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Author Topic: My sweet baby... GAME (top tier rebuild)  (Read 22923 times)

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angryred

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My sweet baby... GAME (top tier rebuild)
« on: June 02, 2009, 01:03:17 am »


(above pic shows progression since this first post, updated as of 1-16-10.)

Here she is in her first fully playable version, with her original header (I have a new header, pictured below, although that one's about to get replaced too).

Before I even get going here, I need to throw out a wave of thanks to all you guys who have given me advice here, Andy at Ultimarc (who went above and beyond), the folks at Mike's Arcade, and those poor suffering souls at Electronic Parts Outlet (if you're working on a project anywhere near SW Houston, definitely check out EPO). Also, credit must go to Jeff Allen and his Supercade for inspiring me with his two-tier design.

She started out life as a Phoenix (at least that's what the nameplate on the back says). When I got her at an auction in Mesquite back in '96, she was a JAMMA cab with Escape From the Planet of the Robot Monsters complete with two Hall Effect joysticks. Worked great and an absolute steal for $85. I got a few envious looks and comments as I wheeled her out. The burn-in on the monitor (not too bad, but it's there) shows that it once ran as a Rampage as well.

I sold the Hall Effects and the metal control panel on Ebay for $130, and the Robot Monsters boards for $100. I now had my wife-proof funds to begin amassing controls.

The PC dropped into my lap; a 1.8 gHz AMD Athlon, and I put in a gig of RAM, Windows 2000, MAME32 v112, Daphne, Visual Pinball, ZSNES and other console emulators. It runs everything great up until polygons start getting involved in the 1990's. At some point I plan to replace this rig, but for now it does everything I want it to do just fine (Space invaders to Street Fighter). I already had an ArcadeVGA I had bought a couple of years ago when I meant to get started on this, but I didn't actually begin real work on the project until August of '08, and finished (apart from a few little to-do's) just before Christmas '08.
 

The top tier is the "Classics" tier. Everything is wired through an I-Pac 4 except the trackball, spinner and analog sticks:
 
2 8-way leaf switch joysticks (Mike's Arcade) for Robotron, etc.  ...mainly Robotron. Constantly Robotron.

2 4-way microswitch joysticks (also Mike's), the left one is set diagonally for Q-bert, the right one normal for Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, etc.

2 analog trigger joysticks (Saitek Cyborgs, Ebayed for 8 bucks each).  I plan on replacing the grips with Randy's awesome Tron and Satan's Hollow grips (actually, I was just waiting for the Satan's Hollow ones to happen, and when I checked the forum today I was surprised to see I had missed their debut).

1 U-Trak trackball (Ultimarc, wired to their Opti-Pac)

1 homebrew spinner (detailed below)

5 arcade buttons (Asteroids array, color coded for Mouse Trap!)

12 homebrew "Atari Volcano" buttons (buttons from EPO, "Volcanoes" crafted out of Super Sculpey). ESC, Enter, MAME settings, etc.

2 pinball flipper buttons (on sides of top tier, visible in pics toward the bottom).


The bottom tier is set up for MK/Street Fighter and 4 player games. 60 bucks bought all the lower panel controls (and the top tier buttons) in a single purchase on Ebay.

Player 1 - 1 red Happ competition joystick, 6 convex buttons, 1 concave button, 1 start button, 1 coin button.

Player 2 - 1 blue Happ competition joystick, 6 convex buttons, 1 concave button, 1 start button, 1 coin button.

Player 3 - 1 green Happ competition joystick, 3 concave buttons, 1 start button, 1 coin button.

Player 4 - 1 yellow Happ competition joystick, 3 concave buttons, 1 start button, 1 coin button.

Each joystick input on the I-Pac 4 is actually wired to two joysticks; one on the top tier, one on the bottom.  You're either on one tier or the other, and it's a great way to add other types of joysticks without needing extra inputs (or I-Pac's). For example, the left red ball stick on the top tier is wired to the same inputs as the red player 1 stick on the bottom tier.

The Logitech Steering Wheel (made for Playstation 2 Gran Turismo 3) clamps into the center bay for play, and down below when not in use. The pedals can be stashed inside the coin door bay. 

A better picture of the keyboard is below.  It's been repainted, and labeled for Thayer's Quest..! 
...No one but me has yet to be excited by that.





1. Wells-Gardner 19K7906 monitor, wired to ArcadeVGA. I can find almost nothing about this monitor.  I'd kill for a manual. But I've managed to get it to do everything *except* adjust the horizontal size-- that coil doohicky feels stuck tight. Fortunately the H size was already set pretty well, I just wanted to tweak it a tiny bit.

2. Powerstrip feeding PC, monitor, speakers and steering wheel. I secured a clothes dryer duct hose to one of the vents on the cabinet floor, then a PC fan to the other end.  The hard drive was running pretty hot until I started feeding it cool air from the floor, and I haven't had a problem since.

3. A true Frankenpanel. The U-Trak has arrived! The two red buttons in the UL are the mouse buttons. In the center is homebrew spinner v2. Serious lack of joysticks at this point.

4. Thayer's Quest stickers on keyboard.

5. Homebrew spinner v2; v1 had the same knob, but was way too flimsy. It was a Western Digital hard drive jobber that obviously wasn't going to last under any wear and tear (the shaft, mainly).  But when I went to rebuild it, I had ruined what Western Digital platter hubs I had-- and what I ended up using were 2 of the actuator arms from the butchered hard drives. They each have a small (1 1/2 cm diameter) spinning piece-- the actuator shaft-- with a screw on one side and a threaded hole on the other. They worked great, AND I found shafts at EPO that would screw into them! Another plus with the actuator arms-- they don't need to be Western Digital (to get the pre-centered hole). Of the four HD's I dismantled for this project, only 2 were WD, but all the actuator arms had a screw on one side, and a threaded hole on the other.

The knob is a cap from a gallon jug of Lactaid milk-- perfect size, and nice ridges on the side. I filled the cap with hot glue and put a plastic cylindrical spacer in the center (you can see one of the spacers on its side, in the upper right of the pic, leveling out the top wood piece of the spinner). Two screws secure the knob to a hexagonal metal shaft from EPO. That shaft screws into the hard drive actuator arm, and another shaft links it to the second arm.

