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Author Topic: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller  (Read 3778 times)

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DJ_Izumi

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A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« on: December 21, 2009, 04:45:34 am »
I've had this idea in my head and I've wanted to discuss it to see if it's fesable or not.  Obviously the game in mind is Pinball Hall Of Fame, The Williams Collection and maybe if anything else comes out like say 'The Bally Collect'?  I can dream.  The standard controller is pretty good for pinball but I thought it'd be neat to make a pinball controller that could then sit atop a table/desk when the game is being played.

Easy Necessities:
Left and right trigger or shoulders mounted to the sides for the flippers.  (This is the easy one)
A, B, X, Y face buttons to allow menu navitation and change of camera views.
D-Pad to allow further menu navigation.

Hard Necessities:
An accelerometer capable of being wired in as the 360 controller's left analog stick for nudging.  Something that can have it's sensitivity dialed too as it's going to be a lot easier to nudge something the size of a desktop podium rather than a full sized pinball table.
A plunger that can be wired to the right analog stick and extend from the netural point to it's maximum downward direction.

The last two are what stump me, especially the nudge functions.  But I think the end results could be pretty neat.  Anyone have any ideas?

HaRuMaN

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2009, 09:37:46 am »
Yeah... your last two aren't gonna happen.

Ginsu Victim

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2009, 09:53:44 am »
Yeah... your last two aren't gonna happen.

And if this man says it, you can believe it.

DJ_Izumi

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2009, 02:09:02 pm »
Yeah... your last two aren't gonna happen.

And those are the two that are necessary to even make it worth while. :(

Malenko

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2009, 02:11:45 pm »
meh, couldnt you just super glue something to the analog sticks? like one that nudges left and right, and then another one for the plunger?

maybe youre over thinking it.
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.

bkenobi

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2009, 02:36:01 pm »
You could make nudge work similar to the tilt detector.  In it's simplest form, you would have the controller hung upside down with a pendulum of sorts hung from the analog stick.  When you bump the box, the pendulum swings a bit and nudges the game.  There are certainly more elegant ways, but this would be possible without any major work IMO.

HaRuMaN

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #6 on: December 21, 2009, 02:44:29 pm »
You could make nudge work similar to the tilt detector.  In it's simplest form, you would have the controller hung upside down with a pendulum of sorts hung from the analog stick.  When you bump the box, the pendulum swings a bit and nudges the game.  There are certainly more elegant ways, but this would be possible without any major work IMO.
:cheers:

That would work, given a pendulum with enough mass.

A mechanical solution could be done for the plunger, too, come to think of it.  You could simply attach a string to the end of the plunger and tie it to the other analog stick.

bkenobi

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2009, 02:47:01 pm »
Yup!  The weight and length of the pendulum would be the adjustments for sensitivity.  I would think a solid bar would work better than a string/wire for this.  I'd have to tinker to make it work, but I think the concept is feasible.

Ginsu Victim

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #8 on: December 21, 2009, 02:52:08 pm »
With a string/wire, you would want the plunger to only pull the analog stick once the plunger is pulled all the way out. That way you couldn't put too much pull on the stick. A solid bar sounds like a bad idea because you would put too much stress on the analog stick and you would lose the proper range of motion that the plunger needs to feel like a real pinball machine.

Edit: Did I just confuse two different things? Maybe you were talking about the pendulum setup...
« Last Edit: December 21, 2009, 02:53:46 pm by Ginsu Victim »

HaRuMaN

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #9 on: December 21, 2009, 02:56:39 pm »
He was talking about the pendulum (and I agree, a solid bar would work better).

With the plunger, you could just add enough slack to the string so it wouldn't pull the analog stick until fully pulled.


bkenobi

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2009, 02:57:26 pm »
Yeah, solid bar for the pendulum.  The plunger you might want a spring on it to avoid breaking.

Ginsu Victim

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2009, 02:58:58 pm »
With the plunger, you could just add enough slack to the string so it wouldn't pull the analog stick until fully pulled.

Which is what I was saying.

DJ_Izumi

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #12 on: December 21, 2009, 03:55:18 pm »
http://www.nanotechent.com/digitalplunger.php

I read about someone using one of these in his attempts to make a 360 pinball controller.  While he successfully hooked it up to the 360's analog stick as the input, it could only move about an inch before the 360 controller had reached it's maximum movement that it could send to the 360.  So when he fully pulled the plunger, it went well beyond what the controller expected and like 'rolled over' to be going up or something. 

Ginsu Victim

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #13 on: December 21, 2009, 04:04:52 pm »
$160? Ouch.

HaRuMaN

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #14 on: December 21, 2009, 04:05:49 pm »
$160? Ouch.

My idea will work, and is cheaper to boot.   :D

Ginsu Victim

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Re: A Xbox 360 Pinball Controller
« Reply #15 on: December 21, 2009, 04:11:47 pm »
True dat.