Sega Saturn Powered Bartop

[Bauley]

Hello everyone 

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted an arcade cabinet. Specifically, games like Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Virtua Cop...games that were popular in the mid 90's, that I remember playing at the arcades.

Now, the first thing you'd probably say is to build a MAME cabinet. Well, I did consider that. However, my Sega Saturn that I've kept for all of these years has been sitting in my closet collecting dust. I've always had a soft spot for my Saturn. It was the first "big" purchase I made with my own money (I bought it in 1996 when I was 12), and many of my arcade favorites from the mid 90's were ported to Sega Saturn. MK2, UMK3, Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, NBA Jam, Street Fighter 2...the list goes on and on.

So...I got this idea...what if I built a cabinet around my Sega Saturn. I googled building arcade controls for the Saturn, and found that someone had in fact done it!
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:7wwRNPEJJocJ:wrongcrowd.com/arcade/joystickp1.shtml+saturn+arcade+controls&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

Now...my original aim was to build a full size cabinet. Unfortunately, I share a 700 square ft apartment with my fiance. As tempting as it would be to have my apartment look like this http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=110327.0, I decided that a bartop would be a far more logical solution 

I again googled bartop arcades for some ideas, and came across this Neo Geo build that I thought was extremely impressive, and so I decided that I would use Johnny Modder's cabinet as a starting point.
http://amoddinghomecompanion.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-fall-project-neo-geo-bartop-arcade.html


I've already started pooling parts together. I've already ordered and received the joystick and buttons from happ controls, the Sega Saturn superpad 8 that I'll be soldering the buttons to, and my fiance ordered an Ultimate Bartop Kit for me from North Coast Custom Arcades as an early Birthday present


As far as a theme, I have created a marquee based on the Nintendo PlayChoice arcade, and a control panel overlay based on the Sega Mega Play cabinet in photoshop.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

That's an awesome idea. The saturn is awesome for arcade ports. There are a ton of great shmups. I hope this turns out really well.

[jamesjones626]

i never thought of a cup o noodle box to experiment with control layouts.  that alone to me is genius.

[Malenko]

dont you want 9 buttons? 6 face buttons, 2 triggers, and start .Hope you have a region selector switch wires in,  and all the good imports!

Save up and get MK Trilogy,lol

[Bauley]

dont you want 9 buttons? 6 face buttons, 2 triggers, and start .Hope you have a region selector switch wires in,  and all the good imports!

Save up and get MK Trilogy,lol

I had MK Trilogy...but I sold it. Just don't really care for it. UMK3 was the game I played in the arcades, and honestly it was the biggest reason that I bought the Saturn way back when I remember I went to blockbuster the night I got it to check out some games to rent...and it had just been released! I was a kid in a candy store

I think 25% of the love for Sega Saturn was for the control pad (which was admittedly very nice).  If you switch it over to an arcade setup, you're just left with the ports and all of those have been done better elsewhere.

 :

I'm aware that there are better games to play, I am doing this 99% for the nostalgia and sentimental value 

[emphatic]

This is a very nice project. Dedicated hardware for the win. 

[ccmathome]

Your going to want to get rid of them vertical buttons and get some horizontal buttons like your start button the vertical buttons jam up

[Bauley]

Got the buttons working

[Malenko]

I think 25% of the love for Sega Saturn was for the control pad (which was admittedly very nice).  If you switch it over to an arcade setup, you're just left with the ports and all of those have been done better elsewhere.

 

Ports were done on other consoles, but "better" is a stretch. Seriously Jim, what console had the best port of Street Fighter Alpha 2? Yeah, the Saturn port. Im not even talking about the amazing import titles. Dunno why youre trying to ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- on this project when somewhere out there someone is making an N64 bartop.

I think its a great idea, I have a spare Saturn, I might do one too.

Some Saturn games that would work well with this:

Dragon Force, Fighting Vipers, Fighters Megamix, Asuka 120% Burning Fest Limited, Guardian Heroes, DoDonPachi, All the Virtua Fighters, Battle Garegga, Saturn Bomberman, Shinobi Legions, Radiant Silvergun, Batsugun, the aformentioned SFA2 and all the other CPS2 and NeoGeo ports.

OP: if you're lookin for any particular games, lemme know

[knohbody]

I clicked on this post thinking it said "Solar Powered Bartop." My eyes/brain aren't working today.

+1 for using original hardware and another +1 for testing the layout before drilling into anything.

How are you going to deal with changing discs?

How about adding controller ports to the side to use the original controls as well?

[Bauley]

@knohbody

The Saturn will be stored in the top behind the marquee. I plan on making a "trap door" that gives easy access to the Saturn to turn it on/off and to change discs. I haven't decided yet what I'll do about controller ports. I will probably just drill a hole in the side to feed the controller in if need be.

Anyways...I spent about 8 hours yesterday getting the buttons wired up.

HOWEVER...it never mentioned the back of the pad. There are 4 contacts in the middle of the pad for the "slow motion mode" which basically pauses and unpauses the game rapidly. Probably the dumbest feature ever made. You have to solder the two on the right together (for slow motion mode off), otherwise the start button won't work. For some reason, the SuperPad 8 activates the start button when you hold back+two of the buttons during gameplay. I think it is a glitch that has to do with the slow motion mode that's built in. So, I wired the two contacts to a switch so that I can kill the start button if I need to.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

I think 25% of the love for Sega Saturn was for the control pad (which was admittedly very nice).  If you switch it over to an arcade setup, you're just left with the ports and all of those have been done better elsewhere.

