Game Controllers

[H4CK3R]

I am new here, and This is my first Post.

I got into Arcade machines because of my boss. He ended up buying like 15 machines for his home, and had me come over to try and fix them all.

Got everythign working minus 2. Bad monitors, and his wife *****ed at him for the space it took up in thier secound garage, so he told me I could keep them.

Thus now my home has Silent Scope, and Frogger. Got both machines up and running and was thinking of buying more.

Then My wife started to open her trap about space and our electric bill.

So I made a deal with her, i would sell off both those games, and WE could build just One machine to RULE THEM ALL. This is why I am here.

I get one shot to make the perfect machine to entertain my friends, keep my wifes trap shut ( even if just for a min ) and something to rekindal my childhood.

The computer part I can handle ( Been working on computers since I was 12 ) First computer was a Texas Insterment 94A.

The monitor will be either a 42 or 46 inch LCD. ( Still don't know about this, alittle worried with the Wide screen effect, and wishing I knew of a place that sold a HUGE squared LCD or Plasma panel. )

Now this brings me to the control box. I know you get what ya pay for, and I should skip out. but so far all the qoutes I have been getting for a 4 player control box, with Multi color/ Changing LED's, 2 Tron controllers ( Still love Battle Zone ) has been around 1,600 to 2,000 US.

Is that too much? I live in Vegas, and I know Happ's is here. But I don't know squat about wiring up a control box. or the controllers themselfs. I know some games have 4 way, others use 8 way. What are the best contollers to get the most out of all my games?

I am full of questions, have the money. Just don't want to dump alot of it on something I am just going to end up replacing.

Any advise or help thrown my way would be greatly apreciated.

H4CK3R

[BadBoyBill]

I honestly dont have time myself to put into building a machine so what I'll end up doing is probably a conversion, I have one Atomiswave SD candy cab from Japan and use a JPAC to interface the computer to the JAMMA, its not high res like you want but I am also thinking of buying a LCD style cab, one of the newer japanese styles like the taito vewlix. Theyre expensive but Ive seen some pretty sweet stuff done to em that gots me motivated including seeing Street Fighter IV being on them made me drool. I didnt know they were going to do that, but I've had my eye on them since before that.

As far as build it yourself you can find all kinds of help on building and putting together a machine over at byoac, see liink on left side of this page. They even wrote a book that pretty much covers everything.

Im curious to what kind of machine your thinking of that will hold a 42 or 46 lcd. That would be a huge machine. That has me thinking a large showcase style cab would be pretty cool. If you need help in the software department we can help you to, pretty much everything from setting your emu's up and getting them to work with HyperSpin.

[H4CK3R]

I was thinking of Flsuh mounting the LCD to the wall and then framing it out to the Control Box with maybe a 3 foot bridge. With the CPU under the Control box.

I saw two that I liked. One was from Mameroom.com and the other was an Ebay listing for a 42 inch w/ two controllers on Ebay. Dude wanted 4,500 bucks LOL

I have friends that are carpenters, so I can have anything speced out and made. I am also pretty handy when it comes to woodwork.

Yeah, the Front End and the LED Controller w/ software support is what I will need the most help with. I ahve alot of kids of all ages coming over to my home. I host parties at least once a month at my home, so the FE has to be pretty smooth so i don't have to baby sit it 24/7 with guest over.

I was hoping to have the Control board with Multi Color LED's ( Changing colors LED's ) in the buttons and the sticks, so that the LED's light up based apoun the game that uses them, and also when the CPU is running a screen saver the LED's would would change colors based apoun the screen saver, and also kinda wave with any media files being played.