The actuator arms are the two pieces with red electrical tape on their ends-- because those ends are SHARP AS HELL and I had a million tiny cuts on my fingers before I even knew it.

The two actuator arms are clamped to two L-brackets, which are in turn screwed into the wood housing. Below the actuator arms are two more short hexagonal shafts, with the spinner weight screwed tight between them. The spinner weight is a metal facing from a circular electrical socket (another Home Depot "Ah-HA!" moment).

The shaft piece underneath the weight is a male end where it's secured to the weight, and female on the other. The mouse spoke wheel is screwed into that end.

The circuit board is from a cheap Gateway mouse, whose wheel was never detected by any computer other than the original Gateway, so I decided it had to die. But what made a crappy mouse made an awesome spinner.  On the first spoke wheel I tried, following some guide I was reading (probably here), I cut out every other spoke to accomodate high speed spins; but that wheel wasn't detected well at all. On a whim, I tried the second, unmodified, wheel and it worked perfectly.

I have spun the daylights out of this thing, and I have never managed to spin it fast enough to get that jerky effect I have experienced all too-frequently on PC mice and trackballs. I have NO idea why the Gateway mouse parts worked so perfectly, but I get insanely fast motion onscreen and yet, still perfect precision. After adjustments for tension, leveling, etc., I now get 13 seconds of spin on this thing from a single good twirl. I'm working on a design for another version that will more solidly brace the actuator arms, and also reduce the depth-- it's pretty tall, about 8 inches, but the room was available in the final control panel, so the height was never really a problem.

6. Oh, yeah, the car pedals and the do-fer Logitech joystick down below.





1. The empty control panel bay.  Also, the coin mechanism has been removed to make the coin door into a storage bay for the pedals, and easy access to the 2 USB hubs (for Opti-Pac, analog sticks, steering wheel, and disco ball power. ...More on the disco ball later. ;) )

2. Beginning the design model. I bought an 8x4 sheet of 1/2" foam core insulation for $10 at Home Depot. The idea here was to build a full size, easy modifiable model so I would be sure that the controls as I had drawn them out would not be too crowded, or poorly positioned in general. MERE WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE the imagined nightmare scenarios I avoided by building this model-- in fact, this pic shows that I incorrectly positioned the center line; it's an inch off. If I had realized that after cutting wood, I'd'a cried like a baby.

The foam core is light as a feather. You can cut it with an exacto knife instead of a saw. You can attach it to the cabinet with scotch tape instead of screws. And if you screw up a cut, it's a simple matter to repair-- slice the right size/shape piece to fix it, and tape it on. And once you have the model completed, its pieces serve as crude stencils on the wood, making sure your measurements are always in the ballpark before you make an absent-minded cut.

The square pieces on the top are measured to represent the joystick footprints, so that I can move them around and make sure that the arrangement I want for my hands will fit together underneath the panel. The spinner, trackball and button footprints are drawn on, as they would not likely be moving from their centered positions.

3. The lower tier model. Center area stenciled from top tier model to indicate correct overhang. Note the curved divot in the center, inside the steering wheel footprint.

4. Looking at the two tiers stacked.

5. Adding the front 'legs' for the top tier. Once these pieces were finished, it would be time to start cutting wood. The remaining pieces would all be angled facing pieces, and would require much more precise measurements made off of the actual construct. Modeling those pieces at this point would be a waste of time. Also notice that the center divot from #3 & 4 has been replaced (yaaaaay exacto knife and scotch tape). It weakened the structure, and was unnecessary-- the top tier controls turned out to be easy and comfortable to reach.

6. "OMG this is actually going to happen.  ...OMG I better make this thing easy to take apart, 'cause it won't fit through the door like that." (All-original Super Cobra cab makes Hitchcockian cameo just before acquiring White Elephant status.)




1. Drawing out the actual lower tier, stenciled from the model then measured for accuracy and symmetry. On the table is a 2'x4' piece of 5/8" MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard). If you're unfamiliar with this stuff, it's like Super-Cardboard. No splinters, smooth as silk and very sturdy. It makes a heck of a lot of very fine dust when you put a circular saw to it, though.

I actually did all the cutting out on the 4'x 12' porch of our usptairs apartment. It took a couple of weeks before my neighbors got up the nerve to finally ask me what the heck I was doing up there.

I got a great deal at Home Depot on a cordless circular saw and cordless drill combo; for $100 I got both tools, 2 batteries, charger and carry-all, AND I got to pick another tool from the line, so I got a little router/trimmer-- and all 3 share the same rechargeable batteries.

Then I bought an 8'x 4' sheet of MDF at Home Depot and had them cut it into 4 pieces-- none of the pieces I was planning to cut were larger than 2'x 4', and if all went well, I had twice as much as I needed (plus turning the extra wood into new shelves does wonders for justifying surprise power tool purchases with the wife).

2. The top tier cut and in place! You can put your hands on it and pretend there are buttons there! ...if you're into that sort of thing. Holes cut for trackball, spinner and button array. Holding off on joystick holes until analog joystick footprints are confirmed.

3. Setting angle for top tier.

4. Wondrous quick clamps! Making sure the bulky spinner housing fits.

5. You can actually play games on this thing! Bottom tier and top tier legs cut and in. (Note the small joystick that magnetically locks on to the arrow keys. Neat little thing I got for 3 bucks at Microcenter. Yanks completely off in an even moderately heated game of Pac-man, though.)

6. Getting real measurements for the steering wheel dock pieces.





1. 8-way leafs and 4-way micros installed. Project nearly comes to complete halt as Robotron roars to life.

2. At this point I realized that if I finished the upper tier completely and painted it, I was going to be in for a lot of cramped-hand-time when I reinstalled all the controls. So I decided to paint the panels as finished so far, then reinstall the controls with all that nice open space on the sides. The remaining panels I would paint individually before securing them to the full control panel, then touch them up as needed. Also, the first Cyborg stick is in-- TRON TIME!

I painted both tiers with a semi-gloss black. The top tier got about 8 coats, then about 4 coats of clear polyethylene (tough stuff). On the bottom tier, I masked the black borders for the colored player areas, then I used a sponge to apply thick coats of the four colors. The result was a raised, rougher, bumpy texture in the red, blue, green and yellow areas, contrasted against the smoothness of the black borders. It was something I tried on a whim, and was really happy with how it came out. Then I added the 'road' to the steering wheel bay, and gave the whole thing the same 4 coats of polyethylene. Drink-spillable!

