VECTORAMA--True CRT color multivector cab [COMPLETE]

[alfonzotan]

TL/DR:

I’ve built a multi-vector cab from an empty Atari Space Duel using a Barry Shilmover XY Kit and a USB-DVG, as well as a revamped control panel to support almost every vector game.

It’s called VECTORAMA:



*Updated 12/17/2024 with final configuration
 
Introduction:

My DIY projects tend to hang fire for a long time.  I started planning a plays-everything MAME cab not too long after first discovering arcade emulation on a Power Computing Mac clone all the way back in 1997.  I didn't get around to actually building it until over a decade (and a couple of moves, and a wedding) later, and even then I built the control panel a couple of years before getting my act together enough to actually construct the cabinet. 

Not long after that project was finished, I got it into my head to build another one, this time to concentrate on vector games.  At that time, I had no idea it would ever be possible (to say nothing of affordable) to have a real vector monitor, and so I mapped it out intending to use an LCD with a Mac OS9 computer, as those early Mac emulators did what I considered at the time to be a nice job faking vector graphics on standard screens.  Fortunately, I suppose, that project bogged down when the Mac Cube I picked up from a recycling center stubbornly refused to recognize an I-Pac controller board.

My arcade game collection had started just a bit before I discovered emulation, when I spotted a Donkey Kong, Jr. listed in the local want-ads for $35.  The monitor didn't work, but a couple of work friends with EE degrees introduced me to the concept of "cap kits" and after I bought and dragged DKJR back to my rental townhouse, we got it operating before the first six-pack was drained.  As a recovering 80's arcade rat, I was instantly hooked, and slowly collected more games as my budget and home space would permit. 

Flashing forward (quite) a few years, I eventually got more comfortable with CRT tinkering.  By the COVID epidemic, I owned seven arcade cabinets plus the homebuilt MAME cab, and I spent a good portion of 2020's down time getting all of them restored and working again.   Around that time I also became cognizant of a burgeoning scene for new hardware enabling true vector gaming, and when I ran across an online offer of a new chassis set for a DIY color vector monitor, I figured it was time to jump in.

The Build:  Monitor and CPU

Serendipitously, I bought that chassis at about the same time the USB-DVG became available.  A modernization of an older MS-DOS based product called the Zektor DVG, the USB version, which provided MAME-driven game output from a tiny Raspberry Pi computer for a vector monitor, was not only affordable but also specifically intended to work with the XY Kit that I’d purchased, so I picked up one of those as well. 

Here’s my account of building up a working color vector monitor from those two hobbyist products mated to a CRT from a Walmart Black Friday special that I’d bought about two decades earlier:

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/complete-project-orion-from-black-friday-junk-to-a-color-vector-monitor.485931/




 
After getting this initial workbench version up and running, I was unhappy with the way the Spot Killer circuit in the monitor chassis reacted to certain games, particularly Asteroids Deluxe (which was kind of dumb on my part, considering I owned a perfectly good AD cab already), Space Fury, Space Duel and Rip-Off.  The Spot Killer was too sensitive, and kicked in enough to make those games unplayable. 

I monkeyed around with the resistors around the spot killer circuit, only to find that now I had permanent spot killer and no picture at all.  Eventually despairing of my ability to ever fix this thing, I put the whole kit and kaboodle on the shelf and left it there for a couple of years.

Phase I: Cabinet, Controls and Initial Build

This project kept nagging at me, even after I added my all-time favorite vector game, Tempest, to my collection and got it working.  I love vectors, and every year they are getting harder to find and more expensive, and nobody has made a new vector tube in almost 40 years. Even if I had an unlimited budget and time/skills to keep them up, I don’t have room for many more arcade games, period. So it was either a multi that I already had a whole lot of parts for, or bust.

I had pretty well resigned myself to building a DIY cabinet.  Which I could do:  I’ve done it before, but (a) I’m never going to be mistaken for a carpenter, and (b) it’s way too much like actual work, so I dawdled.  Then around Thanksgiving of 2023, an old friend with an arcade repair and sales business in my area popped up with the ideal platform for a multi-vector project: a gutted Atari Space Duel.


(Dog not included)

After getting the cabinet home, I went back to the parts closet and retrieved the Orion vector monitor and the USB-DVG setup… which still didn’t work.  Apparently I don’t have any benign gremlins living in my basement.

To my simultaneous chagrin and relief, I eventually discovered that the full-time spot killer and accompanying lack of a picture were not due to any tinkering I’d done on the XY chassis, but rather to a bad USB cable between the Raspberry Pi and USB-DVG.  Once that was replaced, the picture came right up and I was back in business.


 
Let that be a lesson unto you, kids:  always check the simple stuff.  That monitor sat in a closet for two years, because it never occurred to me to swap out a $2 USB cable.

