Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: RR on October 18, 2008, 04:46:11 am

Title: My First Arcade Machine
Post by: RR on October 18, 2008, 04:46:11 am

Hi,

I'm thinking to buy a low-cost pc to play some emulators (N64, Gameboy, SNES, NES, PS1,...), some buttons,  2 joysticks and of course an i-Pac...to play games like Mortal Kombat(PS1,MegaDrive), Bust a Move, Bomberman, Dragonball(PS1, SNES), Super Mario(SENS, NES, N64), etc.

I want to make my own arcade system but i've some questions like how many buttons should I buy?!
I want to make this machine to play and to listen to music (Jukebox)...what FH program is the best to do this 2 things without use the keyboard?

Is this so "simple"?!I mean...buying the I-pac and adapt  the buttons/joysticks on it and plug it to a normal pc or i didn't understand how it works?! :dunno
lol

Thank you

btw...sorry for my English  ::) and my n00b questions ;)

Title: Re: My First Arcade Machine
Post by: polaris on October 18, 2008, 09:45:24 am

hi
there are many options for you.
there are products made to interface controls like you mentioned, and yes they are pretty simple to use, they have been designed for making arcades so can be very simple options.
have a good read of the board, there has been a good thread on how many buttons in the main forum recently, look back a few pages.
have a look at the many jukeboxes in project announcements being made, they talk about software in those.
there are many choices for you, look around and find something like you want, and see how that maker went about it.
 :cheers:

Title: Re: My First Arcade Machine
Post by: batdive on October 18, 2008, 10:05:53 am

Well I went with buying this book

http://www.amazon.com/Project-Arcade-Build-Your-Machine/dp/0764556169/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224338369&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.com/Project-Arcade-Build-Your-Machine/dp/0764556169/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224338369&sr=8-1)

which I was able to find at a local bookstore, so you might want to check around your area.  It helps answer a lot of the questions I had initially and gives you things to think about to help you narrow down what you are looking to do.

The i-pac basically takes an arcade button and assigns it a keyboard letter.  So when you push an arcade button it would be the same as hitting the "space bar" for one example.  So the computer just sees the I-pac and the arcade buttons as a keyboard.

If you dont want to mess with designing your own control panel and messing with that aspect you can buy a predone one here:

http://www.xgaming.com/ (http://www.xgaming.com/)


Hopefully the book and the above link will help you. 

Title: Re: My First Arcade Machine
Post by: RR on October 18, 2008, 11:08:02 am

Thank you. ;)

I prefer the i-pac...;)

I'm gonna buy the book too...thank you very much ;)