3. Another view. 1 joystick left to acquire!

4. Inside the top tier. Scary!

5. Ready for all gamers!

6. Another angle. I just like the depth suggested by the reflections in the top tier facing.




1. The new header is in, and the 80's corner is coming together (The Creepshow poster was given to me long ago by a good friend whose grandmother was in the movie-- she was the maid in Father's Day).

By now I've long since flipped the cheap cardboard bezel, painted it black, and given it a light sprinkle of silver glitter for a 'starfield' effect.

The header as seen here is pretty close to what will be the finished version (until I tire of looking at this design, anyway). There's a top layer of 'cosmic swirl' in this one that ended up looking like crap when backlit. The one I'm fixing to put in gets rid of that, and the colors look much bolder.

2. Steering wheel and pedals in place. Keyboard is hanging on pegs on the side of the cab. Look closely to the UL of the keyboard, and you can see the right flipper button (for Visual Pinball).

3. Keyboard in place for file maintenance-- or THAYER'S QUEST!!! I added some rubber feet to the underside of the keyboard in strategic positions so it can sit in that spot, well supported at all four corners, while also not pressing any buttons on the lower tier.

4. My wonderful, beautiful, understanding wife getting her Centipede on in early days.  When I snapped this pic I started worrying less about getting killed in my sleep.


On the header you can see the Tone and Volume knobs. I used a 3" hole saw on the underside of the header and put in a couple of stripped Dell speakers (there's a center hole from the original mono speaker that I covered). The header is lit by a 100 watt flourescent bulb (one of those twisty ones that fit in a regular lamp socket). I made a whitebox inside the header to spread out the light.

...Then I made my DISCO BALL!



I went to Fry's and bought a little plastic dog that plugs into a USB slot, then it humps your laptop.  I then eviscerated that randy animal, and extracted from him his tiny 5v motor with USB plug. The motor is about the size of a pencil eraser, and it spins a small screw-gear VERY fast. Then I got a packet of lightweight plastic gears at EPO, chained them small-to-large, small-to-large until I had the final rotation slowed down to about 10 RPM (by the time I had this doohicky working, it was 4am and I felt like a mad watchmaker). Hot-glued to that last gear is a 1/2 sphere of styrofoam, and I scavenged a few mirror bits (from an old disco ball that came as a package deal with my wife) and glued them to the styrofoam. BAM! USB powered micro disco ball.

The light is 3 LEDs on a bendy metal arm with a USB plug. I cut a white Bic pen into 3 small tubes and put them on the lights-- because as a wise man once told me, "the tube MAKES the disco ball". ...Well, he may not have been wise, but he could dance.

It doesn't read very well in these pics, but the colored squares on the header are coming out of a black hole-type thing. Inside the header, the light is blocked in the middle and reflected out to the sides. In the middle, the disco ball projects its whirling pattern of lights from the dark center of the black hole.


I believe I am now at the end of what must be the longest post I have ever made anywhere. I knew it would be epic, and I meant to tell my tale back in January, not long after I felt I had reached completion-- instead, Robotron is now at 384 plays. And I still have some to-do's; there are some open areas such as under the bottom tier, and a buddy of mine who works at a sign shop is going to cut some nice vinyl vector art for me.

But for now, GAME lives, and I have this post out of my system!
« Last Edit: September 05, 2012, 09:48:33 pm by angryred »

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2009, 06:19:35 am »
Looks nice.  Just a little too much control panel for my taste.

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2009, 06:47:54 am »
Wow!!  :o  That is some control panel! I'm betting people are going to go either way on this. They'll either love it or hate it. It obvious you put alot of effort into it. My 2 cents, come up with a better name tho. :)

I haven't had a chance to throughly read thru the entire thread, but can the outside players on the lower panel (yellow and green) see the screen OK? I'm betting those wouldn't work with a LCD...
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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2009, 08:11:44 am »
1. Wells-Gardner 19K7906 monitor, wired to ArcadeVGA. I can find almost nothing about this monitor.  I'd kill for a manual. But I've managed to get it to do everything *except* adjust the horizontal size-- that coil doohicky feels stuck tight. Fortunately the H size was already set pretty well, I just wanted to tweak it a tiny bit.

I'm pretty sure that the 7900 is covered by the manual and schematics for the K7000 series, although I don't think I have one, I just seem to recall having a conversation with one of the local collectors about it.

Manual and schematics can be found here:

http://www.wellsgardner.com/service/

As for payment, how far are you from genesim ? >:D

I find myself intrigued by the design of your "classic CP" -- it's still too busy for my tastes, but I like the homage that it pays to the games in question -- you picked games that you want to play and, other than playing QBert with a Nintendo stick and having the DK stick on the wrong side, I think you made good choices.

 :cheers:

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2009, 01:35:11 pm »
<blinks rapidly>

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2009, 01:50:13 pm »

Dude with that much instrumentation that thing better go zero to orbit in under 100 seconds.

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #6 on: June 02, 2009, 03:01:17 pm »
Looks nice.  Just a little too much control panel for my taste.

I knew it would be for some folks. ;)  In one post  here, someone advised me "Oh and Frankenpanels? Don't do it". By that point I had already drawn and redrawn plans that, aside from some incorrect proportions, are exactly what I ended up building. I actually did the first design right after 9/11, when I was in a frenzy of needing to create things-- the only things I remember inventing during that time, though, were these plans, a remote caddy for the coffee table, and one heck of a Dirty Martini.

Wow!!  :o  That is some control panel! I'm betting people are going to go either way on this. They'll either love it or hate it. It obvious you put alot of effort into it. My 2 cents, come up with a better name tho. :)

Ha! I danced around with that one for a while; "Megarcade" is the only also-ran I can remember.  With all the games I have running on this thing, I went ultra-minimalist on the name, really I was going for 'generic'.  I was thinking of the video game that's way back in the corner of a panel in the Sunday funnies; the cartoonist doesn't know jack about video games, so he just called it GAME.  Or VIDEO GAME.

Quote
I haven't had a chance to throughly read thru the entire thread,

Man. I don't know that I have.

