Coleco Tabletop multi-game cabinet mod + USB joystick project

[Yvan256]

Hello everyone,

here is my first project announcement: ColeCade!


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Parts used:

• old Coleco tabletop cabinet (a beat-up Pac-Man found on eBay, seen above - don't worry, it was extremely far from mint condition and the internals have been stored aside for any potential buyer)
• a Hip Screen Pad with a built-in 2.5" LCD
• 12-in-1 Retro Arcade Pac-Man joystick

I plan on making a custom control panel and add a LED backlight to a custom marquee. The marquee area of the Coleco cabinet has already been cut in preparation for that.

Not a lot of pictures so far, but most of you will already be able to picture the end result with the description above.

I know it doesn't compare to a lot of projects listed here, but this one is my little baby.

[Yvan256]

Small update: I just bought a Jakks 12-in-1 Pac-Man Retro Arcade on eBay, which will replace the Ms. Pac-Man joystick I was planning on using.



I'll install the Ms. Pac-Man pcb into a small wooden case with real arcade parts (I got spares lying around) and that will make a nice gift, IMHO.

Why the change? Well, I had my eyes on that 12-in-1, I was kind of sad to be doing a 5-in-1 when a 12-in-1 was available, I wasn't happy that I wouldn't have Dig Dug in the 5-in-1, etc. Better switch right now than in the middle of the project.

I also think it's better to have Pac-Man and Super Pac-Man in a Pac-Man Coleco tabletop rather than Ms. Pac-Man... 

That tiny marquee is going to be quite full with game names now... And I thought it was hard trying to fit 5 names in there... imagine 10! (no, I'm not going to put Pac Pals and Pac-Man Plus on the marquee, I never even heard of those games before) 

[chrisdfw]

I love mini projects!  Keep us posted!

Do the Jakk's games allow alternating two player or is it single player only?

[Yvan256]

The Ms. Pac-Man I have is single player. I'm guessing the 12-in-1 is also single player. Not that it matters anyway, you can always alternate players by trying to beat each other's scores. 

[Yvan256]

I received my 12-in-1 joysticks today. Time to open the box, open the packages, test the joysticks and then open up the joysticks themselves! Hours of fun ahead.


More updates available on my website, project page listed in the first post.

[severdhed]

very cool little project..

[Yvan256]

Here is one of the joystick, in its magnificent almost-impossible-to-open clamshell plastic packaging.



The joystick itself is much nicer than the Ms. Pac-Man joystick. The menu button is made to look like a coin slot with the eject button and is even backlighted by a small red LED. There's no diffuser for the LED however, so it doesn't look quite right.

There is fake T-molding which is part of the plastic shell itself and the top is at a small angle like a real arcade control panel. The buttons seem to be the same size as real arcade buttons and the joystick shaft even looks metallic. It would be a shame to discard the casing and controls, so I will try to retrofit the Ms. Pac-Man board into this joystick. Worst case scenario, I will convert it into a regular joystick for a game console or something.

I did test the first joystick and tried all games to make sure everything was working properly, wasted an hour doing that. Talk about hours of fun ahead!

There's only four screws to remove at the bottom and the whole thing can be taken apart easily. Don't worry about the four top screws for the joystick and the four screws for the "coin door" panel, those are actually fake screw heads molded into the plastic shell.



Be careful, the front panel has to slide up vertically along with the top of the joystick, and there is two wires for the batteries connected to the main board.

As you can see, there's not much to it. The buttons and joystick are obviously not arcade-grade, even if they're made with what looks like miniature arcade microswitches. You can bet they're not Cherry microswitches.



The main board is very small, only 56 × 52 × 11 mm, and could be fitted into something much smaller than a Coleco tabletop.

The secondary board, which holds the menu button, the power LED and power switch, is only 53 × 18 × 11 mm, but I'm going to replace it with other parts for the Coleco cabinet and keep this board intact and put it back into the joystick.

[Jigenjuke]

Yvan256, any progress on this?

Jigenjuke

[Yvan256]

Yvan256, any progress on this?

Jigenjuke

Sorry Jigenjuke, it's still on my desk collecting dust for the moment, but at least I still have all the parts for it. Once my CNC64 project is finished and working, I'll be able to continue all my other projects. I'm planning a CNC-cut plexiglass display and CNC-cut control panel with a Grayhill 04A-B01 for ColeCade.

The really sad part is that Canadian Tire had the 12-in-1 on sale about two or three years ago. I didn't have enough money at the time otherwise I would have bought at least a dozen. These are cheap, nice compact boards with a good game selection.

edit: I do plan on converting the joystick itself into a HID USB joystick. A tiny AVR microcontroller will suffice.

[Jigenjuke]

Yvan256, any progress on this?

Jigenjuke

Sorry Jigenjuke, it's still on my desk collecting dust for the moment, but at least I still have all the parts for it. Once my CNC64 project is finished and working, I'll be able to continue all my other projects. I'm planning a CNC-cut plexiglass display and CNC-cut control panel with a Grayhill 04A-B01 for ColeCade.

The really sad part is that Canadian Tire had the 12-in-1 on sale about two or three years ago. I didn't have enough money at the time otherwise I would have bought at least a dozen. These are cheap, nice compact boards with a good game selection.

Wow, 12-in-1!  That would have been great!  Ambitious project!   Hopefully after the Gallery showing I will be starting some Micro cabinets with iPad touches.  They won't be as small as Bender's Donkey Kong, but hopefully I will be able to hack a micro trackball to work with a Wiimote and I will be able to get a Micro Centipede going as well as a few others.   Your CNC project is looking great by the way!

Jigenjuke.