 

Ports were done on other consoles, but "better" is a stretch. Seriously Jim, what console had the best port of Street Fighter Alpha 2? Yeah, the Saturn port. Im not even talking about the amazing import titles. Dunno why youre trying to ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- on this project when somewhere out there someone is making an N64 bartop.

I think its a great idea, I have a spare Saturn, I might do one too.

Some Saturn games that would work well with this:

Dragon Force, Fighting Vipers, Fighters Megamix, Asuka 120% Burning Fest Limited, Guardian Heroes, DoDonPachi, All the Virtua Fighters, Battle Garegga, Saturn Bomberman, Shinobi Legions, Radiant Silvergun, Batsugun, the aformentioned SFA2 and all the other CPS2 and NeoGeo ports.

OP: if you're lookin for any particular games, lemme know

Yeah. The Saturn had a ton of good arcade ports. Just for the shmups alone is reason enough to build this thing. Some of them like Soukyugorentai (most likely not spelled right...), and Radiant Silvergun are emulated, but not perfectly and you need a powerful computer to run them at full speed. Also, Batsugun is finally emulated with full sound in MAME I think, but that's very recent. Anyway, I really think it's a sweet idea, and cheap too. Saturn's go for like $30 or less at my local used game store.

[Bauley]

Controller shorted out...don't know what I did wrong

[emphatic]

It died?

[Bauley]

Yeah it shorted out...I think it might have been because of the toggle switch I made for the start button. I'm trying to decide if I should hack the second super pad 8 or if I should attempt to hack one of the two genuine sega controllers that I have...

[Malenko]

Yeah it shorted out...I think it might have been because of the toggle switch I made for the start button. I'm trying to decide if I should hack the second super pad 8 or if I should attempt to hack one of the two genuine sega controllers that I have...

well I'd get another genuine pad before hacking either of the ones you have. As for plugging player2, get a controller extension cable and route it to the bottom.

[crashwg]

Great project.  Your Sketchup mock up looks great and very much like it could be an official product.  What a bummer on the fried controller though.  If I were you I would hack the Sega controller and avoid dealing with the slowmo crap.

One of these days I'm going to get around to buying a Saturn...  I was a Nintendo guy until September '99 when I got my Dreamcast which I will still argue was the greatest system of it's time!

[eds1275]

Great project.  Your Sketchup mock up looks great and very much like it could be an official product.  What a bummer on the fried controller though.  If I were you I would hack the Sega controller and avoid dealing with the slowmo crap.

One of these days I'm going to get around to buying a Saturn...  I was a Nintendo guy until September '99 when I got my Dreamcast which I will still argue was the greatest system of it's time!

Definitely a goldie there. It was around then that I got a 3D0 - that thing was also sweet, and priced itself out of the market. Of course by the time I got it it was long dead.

[Bauley]

Well the kit arrived yesterday from North Coast Custom Arcades. All I can say is WOW. This thing is wonderful!!! The T molding was very easy to install...everything fit perfectly, and it seems to be extremely well made. I HIGHLY recommend this kit.

[DCsegaDH]

It's looking good

[Bauley]

All finished!

(I ended up hacking a genuine Sega Saturn controller after both of my SuperPad 8's died. They are completely worthless!)

























(I used screws that were a little too long for the joystick 






I'm going to wait until a later date to do the control panel art.

Somewhat near future plans:
-Get controller extension cords and make access under the control panel to easily hook up a second player gamepad or a stunner.

I certainly enjoyed building this thing. Can't wait to do another one!!!

[BurgerKingDiamond]

That looks awesome. That TV fits perfect for being a kit. I would suggest getting a less big, ugly knob for the trap door, and getting a marquee light. But other than that, nice job

[emphatic]

The placement of the console is perfect! Everything looks great (except for the joystick screw mishap, but I'm sure your artwork will take care of that). 

[eds1275]

While it's tragic that your screws were too long, you can just drill the holes through and use bolts. If it were me, I would do it. I know lots of people are against having them show but I can't think of a "real" machine that didn't.

Looks good. Even, in a weird sort of way... the knob on top. Kind of like dipping into the cookie jar!

[emphatic]

I know lots of people are against having them show but I can't think of a "real" machine that didn't.

Most Japanese cabs use a hidden mounting plate for the joysticks.

[eds1275]

I still see a bolt in that picture!!!

Arcades around where I grew up didn't have any japanese cabs back in the day - of course now they're filling up half of the arcades.

[opt2not]

I know lots of people are against having them show but I can't think of a "real" machine that didn't.

I've seen it different from cab to cab. Some cabinets had them showing some didn't. I know a lot of Williams cabinets didn't have any bolts showing, like Joust, Robotron, Defender, but some Midway ones were random. For instance, classics like the Pac-mans, Galaga, Galaxian had bolts showing (the japanese ones had them hidden under a full bezel/CP plexi sheet), but the newer midways like NBA Jam didn't. Simpsons did though...which is weird 'cause they both used the same joystick hardware.

Then of course, it was random when it came to kits. I've seen Street Fighter II's in the Movie-land Arcade in downtown Vancouver (around where you live eds1275) that had kit-installed dynamo cabinets sometimes with and without bolts. For those cases I'm assuming it was dependent on how lazy the Arcade OP was...