My wife thinks I am dropping acid again =p

I just want it to be beged to be touched when people see it =p

H4CK3R

[The Loafer]

First things first:
- LCD: If you have the money, than I highly recommend you pick up a larger CRT, there is a difference ESPECIALLY if you end up playing visual pinball on it (for some reason, ball flow isn't as good as it should be on LCD). But if you must stick with LCD there are advantages, such as weight and space which is why I use a 19" LCD in my minicab. just understand if space and weight isn't an issue, then buying a large CRT should IMHO be your #1 choice. Either way, there are still some vendors who still produce Arcade monitors such as happcontrols.com, and even standard LCD's are still available in 4:3 ratio too; I believe LG still sell some.

BYOAC: That is a really good suggestion. It sounds like you have good skills to have repaired those machines, so why not give it a try, at least research a bit, you may be surprised. If not, then Mameroom is a good way to go, or hire a local guy who's good at doing these things. If you go that route, a good idea may be to post a message at BYOAC and mention the area you live in and that you are looking for assistance and will pay $$$ for it (the community sounds pretty cool, I don't image any quacks but if you're uncomfortable, you never know.

I live in Canada and I did just that but on another forum. I posted a message asking for help, got it and I have to say I'm extremely happy with the work, though I don't have quite a Tron stick.

4 player setup: I have to tell you, for me because of the minicab size, I had no choice but to limit for 2 players only, but it certainly would have been nice to have the 4 player setup. In saying that, here's my recommendation for what you need as a bare minimum:

- 2 player setup, 4 if you can

- best sticks imho (I don't own them) are the U360's, as they are fully analogue, can be programed as true 4 way and even a rotated 4 way for just about perfect Qbert play. if you have a 4 player setup, I don't think it's necessary for players 3 and 4 to have these though, so 8 way joystick are fine.

- if you don't have U360's, a dedicated 4way joystick is a MUST for the older 4 way games like Dkong, Pacman, etc. I have a dedicated 4way and it's never leaving my machine... at least until I upgrade and get the U360's :)

- 6 button layout, for player 1 and 2, but if you're a neogeo fan and feel you can get used to the 4th button being on top of the other 3, consider the 7 button layout.

- Trackball: I recommend a USB trackball, works great as a mouse

- spinner, needed for kick ass games like as Tempest, Arkanoid and that Tron classic you mentioned (note: if you buy the GGG spinner, you can also buy a nice little steering wheel that fits on top of the spinner assembly, thus bringing more fun to the 360 degree racing game. I don't have a GGG spinner (Tornado here) but the 1st generation wheel fits on top and I'm getting one delivered next week. (note that many driving games need a 270 degree steering wheel, any USB driving wheel for the PC works fine as long as you stick with a windows XP/Vista OS... and I recommend XP)

- this is debatable, but a couple of admin buttons are nice

- if you're a pinball fan like me, then you'll want a few buttons on the front of the control panel for "start game", plunger and the necessary side buttons for pinball.

Hope that helps,

Loaf

[H4CK3R]

The set up I saw that I liked was this one

http://www.mameroom.com/images/RedIllumQuad2.jpg

Except with two tron controllers in the center, One for tron.. duhh.. and the other to play battlezone.

But another thing I saw, and was wondering how I can imcorprate this but with the LED's changing Colors....

http://www.vimeo.com/user192750

I am currently looking into the LCD Option. Easier to put up and take down, and I can fix it myself when ever I need to, instead of hiring a tech to come out.

I apreciate all your inputs =) and I forgot all about the Side buttons for Pinball games... LOL

I am working over time, just to save for this, so like I said, I don't want to invest any money just to find out its not EXACTLY what I have in my head.

Also will HyperSpin incorprate any type of media player / Screen saver so that when its not being played I can plug in a screen saver.. personally I love Electric Sheep.

H4CK3R

[billpa]

Hey Loafer,

Good tips. Ball flow might not look good on an LCD because of the response time. For gaming you want something quick (4ms or lower). LCDs with high response times give you that ghosting image because it cannot refresh fast enough to keep up with the motion (a moving circular object like in pinball is a good way to test this out). For more info on response times see here:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3118_7-6358806-1.html

CRTs and LCDs both have their advantages and disadvantages. If you have the room, I would go with a CRT. I dont have the room so I play on LCD most of the time (or my rear projection TV in my living room).

