Recent Posts

Update?  Didn’t you get a super cool hat about a year ago?

Having luck with pics!

Since Jason built this board to be a swp in to an original cabinet I figured it might just be easier to use a bunch of original guts.
Before shipping costs went intergalactic I had succeeded in getting a few Atari power bricks, but one was for a raster tube game.
The rest of the voltages are good (now that I rebuilt the AR-II anyway) but the secondary from that transformer was never going to work to run a vector monitor.
Luckily I had also bought a few toroidal transformers for just such an emergency.



I mated the secondaries to give me the center-tapped 50 VDC that a real vector chassis wants and slightly altered the really very nice reproduction Star Wars harness that Ken at GoldenAgeArcadeParts made for me a while back- so this should work fine.



I had to rethink routing for the harness and arrangement of the brick and power supply to get things to flownproperly but after clipping a few zip ties and rearranging a few times I got something that doesn't look super trashy and will work.

Coming together!
I got out my Amp monitor parts too and ran them on my test rig to set voltages there and all looks good so far.

Wish I didn't have to be up at 4am for work or I would go back to the shop and work on it some more!

Yikes

Should be interesting Andrew!

I'm back at it with the Vector Wars machine now that I have a functional Amplifone monitor set up so this will have to wait a bit.

My soldering skills suck and my eyesight is even worse.
Couldn't imagine being able to pull off what you manage with these.
Lookin forward to pics!

Wth, why 168 and not the latest version? and dont we have groovymame already?

Good day, I have a NSM performer wall mount jukebox , I’m looking to add a line out RCA. Does anyone have experience with this unit and how I can accomplish this?

Thank you

i had a wico stick once that came in a DK cabinet, i hated it. it was so stiff and hard to move, i want to play games, not get a forearm workout.

 I used to have the same Opinion as you... and so when I became a Manager at an Arcade (in the 90s),  I sadly started replacing
all leaf controls with Microswitches.   I got complaints immediately... even by one of my Staff, whom refused to play Galaga
anymore... because of it  (it was one of his favorite games, that he played daily).

 I was shocked at first... as I couldnt understand why he would be so against the Microswitches.  Especially because the leafs
often had to be cleaned.. and even sometimes adjusted.

 He revealed that it was much more Fatiguing to keep firing a microswitch button, compared to a leafswitch button.  I didnt really
understand how that could be... until some time, much later...   And this description below,  reveals why:


 The thing about Leaf controls... is that you dont have to move them to the full travel length, to get them to Activate

 With a Pinball style leaf button... you can fire like 3 times faster... and can maintain maximum fire rate.. for over an hour
without ANY fatigue.   You cant do that with a Microswitch button.  With a microswitch, you will be fatigued in about 3 minutes tops...
and you wont be able to maintain maximum speed.

 But here is the problem... Most people are ignorant about how far you have to press a Leaf Button.  They press it until it bottomed out,
which is like 40% too far.  The two leafs touch, at about half the travel of the button.  Once you get them to touch... all you have to do
is lightly Vibrate your finger, to get the leafs to toggle on/off (within the distance of like a single thickness of paper).  It takes no effort
at all.


 Leaf Sticks are a similar.  The rubber resistance gets strong near the very end of the travel of the stick.  If you choose to use heavy
power / force.. you can keep the stick at the very edges... but you dont really need to press that far to move your character / change
directions.

 Then why would they have that additional travel?   That is to prevent Damage to the stick..  and to reduce Impact Vibrations,
into your hand.   If you suddenly jolted the stick to its maximum extremes.. out of fear of being hit... the rubber Vastly
reduces the impact of the stick to the restrictive side-walls.

 For a game like Robotron... these sticks are a Necessity,  because in that game, you are escaping death by a mere pixel or two.. every
two to three seconds.   You need the smallest amount of activation distances... so that you can be able to reverse directions
faster (to juke / avoid running into a projectile)

 A Happs super Stick, doesnt even compare.   The super has a much longer travel before the microswitches activate.  That results
in a longer time delay... and often leads to you getting Hit... instead of avoiding the projectile.


 So... this is a common issue, with people (like my former self), that were simply not using Leaf Controls, as they were Intended
to be used.   And once I learned how to operate them properly... my performance and comfort levels.. FAR exceeded what I could
do with modern Microswitch based controls.


 Btw - Have you tried the game  Mad Planets ?   If there was ever a case for having a top mounted fire button.. so be able to be
used with a spinner...  I think that game would be the deciding point.

 Tron and Mad Planets are Both Vertical games.  Maybe you are thinking about  "Discs of Tron"  which is Horizontal.

 Tron is a little Frustrating, because the lightcycle stage can be brutally unfair... unless you memorize certain patterns.
Its still a very fun game... despite this.  But something like Mad Planets, does not suffer from that unfair balance issue.

 There might be a few others, where a top button would help... but I cant recall at this time.


 Anyway, its your cab... so do as you please.   But I would highly advise learning how to "Feather" a leaf button... and to
learn the true Joys and benefits of leaf controls.  As Once you figure them out... you wont want to go back to using
microswitches on classic games.   Only exception, are Fighting Games, with require Microswitches.

Doom Resurrection for 32X for my mostly platonic friend Malenko

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/119202-doom-32x-resurrection/


I didn’t hate the original 32X Doom but was already quite fatigued by the game by the time I bought a brand new $20 32X just for the copy of Doom. 

Resurrection is a phenomenal improvement and he’s been begging for months.  Those surface mount FeRAM chips are gonna be… fun.

 

thanks for the feedback.  i have no need for joysticks with buttons on them, tron doesn't interest me. this is a vertical classics cabinet, not a do everything cabinet. i like the feel of microswitchh buttons. i love the JLW joystick. i had a wico stick once that came in a DK cabinet, i hated it. it was so stiff and hard to move, i want to play games, not get a forearm workout.  i have no desire for pinball games. the spinner will be fine where it is. the trackball will also be fine where it is. it is only really there for centipede and millipede.   i have a trackball in my pedestal cabinet if i want to play golf or bowling games, but i very rarelly do.

i plan on having about 30 games on here that are actually good. i've built quite a few cabinets already so i know what i like and what i don't when it comes to controls. 

anyway, my trackball arrived on friday, so i modeled the last panel, it fit perfectly on the first try!

i made a new test panel so i can test everything while i set up the pc. i'll probably hold off building the cabinet until spring at this point.