Quote
...but can the outside players on the lower panel (yellow and green) see the screen OK? I'm betting those wouldn't work with a LCD...

Players 3 & 4 don't end up standing as far to the sides as it may seem. However, I still haven't gotten a real 4-player game going on this thing-- so far all visitors have either gone after Golden Age 2 players-take-turns games, or 2 player head to head fighting games.  I can't believe we still haven't gotten a game of Gauntlet going (although that's one game that does sort of lose its bite when you have infinite quarters).


1. Wells-Gardner 19K7906 monitor, wired to ArcadeVGA. I can find almost nothing about this monitor.  I'd kill for a manual. But I've managed to get it to do everything *except* adjust the horizontal size-- that coil doohicky feels stuck tight. Fortunately the H size was already set pretty well, I just wanted to tweak it a tiny bit.

I'm pretty sure that the 7900 is covered by the manual and schematics for the K7000 series, although I don't think I have one, I just seem to recall having a conversation with one of the local collectors about it.

Manual and schematics can be found here:

http://www.wellsgardner.com/service/

Aaaaah! Thank you!

Quote
As for payment, how far are you from genesim ? >:D

Phooey! I don't get the joke! Googling didn't help. But it's always easier killing strangers.

Quote
I find myself intrigued by the design of your "classic CP" -- it's still too busy for my tastes, but I like the homage that it pays to the games in question -- you picked games that you want to play and, other than playing QBert with a Nintendo stick and having the DK stick on the wrong side, I think you made good choices.

The DK switch bugged me a little, but since I knew I wanted a dedicated diagonal stick, and that meant that the other dedicated 4-way would not only be used for Donkey Kong but also all the other 4-way games-- Pac-Men in particular-- then I was gonna want that stick to be right handed.

However, one thing I did do was to set as many games' controls as I could to be able to be played right or left handed. For example, Rygar uses a stick and two buttons, one player at a time.  I mapped both Player 1 and 2 joysticks to the single inputs for Rygar, so that you can use either stick and either pair of buttons on the top tier. In the case of Donkey Kong, 3 joysticks are mapped to it; you can use the right-handed 4-way, or either of the leaf joysticks as well.  And for kids, those same inputs exist on the bottom tier, since the lower tier shares joystick inputs with the top tier.

The only real 'classic' I couldn't get on the top tier was Defender.  That has to be played on the lower tier's Player 1 area to have enough buttons easily accessible.

As far as the Q-bert stick goes, I'd really like to replace the shaft on that one and the other 4-way-- I'd prefer a red ball Pac-type for the latter-- but I have to make sure the shafts are the proper length.  I used the router to sink the leaf joys 2/8" (raising them), and spacers to lower the 2 4-way micros 2/8", giving the leaf joys another 1/2" of height over the 4-ways. That eliminated the last little bit of obstruction I had; I would brush up against the 4-ways while using the leafs at first, and now that doesn't happen at all.

From the very beginning of the plans, I was focused on getting as much as I could on there, but still leave clear paths for the hands to get to each stick.  At this point, the only time I bump another control is during VERY heated games of Robotron-- I lose my grip, my hands slip off the red balls and I whack the analog sticks. But whacking the analogs doesn't do anything to mess up the game or my play, it's losing my grip in the first place... ...and that would happen even on a dedicated Robotron.


<blinks rapidly>

20 cc's Tapper, stat!



Dude with that much instrumentation that thing better go zero to orbit in under 100 seconds.

Yeah, on Assault, Battlezone, etc. I really feel like I'm piloting a mech or something.  I think the most controls I've had going at once is with Lucky & Wild.  I got my wife to give that a go with me, so we had both analog sticks acting as do-fer light guns, along with the steering wheel and pedals.  This machine rocks.

No, I mean it really rocks. Particularly during Robotron; I was wobbling that thing all over the place, practically dragging it across the room.  It's on carpet, so that's bad, but I don't have any other choices there unless I stuff it in the kitchen or the bathroom. Also, though it does have 4 adjustable feet, one of the feet has stripped female threads-- so I can't just replace the foot. I'd have to turn the thing on its side and replace the whole assembly, and that's a pain in the ass-- especially at this point-- that I just don't want to get into.

Here's what I did: Look at #2 in the last set of pics-- the angled shot with the steering wheel attached-- then look at the top rear right corner. That little white blobbie is a rubber bumper from a shower curtain rod. I put another one on the top rear left. Then I shoved the machine into the corner as tight as I could, and inserted two chucks under the front bottom corners (visible in same pic). That thing is solid now.  Doesn't rock at all, and you can JAM on those leaf sticks.
« Last Edit: June 02, 2009, 03:03:56 pm by angryred »

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2009, 01:55:07 pm »
Ive seen worse, but theres just too many controls there.
If you're replying to a troll you are part of the problem.
I also need to follow this advice. Ignore or report, don't reply.

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #8 on: June 04, 2009, 04:26:39 am »
The CP is ---smurfin---' awesome.   I don't care what anyone says.  That is not a frankenpanel.  It's a work of art.  I'm completely serious.  That is the sort of the you wanted to see in an arcade twenty years ago. 

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #9 on: June 04, 2009, 08:14:07 am »
The CP is ---smurfin---' awesome.   I don't care what anyone says.  That is not a frankenpanel.  It's a work of art.  I'm completely serious.  That is the sort of the you wanted to see in an arcade twenty years ago. 

Not what i wanted to see in the arcade 20 years ago, and it isn't what i have seen in an arcade ever. It would have been better without the higher tier on it.

angryred

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #10 on: June 04, 2009, 11:37:42 am »
Ive seen worse, but theres just too many controls there.

Too many for what, exactly? 'Cause I can tell you that the only one that doesn't see regular use is the 4-way diagonal. Even Players 3 & 4 get used regularly for 2-player 2-joystick games.

And for me, it has too FEW controls on there-- I racked my brain trying to figure out a good way to work in a pair of Ikari Warriors rotary sticks, and just couldn't do it-- I thought about making Player 3 & 4 rotaries, for example, but didn't like the look. But I'll tell ya, since I finished, I haven't had a single instance of  "I wish I had"; the closest I've come is "I wish I could have"-- Wish I could have had 2 spinners. 2 trackballs.  ...A giant arm to wrestle.  >:D

The CP is ---smurfin---' awesome.   I don't care what anyone says.  That is not a frankenpanel.  It's a work of art.  I'm completely serious.  That is the sort of the you wanted to see in an arcade twenty years ago. 