Even better, I learned shortly after getting the screen back up that Mario Montminy, the developer and last remaining official support for the USB-DVG, had also noted the spot killer issues with the XY Kit and added a new option to the DVG’s firmware that fixed the problem.  Minus a few weird but workable issues with the Raspberry Pi software images (see here for details https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/usb-dvg-users-support-thread.538841/ ), I was now off and running.

I had planned for a long time to make a custom control panel for this game, and intended to have a local metal shop bend and cut out a design for me. But just as I was getting to the point of hacking out a CAD model (which I am really, really bad at), the esteemed Takeman of KLOV announced he was doing a new run of Space Duel replica panels, with the option to have them made with no holes.  As I have a friend who’s capable of punching out the holes I’d need in no time, I jumped on this option.

Because it’ll be a while before Takeman’s work is ready to ship, I also decided to press on with a Mark I version of the cab, which I’ve dubbed Vectorama as a tip of the cap to the 1997 Mac vector emulator developed by Sean Trowbridge.  Discovering Vectorama was not only my first real introduction to a reasonable facsimile of vector gaming at home, it was the first time I’d ever played (or even heard of) Major Havoc and Black Widow.

For the initial build, I needed to do… a lot.  A partial list:

-   Clean up and prep the cab for new parts
-   Work up a means to control and configure as much as possible via the front of the cabinet—Space Duel cabs are beautiful and allow for a lot of customization, but they’re also heavy as hell and a huge pain to move. The less often I need to take off the back door, the better.
-   Get audio working. The cab has all four speakers (after I removed a mouse nest behind the marquee light) but the Pi 5 has no analog audio output and certainly not a 4-channel amplifier
-   Get power set up.  The monitor already has its power supply built and ready, only needing a standard 120v socket.  The marquee, Pi/DVG and associated parts (audio amplifier and a USB hub) will also need to be plugged in.
-   Configure and wire up the OG Space Duel control panel to an I-Pac as a stopgap until the Takeman custom is ready to be installed.
-   Add a spinner to the control panel.
-   Get the Pi and DVG configured to run with the stopgap control panel.
-   Add a USB port accessible from the front of the cab for maintenance and other options.
-   Settle on coin up and menu control buttons, and get them installed.
-   Work out storage for accessories:  a small HDMI panel for Pi maintenance, external controllers, other occasional needs.
-   Install and wire up everything.

I removed the coin box and also took off both the coin doors to refinish them.  One coin return was broken, I decided to turn that one into a USB port.  The other I fitted with a chopped-up 3D print bracket (the posted model wasn’t sized correctly for an Atari door) on the inside to turn it into a coin-up button for the cab. A little dry graphite helped there.




 


I didn’t want to alter the original Atari coin return bezel, so the USB port here is mounted in a 3D printed replica (which really needs to be sanded a bit more).
 
Really wasn’t sure what to do about a storage box accessible from the lower coin door (the original coin box is too small for what I had in mind), or for a bracket/shelf/box for the Pi and DVG.  Then in one lucky Goodwill trip I found a storage crate and a small wooden CD crate that were both the perfect size.  “That’s kinda half-assed,” I can hear the pro carpenters and/or metalsmiths say, and honestly I can’t argue.  But they do work and were almost painless to modify for this project.

For the game boards I added a 3D print bracket for the Pi, a shelf, a 3D-print “drawer” and a fan (installation TBD) for the DVG, and attached the audio amp (el-cheapo aliexpress 4-channel) and a USB hub to the outside panels. 

I also hacked out an old USB cable to draw 5V for LEDs on the coin door and control panel via a junction block, attached to the back of the upper box.  Because the Pi 5 lacks an audio output, I recycled a USB dongle that had seen a lot of use in my Hackintoshing days; happily it was plug-and-play.


(Fan still to be installed)


 


I rewired all four speakers and replaced the original marquee light (which was shot) with an LCD strip.

I rewired most of the buttons on the SD control panel to get to a happy medium of playability for this first version, and added a drop-in spinner.  It certainly won’t play everything in the menu, but it wasn’t meant to:  this is a stop-gap while @Takeman does his magic (more on that later).





For power, I slid a 3-prong switched and fused power block into the former power cord slot on the back, wired that to a standard 120v socket in a protective box, and put a power strip next to it.  I ran the earth ground out to a common connection point and grounding mesh up the right side to get the control panel and monitor bracket wired to Ground.


Yes, I left the original wiring harness in there.  I’m superstitious about this kind of thing. (Original harness has now been removed and sold to a restorer.)

Finally it was Install Weekend.  Besides the game boards and storage areas, the only large item that needed a new installation spot was the power block for the monitor.  Once that was in I was ready to start moving everything over from the workbench to the cab.




