place that will cover some portion of the marquee and the way it is right now it will cover up quite a bit of the lettering.

Thanks for that info.  I never gave that a thought