Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: redfivexw on February 28, 2006, 11:45:04 pm
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I am wondering if anyone has ever taken an original star wars upright and hooked up the flight yoke to mame. is there an interface like an ipac that would transfer the movements and triggers to mame? It is just a thought, what if you had a bare star wars cabinet with no guts to it, and put a pc monitor under the smoked glass and hooked the controls up, could it be made to work? Just curious.
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I remember a guy on Usenet just last week (or two??) that was selling all of the parts from his SW cab except the flight yoke. He parted out a fully functional SW to use the yoke for MAME. Does that count?
APf
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I remember a guy on Usenet just last week (or two??) that was selling all of the parts from his SW cab except the flight yoke. He parted out a fully functional SW to use the yoke for MAME. Does that count?
APf
Was a cockpit as well, wasn't it ?
As folks there pointed out ... THAT is why "collectors" don't think highly of "MAMErs" ... that and they drive up the price of specialty parts essential to restoration (SW yokes, Tron sticks, volcano buttons) ...
In more direct answer to your underlying question, sure there are interfaces to connect a yoke to a PC (too early for me to provide links ... there have been lots of discussions on the topic and was in Saint's book as well).
Don't go MAMEing no Star Wars! :police:
Cheers.
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I have seen one (on the net) that was converted to a tetris it was very very sad....
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I have seen one (on the net) that was converted to a tetris it was very very sad....
Doooood. Tetris rulz!!!!!!!!!
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well, as you may have been able to tell from my user name, i am a big fan of the star wars upright! "redfive standing by..." I happen to have a star wars upright, and the monitor has been dead for years. I have been trying to find a good used WG monitor to replace it for quite some time, but they always sell for way more than i want to spend, and the price seems to be going higher and higher. the thing i dont like about spending all that money on a used unit is that i cannot guarantee how long it will last or even if i will be able to get parts for it, etc. Anyway, i have built some mame machines in the past, and i am not a purist (i recently bought a stripped Donkey Kong cabinet and did a complete mame machine on the inside, complete resto to original on the outside and i love it), so i was wondering if it would be possible to just go around all the problematic monitor/boardset issues and build a new computer just to run star wars mame on it. Then i say to myself how horrible it would be to do that to one of the most sought after machines in our hobby! So i have not done it, and will not do it, because i do love that game and have so many great memories, but i figured if i thought about it, someone else has probobly already done it. Just was curious.
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It could be done, and done to be just like the original, except the display would not be as sharp as a vector monitor would be. You wouldn't even need to spend all that much to get it done if you wanted a regular dedicated SW rather than a multigame cab.
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It could also be done in such a way that you would be able to quickly and easily convert it back to a vector cabinet if a monitor shows up. And with no noticeable effect on the original cabinet.
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In that case I say do it. Setup a cheap pc to boot right to the game, put in a decent computer monitor of the same size, and you're all set. You might even want to add the Empire Strikes Back to add extra play value. Get an analog interface, or hack a sidewinder to connect the yoke to the pc, and away you go. Just don't go cutting wires and hacking the cab up to install the pc. Make sure you can go back to 100% original.
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that is what i was thinking, just hooking up a temporary thing, putting a computer monitor inside (decased with original mounting hardware installed) and a pc with just star wars or both star wars and empire sb. I have hooked up several mame pc's with an ipac, would i use an ipac or is there a better controller to use? i have never hooked up a Yoke or steering wheel type controller to pc before, i am not sure what you need to do to get the right effect.
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An ipac won't work - it will not interface with analog controls. Check this out:
http://dave.bit2000.com/aki.html (http://dave.bit2000.com/aki.html)
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For a yoke the cheapest way to hook up is USB using a dualstrike gamepad hack. Do a google search for dualstrike star wars yoke. Oscar had a hack page, and I seem to remember one other. I did one about a year ago, bought the gamepad off of ebay for $10 shipped. On your cabinet I would wire the dualstrike into a molex connector that your yoke could plug into. Then you just unplug and re-plug back into the factory harness when you go back to dedicated.
You just use a ipac or similar keyboard emu for the rest of the hookups. Remember that if you go multi game, you will need some extra buttons to control a frontend. You'll need a non-intrusive way to add those as well.
Edit: added linkage to !up's dual strike hack page
http://1uparcade.robandmitsue.com/projects-dualstrike.html
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Yeah, the dual strike hack is a cheaper way to go. Since you are hacking it anyways, no need for another interface - there are a bunch of fire buttons on it and you could just use them for your start, coin, fire, etc.
You can still pick them up on ebay for cheap: I recently got one for $5.
Good luck!
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Duh.
Yup, what Havok said.
