It's almost winter

I haven't done a thing with my plans for an arcade machine, apparently I don't have enough cash flow to build anything. This is a little upsetting to say the least, I mean I've only been dreaming about this since 2002, and now that I live in the place I wanted back in 2002 I thought I could now build what I wanted from 2002. Nope, it looks like only one dream will be fulfilled this year.

News

I am moving into my new place this week, and have been packing for weeks, so there has been no new advancements on my arcade research except that I now know that the cheapest way to build this would be to build only the control panel to be attached to a big box of a monitor/TV stand at a later date. I will have to do some refinements to the design in order to accommodate this.

Well back to packing.

No Design Pics

Sorry, no design pics today, but I am giving an update on what I've learned so far. I have learned that I would love to have analog joysticks, but only if it comes in the short ball top format. I don't know if this is possible, but it would be very cool. I also learned that I could make this thing a lot easier if i concentrated on one aspect at a time. I will try to build the controls first, seperately and add them onto a big box later. That way I can make a USB connection and use my current setup. I will start with 1 player controls using a slat for a joystick, a slat for 8 buttons, and an big empty slat. The backsplash (if I can call it that) will need to have the administative buttons hard wired.

Oh, that's my girlfriend calling for me, gotta run.

Concepts for vertical rotation, front and back view. Remember you can click the image to open a larger file.

A moment of thanks

I'd like to take a moment and thank the good people over at Pleasuredome. They've been giving me great feedback, and i thought I should mention this here. Here's a link to the forum I've been getting the feedback on: http://forum.pleasuredome.org.uk/index.php?showtopic=16026&st=0&gopid=121166&#entry121166

Here is yet another look at the control panel. As you can see there is now a level base for a steering wheel. That back splash is flush in the picture but will have a bit of room because there will be a place to plug in a USB port in behind it and on the front of it. That backsplash has to be all the way to the top (without any give) because of the rotational forces of the steering wheel. My friend actually lifts one side of his dining room table every once in a while when he plays Gran Turismo, so I don't want that happening here. I will have to fix this to be a 90 degree rabbit joint instead of one board on top and one board on the bottom.

I am still thinking of a latching system that will allow me to open this control panel for swapping, but not let it move. I have heard of other people using ball latches, and I've priced these out, it seems reasonable. I also need to work on a way to block lateral movement. I don't want these panels sliding around on me when I playing a good game. I can get pretty heavy handed, so this panel needs to be sturdy. I've even considered the peg and hole idea, and I like it, but it isn't my idea I found it here: http://www.beersmith.com/mame/. Anyway this stuff doesn't have to be figured out right now, it's my winter project remember.

Control Panel Detail

This is the first of many close ups of the design of the control panel. As you can see, I'll be using a modular design so I can switch between different game types all the time. I'm a bit A.D.D. so this will come in handy. Don't worry, those funny squared up sides will be fixed to a slope as soon as I can figure out how to do that in Sketch-Up. My first thought on this was to have 3 or 4 different fixed size control panels, and be able to switch among them, but then storage would become an issue. I've decided on this scheme because it lets me build them one at a time and slowly build up my controls.

I will have to include a squared off mounting board for a steering wheel, which is the next part I will be modelling in Google Sketch-Up

This is my first concept, a cocktail machine with an office chair cylinder for a monitor stand. It's only a concept right now, but it looks almost workable. I'd employ the same up down mechanism as a standard office chair (a lever) and thereby creating something unique, yet easy to use. I haven't laid out the controls on this Google Sketch Up model yet, but I will probably use a Neo-Geo layout or a double Neo-Geo layout, since those are invariably the machines I go for in the arcade. Oh, and the Initial D games, so I'll probably need a replaceable Steering Yoke. I may even opt for the customizable control panel that every control lifts out and can be replaced with either buttons or joysticks or whatever, using a custom wire harness. I really need a trackball with this because I find myself playing a lot of mouse games (defender), and I've been using a trackball on my computer for ages. Anyway I'd appreciate comments from the community, so drop off some here.