Thanks, man.  :cheers:  I only realized when I first made this post that the whole thing was 8 years from design to completion.  Once I set down to do it, the actual accumulation of parts and the construction itself only took about three months; but by the time I was ready to start, I was completely certain about what I wanted to do.

Not what i wanted to see in the arcade 20 years ago, and it isn't what i have seen in an arcade ever. It would have been better without the higher tier on it.

See, the tiered design was what set me off in the first place (seeing Jeff Allen's Supercade).  Before that, I had been trying to come up with a way to have all that stuff on one panel, but there was just too much obstruction.  The tier completely eliminated that.

I find it a bit funny that I've been playing the hell out of this thing for five months without an iota of regret about any decision I made-- that's a rare animal--  and all this time I didn't know it was borked. 
:dunno

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #11 on: June 04, 2009, 12:15:35 pm »
Personally, I think the height of the second tier is a tad too much, but other than that, I love this concept (Hell, supercade is what I based my CP on too, as in


I went with the two trackball design, but I wish I could have gotten 4 spinners on there (mainly for warlords). It was just too tough to justify that expense for basically only one game. However, the cheap spinner based on an optical mouse thread has me thinking I might revisit that idea.

I'm also thinking I can use the p3 and 4 sticks as the second sticks for dual stick games, just haven't gotten to the point of having a PC and monitor in the cab yet to actually try it out.

I can't remember playing any rotary stick games, so I have no idea what I might be missing there, but I do recall playing dual stick topfire games, so that's another stick conversion I may attempt in the future.

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #12 on: June 04, 2009, 12:47:55 pm »
Personally, I think the height of the second tier is a tad too much...

It did end up higher than I originally planned, but that ended up being dictated by 2 things: The proper slope on the top tier, and the steering wheel bay. What ended up happening was I split the difference from the position of the original control panel.  The top tier is 6 inches above the bottom tier (at the front), so the top tier is 3 inches above the original panel position, and the bottom tier 3 inches below.

Quote
but other than that, I love this concept (Hell, supercade is what I based my CP on too, as in

I love the Armoirecade!  ;)

Quote
I went with the two trackball design, but I wish I could have gotten 4 spinners on there (mainly for warlords). It was just too tough to justify that expense for basically only one game.

Yeah, that was the decision-maker all over the place on mine.  The biggest conceit, I think, was the 4-way diagonal.

Quote
I'm also thinking I can use the p3 and 4 sticks as the second sticks for dual stick games, just haven't gotten to the point of having a PC and monitor in the cab yet to actually try it out.

It feels a little weird at first, not having the sticks exactly side by side, but that evaporates quickly. I've had good success on SmashTV and Karate Champ.

Quote
I can't remember playing any rotary stick games, so I have no idea what I might be missing there, but I do recall playing dual stick topfire games, so that's another stick conversion I may attempt in the future.

Time Soldiers was the rotary stick game I played the most,  but they're most widely known from Ikari Warriors. They have a LOT of wiring coming out of them to accommodate the eight positions of rotation.

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #13 on: June 04, 2009, 01:23:48 pm »
Hey angryred, great job dude!

I can really tell you've put a tonne of effort into your cab and it shows mate, I love how you've integrated a 4 player setup into a 2 player cab, whilst keeping the 2 player vibe of the top tier.  Really like the Yellow/Red/Blue/Green under the player controls and the little road strip in the middle is a nice touch!

Bet you can't wait to have 4 buddies around that to play Gauntlet or TMNT Arcade! :applaud:

EDIT: You're cab might have sparked an idea, on regular 2 player cabs how sweet would it be to have the two (bottom left / right) as detachable panels with little connectors, so you could just plug in the bottom 2 and slide them into place with rails or something?
« Last Edit: June 04, 2009, 01:28:29 pm by Sosetsuken »

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #14 on: June 04, 2009, 08:04:52 pm »
Nice Creepshow poster!   :burgerking:
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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #15 on: June 04, 2009, 10:47:06 pm »
I cant resist!

did you steal a big giant simon game for the bottom panel??  :laugh2:

All kidding aside,

It's too busy for me. But you built it and if you like it, hey, the BYOAC community doesnt matter!

 :cheers:

Fordman

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME
« Reply #16 on: June 24, 2009, 04:42:14 pm »
I cant resist!

did you steal a big giant simon game for the bottom panel??  :laugh2:

Just for that, I'm gonna make this @#$%er emulate Simon.  >:D


...Now with TRON and Satan's Hollow stick goodness!



I got the handles from GroovyGameGear, and mounted them to the Saitek Cyborg bases with a couple of pieces of 5/8" PVC piping (and a little help from a couple of plastic martini olive skewers). I made the faceplates (shown below) from images found on the net, tidied up and printed out on thick photo paper at 600 dpi.  The clear plastic fronts were cut from the "un-CD" that you find at the bottom of a stack of blank CD's/DVD's-- and it has the same "circular rainbow" effect that you see on an actual CD/DVD. I didn't notice that until I had the plates mounted, and walked by so the light hit them just right. An unexpected coolness.

...And last night was the application of the classic tier art.











...Still to do: the circular arrows from a Tempest cocktail for the spinner... and something for the TRON stick base.

It's good to have friends. Thanks Rick!
« Last Edit: June 25, 2009, 12:04:54 am by angryred »

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #17 on: August 05, 2009, 04:17:43 pm »
So, now that the TRON and Satan's Hollow sticks are in, they cannot be allowed to linger in improper lighting.  So it's off to Electronic Parts Outlet once again, where I end up with one of these:





Mine is a bit different from the above pics in that the white wires go to each end of the neon tube, as opposed to both on one end.

It's a cold cathode neon blacklight, and it's easily wired into the PC's 12v power (something I'm sure somebody else has done around here, but please forgive my conceit at speaking of it as an amazing discovery-- it was to me!).  I just snipped a plug from an extra PC power harness I had lying around, wired it to the red & black wires coming from the little blue box (a ballast, basically), and plugged it into the PC power.