HTH,
billpa

[billpa]

A couple of other things. If you go 4 player, dont do 6 buttons for 3P and 4P. The max buttons you need for player 3 and 4 is (4) buttons...and thats so you can play 4 player Dungeons and Dragons. If you dont play those games, you can get away with 3 buttons. IMO, I dont know how many times you will use a 4p setup. I would rather go 2p, use the 360s as Loafer mentioned. They work for all games and they have a built in encoder so you can wire you buttons in. Add a trackball and a spinner plus whatever admin, pin, etc. buttons and you can play pretty much anything.

[The Loafer]

Those are nice vids but I hope you looked at them completely, cause you'll notice it's a little quirky.

A side note and very personal opinion: But that's a kick panel with a cool bezel and a good quality front end; nicely done. I don't know how he did that, but I'm near 100% positive I saw a thread on this at byoac. IMHO, it's never overkill if it's what you want, but I'll tell you if you don't have the desire to build this yourself, something custom like that will cost you probably around $1500 (guessing) just for the control panel.

If you're up to the task and challenge and want to try yourself, I don't have it myself but everyone says Saint's book (the guy who runs byoac) goes into great detail on how you can do this yourself. That's the entire point afterall of byoac. When people on byoac say "buy the book", they're not just trying to help Saint get more sales, the book is supposed to be that good.

I agree with Billpa, no need for 6-7 buttons for player 3 and 4 and imho, unless you have a bunch of classic gaming friends who are over regularly, no need for 3 and 4 players, the others can wait their turn :).

[Circo]

my two cents, if you want side pinball buttons go with a two player cp. a 4 player is so huge that you would have to have monkey arms to reach the buttons. I have a two player (with all the bells and whistles) and I love it. my buddy has a four player cab with a 30 crt and says the 4 player gets used rarely if ever. everytime he sees mine he comments that he wishes he had bought the smaller one. just take note that the lights are not cheap and going from 2 player to 4 player will really jump up the cost.

[brian_hoffman]

www.Groovygamegear.com

Lots of stuff it you want to DIY


8/10 games use 8 way controls... The 4 way is for pacman and such.. The 8 way will work for pacman but if you inadvertly go diagnal then you have a 50/50 chance of going the wrong way.. and 90% it will be the wrong way... 4way restricts the movement.... Some joystick actuall can switch between the two via pulling and twisting the joystick.

The options are endless

[The Loafer]

There are two ways to add pinball buttons on a 4 player cab:

- you have a bit of a ledge on the front that allows buttons. See attached pic for an example (yes, the mame CP logo lights up)

- you can put a framed box under the top panel and have a couple of nice holes that allows you to place your hands in for the pinball buttons. Most people who buy the ready made x-arcade sticks with the pinball buttons and drop them into a CP box, that's what they do (there's lots's of pics on byoac).

[H4CK3R]

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s64/eqdruid/IMGP0456.jpg

Got the pinbal buttons too =)

[Dazz]

http://dazz.genmaygamers.com/images/cpl_complete1.gif

Authentic pinball plunger via custom optical circuit. 2 pinball flippers (I want to add another button on each side though) per side along with a front bump button that is easy to bump with the waist to give it that authentic pinball feel.

I also just added 2 original NES and 2 original SNES USB controllers to my setup. Just missing N64 and Sega adapters right now.

[The Loafer]

Authentic pinball plunger via custom optical circuit. 2 pinball flippers (I want to add another button on each side though) per side along with a front bump button that is easy to bump with the waist to give it that authentic pinball feel.




ahhh, I see you like to make love to your control panel too!

/lothario spanish voice off :)

[mattdyer07]

I was thinking about buying my controller off of mameroom.com they have this 4 player one that's real nice, and they also design to your liking. It's a bit pricey but hey i'm its worth it.