Arcade Game Project

Ronjay said:
Right, I've been looking at the hyperspin website. Busy downloading it at the moment. On Saturday I'll go and look for the buttons/stick etc at ERM. Then I'll start.
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Well, its an electronics shop. I'm relatively sure youre not going to get a stick there. Unless you plan on making your own 4way/8way stick with micro switches?
 
Madman88 said:
Well, its an electronics shop. I'm relatively sure youre not going to get a stick there. Unless you plan on making your own 4way/8way stick with micro switches?
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Oh, damn. Na-ah. Right, then import it is.

Been trying to download stuff, Mame, Hyperspin, etc. This is going to take forever.:cry: Anyway, I've found an old philips 21 inch crt monitor, so now I'm thinking of making an arcade cabinet. Well, actually a half of a cabinet, it has to stand on a desk. So its not going to have a bottom half, just the part that encapsulates the monitor and the place for the controls. (hope that makes sense.)

Thing is, I want to start on it ASAP (like, yesterday:D). I hate waiting. I would like to know the diameter of the buttons and the size of the cuts for the stick, that way I can start with the build and have it mostly done before the parts get here. Please can you help me out with the measurements of the buttons/stick? It would be a great help.
 
Ronjay said:
Oh, damn. Na-ah. Right, then import it is.

Been trying to download stuff, Mame, Hyperspin, etc. This is going to take forever.:cry: Anyway, I've found an old philips 21 inch crt monitor, so now I'm thinking of making an arcade cabinet. Well, actually a half of a cabinet, it has to stand on a desk. So its not going to have a bottom half, just the part that encapsulates the monitor and the place for the controls. (hope that makes sense.)

Thing is, I want to start on it ASAP (like, yesterday:D). I hate waiting. I would like to know the diameter of the buttons and the size of the cuts for the stick, that way I can start with the build and have it mostly done before the parts get here. Please can you help me out with the measurements of the buttons/stick? It would be a great help.
Click to expand...

I will check the dimensions I used for you tonight. The buttons are standard, but the sticks all have different dimensions. It all depends on what stick you order. I did download a dimension layout for my sticks but ended up having to redo the panel because they where wrong.

I have not found my invoice unfortunately, but I can tell you that I paid a total of R1448.65 for two ultrastiks and 16 buttons with micro switches. That was at an exchange rate of .12 and it is currently .14 so the same stuff will be cheaper for you. I do remember that about $30 dollars was for shipping tho. I did not pay anything in the way of import taxes etcetera.
 
Madman88 said:
I will check the dimensions I used for you tonight. The buttons are standard, but the sticks all have different dimensions. It all depends on what stick you order. I did download a dimension layout for my sticks but ended up having to redo the panel because they where wrong.

I have not found my invoice unfortunately, but I can tell you that I paid a total of R1448.65 for two ultrastiks and 16 buttons with micro switches. That was at an exchange rate of .12 and it is currently .14 so the same stuff will be cheaper for you. I do remember that about $30 dollars was for shipping tho. I did not pay anything in the way of import taxes etcetera.
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Shot. I'm going for the ultrasticks, easier to work with. For the sake of my wallet I'm going to buy one stick and eight buttons and the materials for the cabinet this month, and the other stick/buttons next month. Was also looking at the light gun too. $88 is a bit pricey though. Is there anything else I must get for the controller?
 
Ronjay said:
Shot. I'm going for the ultrasticks, easier to work with. For the sake of my wallet I'm going to buy one stick and eight buttons and the materials for the cabinet this month, and the other stick/buttons next month. Was also looking at the light gun too. $88 is a bit pricey though. Is there anything else I must get for the controller?
Click to expand...

The ultrasticks are a dream to use - just plug in the button to the stick, and usb from the stick to the PC.
 
Ronjay said:
Shot. I'm going for the ultrasticks, easier to work with. For the sake of my wallet I'm going to buy one stick and eight buttons and the materials for the cabinet this month, and the other stick/buttons next month. Was also looking at the light gun too. $88 is a bit pricey though. Is there anything else I must get for the controller?
Click to expand...

Yes, the wiring harness to connect the buttons to the joystick :p. I made mine but that was because I forgot to order them. I would rather have bought them as it would have been cheaper and less effort, but it really wasn't worth paying the $30 again just for two harnesses.
 