A drawback is that the white wires coming from the ballast to the bulb cannot be lengthened, and the white wires are only about 8" long.  The wires from the ballast to the power source can be as long as you need, but you still have to consider your placement carefully if you want to conceal the blue box.

I ended up getting a 1" clear plastic tube (for aquariums) from PetSmart to mount and mask the neon tube. I painted it black while masking off an area just large enough to get a good lightspread-- the black eliminates line-of-sight to the bulb itself, while allowing the light to illuminate the control panel.



The tube is just wedged into place with a couple of thick foam rubber pieces on each end holding it in place. The assembly is so light, and I didn't want to make anything too permanent until I was sure I had it where I wanted it. The foam rubber does make it very easy to adjust the light throw, though.



I wish I was more experienced with this doggone camera.  The pics below do not really convey the brightness of the glow coming from the sticks. I could get an even stronger glow if I could figure out a good way to get the neon closer to the sticks without them getting in the way.









It really looks great in the dark now, and the neon illuminates the panel quite well while playing in a dark room.

And my father, the electrical engineer, is coming over this weekend to help me with my cap kit! Dark bars have recently cropped up on one side of the monitor, so we're gonna cap that mother.  Apart from some minor burn-in, this thing is going to look so fresh...

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #18 on: August 06, 2009, 11:48:10 pm »
For the price of all that, you could have restored 2 arcades.  Sheesh, but each to his own.

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #19 on: August 24, 2009, 03:37:34 pm »
oh my god, that has more controls than a NASA shuttle... I havent seen a panel this 'complex' in ages.  Not to my taste but I have to respect the boldness of your efforts.   It really is a tough struggle I know, to balance how many games you can play with number of controls.  I think I'd still go swappable panels though in the end, but each to his own.

Cheers.

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #20 on: September 01, 2009, 01:46:33 pm »
... It really is a tough struggle I know, to balance how many games you can play with number of controls...

Especially when I'm more of a Golden Age guy.  Games before '85 seem to have a much wider variety of odd controls, dual trackball setups, etc.  But believe me, if I had run into any major obstruction issues, I would have started crying about it by now. Every now and then I wish I had dual trackballs/dual spinners, but there was just no way to fit them in...

Dad helped me cap my monitor a couple of weeks ago, and now (apart from the Rampage burn-in) it looks SWEET!

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #21 on: September 01, 2009, 02:32:59 pm »
Quote
t's a cold cathode neon blacklight, and it's easily wired into the PC's 12v power (something I'm sure somebody else has done around here, but please forgive my conceit at speaking of it as an amazing discovery-- it was to me!)

There are lots who have done this...me included...my first cab has both a blacklight and blue cathode above bezel. :)  It is a nice way to add some additional lighting.
« Last Edit: September 01, 2009, 06:36:01 pm by Epyx »
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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #22 on: September 26, 2009, 10:10:34 am »
DUUUUUUDE !! You got a lot going on there, did you need a permit from the city for all that wiring? Holy Shnikeees.....but hey, whatever floats your boat.

I like the fact that you incorporated everything you wanted into one cabinet, you can play every game made, ever, yes, ever.

It must have taken alot of planning and time to put this together, so that alone deserves respect, It might not be for me, but it's what you wanted, and thats what this is all about here, right? 

I would have named it "Swiss Army Mame", but thats just me.....

good job man, keep on posting.

peace out....

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #23 on: September 26, 2009, 10:24:08 am »
So, now that the TRON and Satan's Hollow sticks are in, they cannot be allowed to linger in improper lighting.  So it's off to Electronic Parts Outlet once again, where I end up with one of these:

I was just going to ask what EPO was. Is it this one in Houston, Texas? That place looks quite a bit larger than my equivalent.

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #24 on: September 26, 2009, 08:54:43 pm »
DUUUUUUDE !! You got a lot going on there, did you need a permit from the city for all that wiring? Holy Shnikeees.....but hey, whatever floats your boat.

I like the fact that you incorporated everything you wanted into one cabinet, you can play every game made, ever, yes, ever.

It must have taken alot of planning and time to put this together, so that alone deserves respect, It might not be for me, but it's what you wanted, and thats what this is all about here, right? 

The trickiest part was finding all the paths my hands would take, and making sure I was never bumping into anything. ;)

I was just going to ask what EPO was. Is it this one in Houston, Texas? That place looks quite a bit larger than my equivalent.

The first link there, that's the one.  It's on Fondren between Richmond and Westpark.

http://www.epohouston.com/

It's not real big, but they have a lot of stuff crammed in there.

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #25 on: October 01, 2009, 11:51:48 am »
Well i think its pretty awsome. I myslef have a Frankinpanel (or so its been called). Mine is no where as well thought out as yours (so maybe frankinpanel is correct).. I went the Coffee tabel route. its huge, 4 players, trackball, Spinner, and 4 way. With room for a flight stick, dot spinner, and Ikiri warrior sticks (all not installed, but in boxes inside cab to be installed someday). The layered panel stuff is excellent, wish somebody had done it way back when I built my machine so I could have "borrowed" the idea myslef.

I'm the "play it, dont look at it" guy, so function counts more to me then looks (but I do think you did some nice work, love the layout and colors). I dont have the room for the one machine I have, let alone a couple so i could play games with multi controls. I built my machine so i could play arcade games with original controls first and formost.

I for one think you did some excellent work and layout.. maybe someday I will take a few ideas from yours and remake mine. One can dream  :)

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #26 on: October 01, 2009, 02:14:16 pm »
The more I look at this the more I like it. The artwork really helped. What do you spose (ballpark estimate) you spent on the CP alone? I may have to put one of these on my todo list.
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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #27 on: October 02, 2009, 11:37:58 am »
Maybe i'm about 5 months or so too late on this, but why not just wire resistors to the motor instead of the gear train?

Or even a variable resistor/potentiometer so that you can control the speed?

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #28 on: October 02, 2009, 12:52:25 pm »
Is it really comfortable to game on?  Like say if 90% of the time you are using the P1 joy and buttons, seems like you'd be holding your arms low and far to the side, and that big steering wheel is always in the way. 

Just wondering after the fact if you would ever redo the layout and say go for swappable control panels instead?  Or do you really like the Hippo Ballet cab profile?

