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Get Out, See Green!


A crazy idea...

Started by Brad, Sep 26, 2010, 11:29 PM

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Brad

Added a bottom and front side to my test control box. This allows you to easily sit it on your lap and play without fear of shorting out anything or pulling out any wires.

You guys are welcome to come over and try it out whenever you like. Also I still have that webcam you wanted courtney.

zourtney

Cool. I'd like to see it. Maybe I'll stop by tonight before Eve gets off work. Maybe around 6-6:30?

Brad

Sounds good I should be home.

Brad

So Nick came over to work on stuff and also played around with my arcade control box. He beat Michaels Jackson's Moonwalker ga,e. Spoiler alert: he gurns into a gigantic space ship at the end when the evil fortress explodes. He doesn't seem to take any of the children with him though... however the game claims that they are all smiling because they know Michael will be back to take them on another wonderful magical adventure.

Also, I'll be mailing you the invoice for the $5 in "quarters" you used Nick.

Nick

That game is so unintentionally creepy. I support Brads theory that its all reversed from whats actually happening. When the children are liberated, they are actually being taken from parents/social workers. And all the bad guys are actually police and said social workers trying to stop Micheal. Though none of this explains the crazy phallic robot "thrusters."

Here is a good overview of the more disturbing parts.
http://terribleanalogies.com/2009/06/moonwalker-a-childhood-memory-ruined/

zourtney

Hahaha, oh wow. That 'pants' thing really made me laugh  :D

Brad

Well I've completed drawn out all the plans in Autocad. The only thing missing is the placement of the controls. I am still debating the merits of a the standard capcom style 6 button layout versus a more rounded one like this: With only 6 buttons of course. No 8 button layout.

I'm also considering whether I should get a trackball or not. They are about $60, which isn't too terrible but I think I'd have to buy another stupid encoder system to get the trackball to the USB port and that spending $40 for that makes it ~$100 and that is too much. You can buy a regular computer trackball for $30. Still looking into this.

Apparently I have my button rows reversed from proper street fighter style, however I think most all of the other games are correct...

zourtney

I am partial to the rounded button layout, but for no real reason. I think it looks better; perhaps a more finished and professional flair. I don't know how it plays in comparison to the straight layout, though I imagine it's not worse...

Yeah. So, have you cut any wood yet?

Brad

No wood cutting has been achieved yet. I have however completed the basic plan drawing in AutoCad.

Here is the basic plans in DXF format so you can all import it into whatever autocad alternative you have, or get a viewer thing or something.

Still haven't made up my mind about the buttons so they aren't drawn on the control panel. Also deciding about purchasing a trackball.

zourtney

The trackball seems superfluous to me (then again, I dislike trackballs). The number of games where it'd be useful don't really justify the cost. To me, anyway.

Brad

Besides bowling and golf games a trackball is used in Centipede, Rampart, Marble Madness, Crystal Castles, Missile Command, and Sonic the Hedgehog.

I want to play these games but the trackball would cost more than all my other controls combined. If I didn't have to buy the extra $45 interface I'd probably do it.

Brad

Another thing I was thinking about today was the fact that I've got an extra Sidewinder analog steering wheel with pedals sitting around that apparently nobody wants.

I'm considering decasing the steering wheel and seeing if I can't create a mechanism for mounting it onto the cabinet. It could be stored inside the cabinet with the pedals when not in use.

That would allow you to actually play arcade racing games such as Cruisn' USA, Outrun, Chase HQ, APB, Grand Prix Star, Night Driver and lots more.

Unfortunately I still can't properly play one of my favorite arcade driving games (they used to have it at the Lancaster Izzy's Pizza) RoadBlasters. That game used a limited travel optical steering wheel which can't be emulated by a regular analog steering wheel. Too bad.

zourtney

Well, you all know how I feel about racing games. If you have spare parts and spare ports, why not? This is going to be one interesting machine...

Brad

Ok, ok... a sort-of steering wheel related question. If I do manage to somehow mount the steering wheel so that it works and doesn't look atrocious, is it worth it to add in more emulation? Basically my front-end can handle multiple emulators. You'd be able to play games on different systems... namely playstation... so gran turismo. It wouldn't have to stop there, but that's sort of what I made me think of it. It kinda went, it'd be cool to be able to play other racing games like gran turismo with a steering wheel and pedals.

So yeah, should I add in extra emulators (and add in games like gran turismo)? Or leave it arcade only to be more authentic. Did I ask this questions before?

zourtney

I don't remember you asking this question before, no. That's a pretty cool idea. I'm not sure if I can answer whether or not you should do it, as you will be the one using it most of the time. When you say "your front end can handle multiple emulators", does that mean that you wouldn't have to fuss around in any OS-native screen to switch between a 1983 Pac-Man games and a 2004 Playstation 2 game? If so, cool; if not, you kind of lose your pseudo-embedded-system allure.

I can point out the obvious and state that racing games are much better suited to a sitting position. For that matter, many console-system games are. Sure, you could pull up a chair and be perfectly happy with it. This is destined to the garage, after all. Or you could (someday) build another system better tailored to sit-down games. With a nice fancy seat, with butt-rumbling subwoofers and blaring mids on either side of your head, and the whole works. You could even build them back-to-back into the same cabinet, but that'd take a total redesign of your cabinet....[not] to mention another computer, monitor, I/O, etc. And it'd be a huge space hog.

Anyway, I'm sure that doesn't actually help any. I like the idea, but what's that saying? "Jack of all trades, master of none?" Or something like that...