(This is from the very first power-up; wiring has since been cleaned up and secured.)

Biggest hitch came when I discovered the USB hub I’d picked out for the build didn’t work at all.  But after I swapped it out:


 
TO BE CONTINUED...

[jeremymtc]

This is awesome, and great writeup! Looking forward to updates.

[Ond]

There's some crazy good vector display knowledge floating around this forum between you and bobbyb13! *sigh* I can't start another project. This is awesome BTW and I loved the detailed write up.

[alfonzotan]

There's some crazy good vector display knowledge floating around this forum between you and bobbyb13! *sigh* I can't start another project. This is awesome BTW and I loved the detailed write up.

I think Bobby would agree that he and I are at best vector amateurs who are still learning on the fly.  Fortunately there are some true masters of that technology in the community who are generous with their expertise and assistance.

[alfonzotan]

Preview of Coming Attractions:

[javeryh]

This is a wonderful project. That new art looks great! 

[alfonzotan]

Phase II:  Multi-Controller Panel

The whole point of a multigame is to play lots of different games in the same cabinet.  In the wider arcade emulation world, this tends to lead to “Frankenpanels,” large surfaces with an amalgamation of different controls.  Not to cast blame, I am raising my own hand here--my own DIY MAME cab has an aircraft-carrier-sized control panel with no less than four different joysticks, a spinner, a trackball, and as I realized later, entirely too many buttons. 

For Vectorama, I wanted a control set that was very versatile, but still as minimalist as practicality permits.

Not counting bootleg clones, about 35 vector arcade games were released between 1978 and 1985.  The code for a few more unreleased prototypes (Demon, Topgunner, QB-3) has leaked out to the emulation community since then.  The controls for most of these games are very similar:  joysticks or spinner knobs for direction, and standard pushbuttons for actions like fire and thrust.

I used that baseline to lay out a relatively-simple control panel:  two joysticks, a spinner, and six total pushbuttons, plus three volcano buttons for game selection and menu control.  A great many games used some variation on the familiar five-button Asteroids layout (left-right, thrust-fire, and an ‘action’ button in between), and that was a major consideration for this layout.

There were of course other variants like the thrust controller for Lunar Lander, the analog joystick in Tailgunner and the famous flight yoke for Atari’s Star Wars (which all use the same simple technology: potentiometers, something that will help us out later), which we’ll get back to in a bit. 

Only one vector game, Quantum, used a trackball, and while it’s a good and interesting game, that’s not enough to merit inclusion as a permanent controller.  One early Cinematronics game, Sundance, used a large number of standard keyboard keys, making it unfeasible for this project… but 37 out of 38 ain’t bad.  Everything else I could get playable, although with some “artistic license” for two-player configurations.

I wanted to have one top-fire joystick for this panel.  Battlezone in particular just can’t be played properly without one.  And I wanted ball-tops, because they’re the best. But there are no ball top arcade joysticks with top fire… until now.

 

What you see there is a Wico Command Control Atari 2600 shaft and top-fire assembly mated to a modern Wico reproduction base.  As of this writing, as far as I know, it is a one of a kind.

The part that made it happen is this 3D printed clip, which was modeled from a very rare Wico replacement kit for the Zaxxon flight stick. The great @andrewb at KLOV was generous enough to loan me the clip from that kit; my version is simplified and scaled to fit this particular application, and it works great, although I did add a zip-tie around the clips to keep it stable when in playing position (not seen here).
 


Here's the 3D model file of the clip, for anybody who wants to use it to make more:

https://mega.nz/file/hdIi1bpB#ga2h7ls9t-LjPyY1t63OcprwLgpowSnaFaGm92swoEA

The CPO was built from an Illustrator file kindly offered to me by another KLOV-er, which I customized myself in Gimp (don’t give me any credit, either—I am bad at it and it took forever):

 

I received the Takeman control panel (outstanding work, as always) just in time for Hurricane Helene to show up and take up all the time of my buddy with a machine shop in his basement for a couple of months.  Finally, things calmed down for him and we were able to get in and cut out all the holes for the controls a couple of weekends ago. 

The smaller holes we did with a simple drill press, but the large joystick and pushbutton holes, those got the full PLASMA CUTTER TREATMENT (and I apologize, because when I thought I was taking video of that AWESOME CAD moment, I apparently was not).



The local sign shop that printed the CPO for me was kind enough to do the installation themselves the next Monday, and I was off to get the controls in.  Rather than punch holes for carriage bolts, I elected to fix the joysticks and bolts for the Tempest spinner directly to the underside with heavy-duty epoxy.







The final build turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself:



But what about those analog potentiometer control games?  Do you really have a multi-vector if it can’t play Star Wars?

