SCI Driving Cab conversion

[vidmouse]

Scored this off auction the other week for $5 plus
my gas for hauling it 30 miles.  No monitor or backpanel,
but the rest is there and is in reparable shape.

Still, I'm thinking I will end up MAMEing this one...
SCI was not a favorite game.  Looking forward to
playing Pole Postion w/ this.

Probably going to do my best to restore the artwork
but other than that it's headed for MAME...

Will post photos as I progress, but could take awhile...
have another cab in the works too.

[leapinlew]

I built a mame drive just to play SCI. What a crazy backwards world we live in eh? What I had found was the amount of the games I could play properly was very small. All the different options are:

Steering Wheel: 360 degree or 270 degree
Pedals: Microswitched or Pots. 1 pedal or 3 pedals.
Shifter: Up/Down, Automatic or manual, shifter or button shifter
Monitor Orientation: Most of the games are horizontal but there are a few vertical
Number of players: Some games are really only fun with multiple people - Offroad, Super Sprint, Demolition Derby

Good luck with your build. I'll be watching.

[TOK]

I built a mame drive just to play SCI. What a crazy backwards world we live in eh? What I had found was the amount of the games I could play properly was very small. All the different options are:

Steering Wheel: 360 degree or 270 degree
Pedals: Microswitched or Pots. 1 pedal or 3 pedals.
Shifter: Up/Down, Automatic or manual, shifter or button shifter
Monitor Orientation: Most of the games are horizontal but there are a few vertical
Number of players: Some games are really only fun with multiple people - Offroad, Super Sprint, Demolition Derby

Good luck with your build. I'll be watching.

I've flip flopped on building a dedicated driving cabinet for the same reasons. Its always on the radar, but always ends up being the "next" project. I think when I finally do it, it'll be PC based but used mainly for non-MAME stuff.
I'd put the PC version of Outrun 06 and stuff on there, but would also like to run some of the more simulation type stuff. I'm also kind of determined it'll be a sit down.

[vidmouse]

Controls-wise, here's what I've got and am planning:

steering:  mouse hack x-axis using the encoder already on-board
                future:  find some way to activate the force feedback motor

Pedal:  looks like it's only one switch, on or off; simple

Shift + 2 triggers:  same thing, about 3 switches there.
Do the triggers do two different things?  If not then only 2 switch inputs there.

1 panel button (not sure what this controls?)

Wondering if I can do the whole thing with a 3-button mouse w/ scroll wheel
button hack.   If not I've got an extra gamepad I can hack for buttons.
That way I could save myself having to get an encoder.

Basically I'm not looking to add a whole lot here, and in fact
I'd like to keep it as close to the original as possible, with the exception
that I can play more games like Pole position, Chase HQ, etc that should
work with these controls.

Heh, maybe this belongs under the new Restorations forum vs Project
Announcements ...

[leapinlew]

The best improvement you could do is make the pedal analog. The shifter will be a little problematic as well, but thats tolerable. The gas pedal not working properly is a pain.

[vidmouse]

The original machine doesn't look like it's analog...
just has a microswitch at the end of a spring-cam
mechanism to give the pedal some weight.

Any tips on how to convert this to analog?

[Dmod]

Huge score on the driving cabinet.  I would have loved to find something like that when I started my driver project... and at $5?!?

I'd like to see some pics of the pedal if you have them.

Good luck on the conversion.   

[vidmouse]

Yeah, and to think I almost turned it down b/c of space-reasons!

Here's a few pics of the pedal assembly; it was already ripped loose
from the cab upon receipt... should be a simple matter to hammer back.

I was incorrect before... there's two microswitches, and thus, 3 positions:
fully up = lower microswitch activated
midpoint = neither switch activated
floored = top switch activated

not quite analog, but a neat compromise.

Main assembly:


Top view:


Foot off the pedal (fully up):


Pedal midway down:


Pedal floored!:


Also found the manual and schematics for this... will
scan later to a pdf...

Cheers...!

[vidmouse]

FINALLY going to "finish" this thing and get it playable at least... that's my goal for the week.  Finished the mouse hack.  Uses the Y-dir so I can use the steering wheel to select games in Mala.



Drilled and added two buttons (pink and blue) for Esc and Pause



Added a button behind the 2nd coin return for a credit button



Started soldering up my gamepad hack; will use nine buttons overall:
1 - start button
1 - "Esc"
1 - "Pause"
3 - shift+trigger+turbo buttons
2 - pedal
1 - coin credit



hoping to finish the other half of the gamepad hack wiring tomorrow!

[Hewskie]

That looks great! I'm jealous, I've wanted a stand up racing cab for a while now, but I have no room to put it  I even found a stand up "race drivin" cab locally on CL for $30 !!!!!!! I was very tempted, but alas, I'm still a 20 something student living in my parents basement. It was hard enough to get the mame machine and touch screen juke down here, no way they'd stand for another cab right now.

How's your mouse hack working? have you hooked anything up for testing yet?

Again, looks great, good luck on completing this!

Hewskie

[vidmouse]

Thanks!  I feel for you guys not having the means and rooms.  I don't know how you do it even with one cab.  Hang in there man, there's always another cab deal comin.

The mouse hack works great... tested with the mouse pointer in Windows and I love seeing the pointer go up and down.  Whee!
Even better after I WD-40'd the squeeks out of the gears on the wheel and cleaned the whole assembly up a bit!

[vidmouse]

Update on my cab conversion:

link