For some reason the site wont let me submit post when I've clicked on reply:wtf:

Anyway, thanks MM and Greg. I'll check out the site for the harness.

Sorry, what is the harness called on the site, I can't find it and want to see the price of it.
 
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Madman88 said:
Yes, the wiring harness to connect the buttons to the joystick :p. I made mine but that was because I forgot to order them. I would rather have bought them as it would have been cheaper and less effort, but it really wasn't worth paying the $30 again just for two harnesses.
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I make mine as well - didn't take too long at all.
 
Ronjay said:
For some reason the site wont let me submit post when I've clicked on reply:wtf:

Anyway, thanks MM and Greg. I'll check out the site for the harness.

Sorry, what is the harness called on the site, I can't find it and want to see the price of it.
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UltraStik Button / Encoder Harness but I suppose you could make it. I think I spent more that the R50 it costs to buy it on making it.
 
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Sorry MM. Can't seem to be able to post with Firefox at the moment so wasn't able to reply to you. Thanks for that. Actualy must have gone pat that about 10 times, how I missed it I don't know:whistle::D
 
Wow, anyone know where I can get a complete download of Hyperspin and Emumovies? Downloading one file at a time is really annoying.
 
Sorry guys, had a problem with my internet account so I was unable to reply for awhile.

Anyway, I'm going to place an order for the buttons/stick today. I don't have a decent camera so you guys are going to have to put up with photo's from a cellphone when I start (hopefully this weekend). MM, thanks for the link too.

Edit, that guy's Project Econ looks awesome.
 
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Madman88 said:
So now I'm itching to make another arcade machine... A full sized one. I don't really want to use a tv or a crt tho. What monitor do you guys think would be best?
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I'd go with a LCD. I used a TV and the biggest problem is the picture quality when going from a PC to the TV. I'm still trying to get it working 100%. I used a svideo out but the quality is really poor.
 
gregmcc said:
I'd go with a LCD. I used a TV and the biggest problem is the picture quality when going from a PC to the TV. I'm still trying to get it working 100%. I used a svideo out but the quality is really poor.
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I disagree. Quality on a tv with a svideo connection shouldn't be a problem. If you have a problem, it's more than likely something else causing it. You can also use component, which will give you even better quality. The only connection to stay away from is composite.

With lcd you'll always have a problem. The biggest 4:3 lcd you get is 22" (if I remember correctly) and they're very hard to find. If you go bigger, you'll have to use a widescreen lcd, which will either give you stretched images, which looks horrible for arcade games, or you'll have the black parts on the sides of the screen, which looks even worse.
 
RVZ said:
I disagree. Quality on a tv with a svideo connection shouldn't be a problem. If you have a problem, it's more than likely something else causing it. You can also use component, which will give you even better quality. The only connection to stay away from is composite.

With lcd you'll always have a problem. The biggest 4:3 lcd you get is 22" (if I remember correctly) and they're very hard to find. If you go bigger, you'll have to use a widescreen lcd, which will either give you stretched images, which looks horrible for arcade games, or you'll have the black parts on the sides of the screen, which looks even worse.
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Ive been thinking about this, and I might just do that, but I'll make an overlay to cover the black areas of the screen. If it doesn't fit nicely into the cabinet I'll turn it 90˚ and hide the black areas in the top and behind the control panel.
 
Madman88 said:
Ive been thinking about this, and I might just do that, but I'll make an overlay to cover the black areas of the screen. If it doesn't fit nicely into the cabinet I'll turn it 90˚ and hide the black areas in the top and behind the control panel.
Click to expand...

Just a thought. Why not make the front of the cab, where the monitor is, capable of opening up somehow? I mean, when you are playing arcade games like Mame, it is closed to an aspect of 4/3 but when you want to play PC games like SSFiv it is open to full aspect? No idea how it could be implemented and still be hidden, though.
 
RVZ said:
I disagree. Quality on a tv with a svideo connection shouldn't be a problem. If you have a problem, it's more than likely something else causing it. You can also use component, which will give you even better quality. The only connection to stay away from is composite.
Click to expand...

Mmm, interesting. When I startup XP I can't even make out any of the icons. I've tried upgrading the drivers, tried all sorts of resolutions, nothing seems to help.
 
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