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #29 on: October 04, 2009, 01:00:12 am »
The more I look at this the more I like it. The artwork really helped. What do you spose (ballpark estimate) you spent on the CP alone? I may have to put one of these on my todo list.


With the wood, all joysticks/buttons/trackball/etc. and then the OptiPac and IPac, it was right around $300.  But I sold the boards and Hall Effect joysticks that had been in the cabinet (it was a sad conversion to Escape From the Planet of the Robot Monsters) on Ebay for about $200 to get the whole thing started, so I was only out $100 in the end. 

I spent 100$ on a power tool set, but I don't really count that. Beyond that, adding the TRON and Satan's Hollow handles added another $50, and I still spend money on it tweaking this and that, but it was in game shape at right around $300.


Is it really comfortable to game on?  Like say if 90% of the time you are using the P1 joy and buttons, seems like you'd be holding your arms low and far to the side, and that big steering wheel is always in the way. 

The steering wheel clamps on manually, and I keep it clamped underneath the panel when not playing driving games, so it's never in the way (It's a Logitech Wheel made for Gran Turismo 3 on the PS2).

And the P1 joy/button area-- I'm assuming you're talking about the red area on the lower tier-- is wired to the same inputs as the left red ball stick and right 3 buttons on the top tier.  If I'm playing solo, the only time I use the bottom tier is for games with more than 3 buttons. It gives some nice elbow room when playing 2-player fighters.

...And when the steering wheel is stored, its little docking bay is just the right size for my gut. ;)

Just wondering after the fact if you would ever redo the layout and say go for swappable control panels instead?  Or do you really like the Hippo Ballet cab profile?


Heh.  I'm not much on swappable panels.  Although I am thinking of getting a clamp-on flight yoke; there's an empty space to stow it on the other side...


Maybe i'm about 5 months or so too late on this, but why not just wire resistors to the motor instead of the gear train?

Or even a variable resistor/potentiometer so that you can control the speed?

The blank, clueless expression on my face as I read your post would have answered your question. ;)

I bailed on the disco ball due to its size, though-- went for a brighter header and more sound resonance. Your way would be smaller, definitely, and as soon as I comprehend exactly how to do that I might give it a go. :)

The disco ball, originally, was just one of those weird tinker tangents I go off on. Sometimes I spiral off on some not very well-thought out idea and end up with some Rube Goldberg thing...

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #30 on: October 04, 2009, 11:38:03 am »
This is... intense.  I've got about half the controls you have, and it is a chore setting it up so guests know what controls to use for which game.  I can't imagine coming up with an understandable plan on that cab.  I'd love to try it out though. 
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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #31 on: October 05, 2009, 10:59:59 am »
This is... intense.  I've got about half the controls you have, and it is a chore setting it up so guests know what controls to use for which game.  I can't imagine coming up with an understandable plan on that cab.  I'd love to try it out though. 

...Yeah, bothered me too... so I made an instruction booklet, with a layout for each emulator, and keep it tucked inside the coin door.  Here's a few pages...








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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #32 on: October 05, 2009, 12:27:34 pm »




Really helps to clear things up there, doesn't it?

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #33 on: October 05, 2009, 01:08:45 pm »
Ya I dont think this would be a girlfriend friendly cab for me.  Less is more usually.

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #34 on: October 05, 2009, 02:05:24 pm »
Really helps to clear things up there, doesn't it?

:innocent stare:

...What?

(The MAME one is really more of a full map of every input. It is what it is, ya know.)

Ya I dont think this would be a girlfriend friendly cab for me.  Less is more usually.

Yeah, all that... and all my wife ever plays is Centipede. ...She sure does play a lot of Centipede, tho'...

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #35 on: October 05, 2009, 08:40:38 pm »
So what all games do you have on this monster? The keyboard pic up above for Thayers Quest and your layout for Star Control II has given me a cool idea on one of my upcoming projects. Do you have alot of "non-arcade" type games installed on this? I wouldn't mind seeing all those layouts either. I think they are cool.

Also, have you made any progress on v3 of the spinner? I'd like to see a closeup on how you used those actuator arm bearings.
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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #36 on: October 06, 2009, 08:09:58 pm »
So what all games do you have on this monster? The keyboard pic up above for Thayers Quest and your layout for Star Control II has given me a cool idea on one of my upcoming projects. Do you have alot of "non-arcade" type games installed on this? I wouldn't mind seeing all those layouts either. I think they are cool.

Right now I pretty much have all the emulators and games I want on there; though on my wishlist is a good PS2 emulator, but I don't think the PC I have in there now would run one even if a good one exists. I hardly play games on the TV anymore, since I hate taking over the living room from my wife when I have so many other options, and so my PS2 is rarely used (if I'm going to play the Wii I put that up on the video projector.  >:D ).

I can't say that I haven't thought about putting an old First-Person-Shooter on there, though... Analog joystick for movement and weapon fire, Trackball for mouse look...

So far, these are the shortcuts on the desktop:

1. MAME

2. Visual Pinball (via VPMan)

3. Dragon's Lair (via Daphne)

4. Space Ace (via Daphne)

5. Thayer's Quest (via Daphne)
(I would do more Daphne games, but I need a larger HD for all the .chd's-- ...though I am only now realizing at this very second that I could have them on a network drive, now couldn't I? Anybody out there got Daphne working that way?)

6. Super Nintendo (via ZSNES)

7. Sega Genesis (via Gens)

8. Turbo Grafix 16 (via Magic Engine)

9. NES (via FCE Ultra)

10. Colecovision (via Virtual Colecovision)

11. Atari 2600 (via Stella)

12. Game Boy Advance (via Visual Boy Advance; and it's on here for one game, one freakin' game, the hacked English translation of Mother 3-- the sequel to what we know over here as SNES Earthbound-- that was never officially released in the 'States. Earthbound freaks will understand.)

13. Star Control II (now known in open source as the Ur-Quan Masters-- free & legal at http://sc2.sourceforge.net/! It's a PC port of, primarily, the 3DO version with all voices, sounds, etc. that were exclusive to that version, plus newer music remixes and the option to choose which versions to use. It wouldn't be hard to label this my favorite game of all time-- and SC2 Super Melee rocks on an arcade panel.)