I’m glad you asked: that’s what those two small black circles at the top center of the main control panel are for.  I took a GRS Flight Yoke replica, removed all the wiring connections other than USB, and mated it to a modified version of this 3D print model:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4756511

I figured out from a test run that the original layout with four suction cups was not robust enough to keep the yoke in place, so I replaced the top pair with quarter-turn fasteners, the anchors for which are mounted under the panel (also with epoxy), and added some small finger holes to allow for setting or removing the locks (if I do this over, I’ll make those holes larger).  The USB connection plugs in to the socket I installed on the coin door.




 
After some tweaking of MAME settings for TESB, it works great, although I think I may replace the quarter-turn fasteners with a slightly longer shaft version if I can find them.  It’s a very tight fit right now.  Tailgunner is also kind of terrific with the yoke.



I also have in-work a removable stand for an ancient MacAlly trackball for Quantum, and a USB-based Vectrex replica controller.  I have all the parts for these and just need to actually put them together: definitely in the New Year.  I might also build a small version of the Lunar Lander thrust lever if I get really motivated.

Sundance though, nah.  That game is just too weird (insert meth lab trailer joke here).

I also added a small function key box behind the coin door for Tab, Return and Pause, just so I didn’t have to continually plug in a keyboard anytime I want to tweak a MAME setting.  Getting all the games configured took the better part of a Saturday. 

I built up two different SD cards, one for daily use (by me) and another with settings for two-player games where appropriate (Space Duel, Space Wars, Armor Attack, etc.).  Swapping out the cards is simpler than futzing around with the Tab key on the rare occasions when I’ll have interested visitors.

I commented out Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, and Tempest from the main Atari menu.  All those games work, but I have a real ADX with a Braze card sitting next to this cab, and the Asteroids games don’t look great on a color monitor anyway; the bullets just don’t have that awesome glow and vapor trail.  I also have a real Tempest in the next room, so why bother with a squashed and emulated version?

Phase III: The Future

While the USB-DVG hardware is essentially orphaned, Mario is still putting up occasional updates to the software, including teasing a transition from the old version of AdvanceMAME currently in the Pi images to a much more recent version of MAME. I’m looking forward to giving that a try when it’s released.

Then there’s the open-source vtcsm project, which is similar to but more open-ended than USB-DVG.  I have a PCB and a box full of parts, and one of these days I’ll see if I can turn them into a usable board. 

Ideally, I’d like to migrate entirely away from software emulation and replicate these games via FPGA.  MiSTeR has a bunch of arcade vector cores, but I have no idea at this point how mature they are (my cursory-look guess is, “not very”), and I also don’t know how or when they’d be translatable to vector generator hardware (although there’s at least one hardware developer who is currently giving that a try).  Something I’ll be keeping an eye on for sure.

[alfonzotan]

I've finished a drop-in trackball for playing Quantum.



As noted earlier, it's a very old MacAlly trackball (so old that the original Bondi Blue has faded to kind of a sea green) that I bought in the 90's when I first started collecting parts for arcade projects. It's mated via a little velcro to a cut-down version of this trackball stand:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4947186

... that I first reinforced with a couple of braces (also cut from the same model and reprinted) and added two posts to set it in place in the control panel holes. I didn't need to add actual fasteners here as this controller doesn't (or at least shouldn't) get yanked around as much as the flight yoke:





Took quite a bit of tinkering with the setup to get this operational; turns out the more USB mouse devices you have connected, the more the Pi and/or AdvMAME get confused. I also found out it's best to have all USB devices connected to the same hub, and then plugging that hub into the Pi. After a lot of thrashing I wound up removing the Opti-Pac and replacing the Atari optical board on the spinner with one of @ArcadeJason's modified units (available here: https://mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=ADOPTO ) and connecting that board to the spinner posts on the I-Pac2. For my mouse click game exit hack, I just took apart an old mouse, removed one of the buttons, and wired that up to my Menu volcano button.

And finally, it worked:



Next up: a DIY USB Vectrex controller.

[alfonzotan]

... and here's the Vectrex controller. Very simple project, I used the coolate Vectrex Pro 3D model with 18mm button holes:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3172248/files

... and this joystick and USB interface:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JZ8ZV4L?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1

https://www.amazon.com/SJ-JX-Encoder-Board-Microswitch-Button-Analog/dp/B08J47Y4X4/ref=sr_1_4

The Sanwa buttons were from arcadeshock.com. Other than soldering the leads to the joystick pots, it was practically plug-and-play.



If you're going to try and use the same parts, note that the joystick is plugged into the wrong slot on the board in this picture, the correct slot is the one just to the left.

[SORHP]

Whoa man, this is rad! I hope it works great!  I don’t have time to read through the entire bill, but I will soon. One day I may do the same thing.