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that is the info i was looking for, thanks for the help! I am not sure if i am going to do it, but if i dont find a monitor soon, i think i will give it a try.
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Get the highest resolution VGA monitor you can; vector games look better & better the higher the resolution is set.
And since you're not using a vector monitor, you can play non-vector games, too. So you can run Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi!
For that matter, you can play Lock-On, Apache 3, Hydra, Stun Runner...
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Spy Hunter... many steering wheel games.
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I just bid on 2 vector monitors tonight on ebay, bid 400 on each one, was outbid on both, i give up, looks like i will be going with a PC monitor. Will let you know how it turns out.
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Just keep looking around, with vectors now, you have to be in the right place at the right time to get a good price. You can't just sit around and wait for one to come up on ebay. Keep your eye on all of the less travelled places.
This is the SW you posted about last year, yes?
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I have a Star Wars sitting in my garage just for this very thing! I got it stripped so I don't feel bad puting a monitor and PC in there. I went with the AKI board simply because my luck of hacking controllers has been terrible. Planning on adding any yoke/steering game that will work on there. For me, as long as I have the three SW games and Spy Hunter I'm golden. The rest are just extra.
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Definitely snag the highest resolution capable PC monitor you can... don't even bother with a TV. This is one area where the resolution really DOES make a giant difference, and I'm not usually a video quality whore.
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This was posted at BYOAC back in 2000--- when I saw your post I got nervous!
http://www.geocities.com/merlin_topgun3000/starmame.html
It makes me sad. :'(
but what you want to do seems reasonable.... ;)
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Man, that is ugly. That is a shame. At least what redfivexw wants to do is ok, as long as it can be converted back easily when\if he wants to fix it...
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I once knew a guy who gutted a Star Wars cab and stuck a Nintendo 64 inside. :(
Re: "collectors" versus MAMErs, I have to say I'm pretty disgusted at how many people have been buying up Star Wars yokes, and drastically driving up their price, to slap onto MAME cab panels. I have a dedicated working Star Wars that's complete other than the yoke, and I'm probably going to end up resorting to paying more for the yoke than I paid for the complete cab just because MAME cabbers have gone nuts buying them all up. It really, really sucks.
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I've converted a Return of the Jedi to a MAME cabinet. *
See: www.marksarcade.com
*Actually* Jude's Starwars Hack (hosted by arcade controls.com) is the cheapest way to go.
You replace the 2 5K pots with 100K pots and wire them to a standard joystick DB15 cable.
Why is it cheaper than the USB hacks you ask? A couple high quality pots can be had for $10 each. But the old pots are probably shot anyway, and you will want to replace them even if you do the USB hack.
- Mark
* I purchased it without a motherboard, and after 6 months of looking, I could not find a replacement.
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Re: "collectors" versus MAMErs, I have to say I'm pretty disgusted at how many people have been buying up Star Wars yokes, and drastically driving up their price, to slap onto MAME cab panels. I have a dedicated working Star Wars that's complete other than the yoke, and I'm probably going to end up resorting to paying more for the yoke than I paid for the complete cab just because MAME cabbers have gone nuts buying them all up. It really, really sucks.
Biggest mistake I have made so far is passing on a SW yoke that came up locally at a good price ... I couldn't make the trip to pick it up right away, so passed on it. I should have sent a damned cab for it. STOOPID ME!
Cheers
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Hey Cheffo,
That wouldn't happen to be the one GGKoul picked up from EdgeDamage for $60 last year would it? I picked up that Solitaire Challenge Cab off of Edge a few days after he sold that SW Yoke and, even though I am new to this hobby, knew its value; I was sad too. :P
spec
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That wouldn't happen to be the one GGKoul picked up from EdgeDamage for $60 last year would it? I picked up that Solitaire Challenge Cab off of Edge a few days after he sold that SW Yoke and, even though I am new to this hobby, knew its value; I was sad too. :P
Yep ... that was it ...
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ok,
i may have found a monitor, i have two leads right now, i may not have to hack this machine, which would be nice. and yes, this is the star wars i posted about last year. Since then i have restored about a dozen games, kept my favorites and sold the others, this one has been waiting, but i must resolve it soon!
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That's great news - hope it works out for you. However, if you do get it all original and running, you still have to hack it...
http://www.multigame.com/ESB.HTM (http://www.multigame.com/ESB.HTM)
A must have, in my opinion!
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The A-PAC is a possible interface as well: http://www.ultimarc.com/a-pac.html
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doesnt the minpac do digital and analog inputs?
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doesnt the minpac do digital and analog inputs?
Nope - Digital and optical.
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just an update, did finally manage to get the machine up and running, swapped the monitor with a WG and now it works beautiful. has anyone ever done the Empire strikes back mod to the board, and if so, is it hard to do?