14. Typhoon 2001 (The one and only 'clone' I have-- it's a brilliant remake of Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar.  While the Jaguar was a real wasteland of a system, it was worth owning one for Tempest 2000 alone; and Typhoon lets you do the one thing you couldn't do on the Jag-- play Tempest 2000 with a spinner. You can get it at http://typhoon.kuto.de/tempest_2000.html.)

Here are the rest of the layouts I made:








Most of the emulators have assignable control schemes, but the Atari one and, I think, the Coleco one do not. I tried to add some of their emu-specific keys to the volcano button array, but I couldn't cover everything and so the keyboard has to be pulled out now and then for those 2 emu's.

Also, have you made any progress on v3 of the spinner? I'd like to see a closeup on how you used those actuator arm bearings.

Ok, so here's the panel as of this week; Mike at Mike's Arcade was kind enough to switch out the shiny black ball stick for a textured red ball, now the top tier v/h 4-way looks properly Pac-Manny. I'm not sold on the yellow disc on the 4-way diagonal. I'm looking at it. Do I hate it?



The new spinner knob. This was a base for a bizarre pen I got at a trade show-- it looks like Uncle Sam, and it has one of those plastic fiber dusters coming out of his top hat. You stuck it in this little drum base on your desk. The pen is goofy, but the little drum made a perfect fit as a spinner knob.



Top to bottom: Knob, housing (MDF scrap), actuator arm, hex shaft, actuator arm, housing, counterweight (electric socket panel), mouse guts.



I cut the housing from leftover MDF, making sure to cut two panels the exact same size, with a matching hole in each.  There's a thin screw hole on the metal portion of the actuator arm, and a larger hole on the plastic portion (though I had to use some washers as spacers under the plastic portion to make sure the arm was leveled on its base).

That's 2 points to screw down the actuator arm to its base, then I hot glued all around it (being careful not to glue the rotating part!). Repeated the process with the second actuator arm, except as a mirror image.

The hexagonal shaft connecting the two actuator arms is a double female end. The wheel of the actuator arm has a male side and a female side-- but they don't take the same size thread. To connect the two, you have to link either the two male or two female ends with a single matching shaft. 

Bring the actuator arms with you when you dig through the part bins, and make sure you get enough of both sizes-- the shafts for the knob and mouse assembly will be the same size, and the linking shaft will be another size. Wish I knew the sizes to tell you, but I figured it out by trying out the pieces by hand, and never bothered to check what the sizes were.  But if you have the arms with you, it doesn't take long to figure out which ones to buy (and BREAK OFF the sharp metal ends of the actuator arms before you go running around with them, or you'll have a million tiny razor cuts on your fingers before you know what's happened).



Once I got the 2 actuator arm bases finished, I made the walls of the housing: 2 more pieces of scrap MDF cut square, then glued and screwed into and L-shape, making 2 walls. Then  I clamped in the actuator arm bases and pre-drilled the screw holes, then glued and screwed those in.

EPO didn't have many hex shaft pieces of the size I used for the linking shaft.  If they did, I would have put the counterweight between the actuator arms, and made the whole thing more shallow.



A couple of l-brackets jerry-rigged together hold the mouse board in position. The popsicle stick braces the peg on the underside of the optical wheel.  I found it easier to use hot glue when assembling this thing, as I could make fine adjustments as the glue cooled, and get it just right.

Even so, I added a little screw to make finer adjustments to the distance between the wheel and optical sensors (I broke my last mouse board when I started this rebuild, and the replacement mouse was a lot more finicky). The best way to go about this, though, would depend on the mouse board.



The last time I checked, I got 17 seconds of spin on this thing with my most Olympic-level twist.  And with making sure to really eliminate any unwanted flexibility along the way-- permanently mounting the actuator arms directly to the solid housing is what finally did it this time-- this thing is now solid.

One thing I have learned, though, is the real difference between a Tempest spinner and an Arkanoid spinner. The counterweight on this one makes for a great Tempest spinner, but it's a lot harder to control Arkanoid-- the weight works against you with the constant tiny movements, as opposed to the frenetic spin-stop-spin-stop style of Tempest. But if I reduce the counterweight to make Arkanoid easier to control, Tempest suffers.... Tempest wins for now.

Epyx

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #37 on: October 06, 2009, 09:38:37 pm »
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it's a brilliant remake of Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar.

Agreed. Fantastic game.

Quote
and Typhoon lets you do the one thing you couldn't do on the Jag-- play Tempest 2000 with a spinner.

Actually, the Project Tempest emulator has spinner support.

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Sega Genesis (via Gens)

Kega Fusion is much better imo. Give it a whirl if you haven't already.

http://www.eidolons-inn.net/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=565

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LeedsFan

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #38 on: October 07, 2009, 01:37:22 am »




Really helps to clear things up there, doesn't it?

Over half of those labels are just for the player buttons though. Personally I would just have one arrow pointing to each player with a single label like "Player 1". That would clean the card up quite a bit. I think it's a cool idea though that you made these little cards.

angryred

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Re: My sweet baby... GAME (new pictures)
« Reply #39 on: October 07, 2009, 02:48:11 am »
Quote
and Typhoon lets you do the one thing you couldn't do on the Jag-- play Tempest 2000 with a spinner.

Actually, the Project Tempest emulator has spinner support.


Well, what it has, is the spinner support that was present in the actual Jaguar version, but which was never implemented, and no controller was made to take advantage of it. They didn't have to create support for it, as it was already there. :)

However, I couldn't get T2K via Project Tempest to run smoothly on this rig, and that's what pushed me, reluctantly, into looking at clones-- and I'm really glad I did, because Typhoon 2001 really is fantastic. If you like T2K, I strongly recommend giving it a play. Same music, everything. And they update some of the more raster-y looking enemies, like the demon head, to stuff that looks more geometric and better blends with the Tempest style; but if you want to play with the pure Jaguar look, you can.

Quote
Sega Genesis (via Gens)

Kega Fusion is much better imo. Give it a whirl if you haven't already.

http://www.eidolons-inn.net/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=565

Thanks, I will do so! I lost track of the state of emulation of certain systems, so when I loaded up this machine I just got updated versions of the emu's I'd been using for the past ten years or so.  I'm always looking for an upgrade to the emu's I have on there, as long as I can run them well.