[Yvan256]

Wow, 12-in-1!  That would have been great!  Ambitious project!   Hopefully after the Gallery showing I will be starting some Micro cabinets with iPad touches.  They won't be as small as Bender's Donkey Kong, but hopefully I will be able to hack a micro trackball to work with a Wiimote and I will be able to get a Micro Centipede going as well as a few others.   Your CNC project is looking great by the way!

Jigenjuke.

I do have the 12-in-1. In fact I have two of these! I also have one Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga/Mappy/Pole-Position/Xevious joystick.

Thanks, I can't wait to complete CNC64. I had issues with the Z-axis but it turns out it I was using a bad section of the threaded rod. The stepper motor can almost drive the whole X-axis plus the Z-axis plus the B&D RTX up and down. So without the weight of the X-axis it shouldn't have any problem. I'm keeping an eye out for a cheap and (very) short 8mm acme/trapezoidal screw.

[Yvan256]

I didn't realize that project was started four years ago. 

Here's a small update…

I've cleaned the main board of the 12-in-1 game, and one thing quickly became apparent: whoever designed the PCB may have had modders in mind because almost all the wires connections are spaced 0.1" and all the connections are labeled!

I was able to solder pin headers for all the connections except the two wires for the battery/power supply. This will make a very neat installation inside the little cabinet.

The first photo is the main PCB with the "coin door" PCB, both upgraded to pin headers. The second photo shows where I plan to install the main PCB inside the Coleco case. If it's not clear from the photo, it will sit inside, on top of the battery compartment, maybe glued in place with two-sided adhesive foam.

There's one problem with the LCD display from the PS2 gamepad, I forgot to take notes about which wires does what when I dismantled it, but there's only 7 wires, 3 of which are near the headphone jacks, two which go to the power switch and two other which go to the PCB connected to the LCD panel (composite signal). I can easily see which one of the power wire is the ground, so the worst that should happen is a cross-wiring of the composite signal which should not be fatal to the electronics and easily switch around if needed.

And inside the case, where I had stored all the parts for the build, I found four tiny microswitches that I even forgot I had. I was planning to build my own tiny joystick! With the help of either my Roland MDX-3 or my CNC64 project, I'll cut a tiny plastic block and make my own instead of buying that Grayhill 04A-B01. I'll probably base the design on the Seimitsu LS-32, which is more or less a sandwich of cut plates. I should be able to do something at least half-decent with my CNC. The 3rd, 4th and 5th photos are those microswitches, the last one being in a joystick pattern. The dimensions of the joystick, including the soldering tabs, should be around 40x40mm.

If the result is good enough, I could start making these tiny arcade joysticks for people who build tiny cabinets as an alternative to that Grayhill 04A-B01 joystick. Mine will be bigger, but as far as I know we currently have a void in our choices as far as size is concerned. It's either the very tiny 04A-B01 or a full-size Sanwa or Seimitsu joystick.

The two buttons will be the all-black Sanwa SDM-20 I ordered from ArcadeShop.de a while back when I also ordered the all-white SDM-20 for my MVS-99-6 project.

Also, since the 12-in-1 joystick includes Pole Position, I'll try and add a tiny steering wheel to my control panel. The LEGO Technics #4125213 would be a good part even if it doesn't look like the real Pole Position steering wheel, unless someone has a better idea? I could also try to cut my own on the CNC from thin aluminium but I doubt I would be able to make something even half-decent.

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there Yvan256, lookin' good. 

About the steering wheel...

How about a steering wheel from a larger plastic model.  Some of the larger ones are pretty sturdy.

Jigenjuke

[404]

Also, since the 12-in-1 joystick includes Pole Position, I'll try and add a tiny steering wheel to my control panel. The LEGO Technics #4125213 would be a good part even if it doesn't look like the real Pole Position steering wheel, unless someone has a better idea? I could also try to cut my own on the CNC from thin aluminium but I doubt I would be able to make something even half-decent.

maybe you can check out this guy's dedicated outrun mini for some inspiration

http://www.elotrolado.net/hilo_outrun-mini-la-mini-recre-con-volante_1314708_s80

[Yvan256]

Jigenjuke, what did you mean by "a larger plastic model"?

404: The idea isn't bad but if you ask me what it looks like, I have to say it's a tire, not a steering wheel.

I could also cut an aluminium plate on my CNC and fold it, after all the Pole Position steering wheel design was relatively simple. I forgot about the shifter though, I'll have to hack temporary controls to see how it played. I don't want to open up my spare unit, the value keeps going up on eBay!

[Jigenjuke]

Jigenjuke, what did you mean by "a larger plastic model"?

404: The idea isn't bad but if you ask me what it looks like, I have to say it's a tire, not a steering wheel.

I could also cut an aluminium plate on my CNC and fold it, after all the Pole Position steering wheel design was relatively simple. I forgot about the shifter though, I'll have to hack temporary controls to see how it played. I don't want to open up my spare unit, the value keeps going up on eBay!

What I meant was maybe possibly buying a Plastic Model Car Kit from Revell or one of the other companies.  Most of them are probably 1/24 scale but sometimes you can buy an 1/8th scale model or a 1/10th scale model.  Rip the steering wheel from the kit. 

http://www.revell.com/model-kits/cars/index.html

Jigenjuke

[Yvan256]

What I meant was maybe possibly buying a Plastic Model Car Kit from Revell or one of the other companies.  Most of them are probably 1/24 scale but sometimes you can buy an 1/8th scale model or a 1/10th scale model.  Rip the steering wheel from the kit. 

Oh, those model kits.

Does anyone know if the Pole Position steering wheel was based on a real racing car? It would help in my searches, model kits or not.