My Insane Arcade System Build (Part 7)

Among all of the stuff that has shown up, are the light guns.   I took a lot of pictures of these because the pictures on the ArcadeGuns.com web site left me with some questions about button layout.

But, lets get to the pictures.  The guns showed up in a pretty standard USPS priority mail box.  It shipped two day priority from the ArcadeGuns.com folks.

Inside, the guns were wrapped in bubble wrap and surrounded with packing peanuts.  As usual, the packing peanuts got everywhere when I opened the box, which was a pain.  But, beyond that, everything seemed to be packed snugly in the box.

As you can see, the guns were each wrapped in bubble wrap, as was the IR bar that goes along with them.  Because the IR bar will end up going behind the plexi-glass of the cabinet, I saved myself a few bucks and ordered it without the case.

The IR bar itself really doesn't have much to it.  It is made up of 6 IR LEDs and a few resistors.  One nice feature is that the cable can easily be disconnected from the IR bar.   I suspect this will make things a bit easier when it comes time to install this in the cabinet.

The guns themselves are where I had a few questions while looking at the ArcadeGuns.com site.   With some digging, I was able to find pictures that lead me to believe that there were two buttons on the guns.  One is where the hammer would be on a revolver, the other is in the center of the grip.

I am not sure how much I'll like having the button on the grip.  It seems like it would be easy to hit.  But, I guess it can always be programmed not to do anything.  (Or to reload, which would make accidentally hitting it a bonus!)

The mold of the gun is also interesting :

If you look at the Ultimarc web store, you can find the kit to build your own light gun.  It is really small.  So, obviously most of the casing of the gun is to make it comfortable in your hands.   The really interesting piece to me is the section right in front of the trigger.  It seems unlikely that piece holds any kind of circuitry in the gun.  Perhaps ArcadeGuns.com is thinking of adding a recoil feature in the future?   Or, I guess it could also be just to even out the weight of the gun in your hand.

I have not had a chance yet to try the guns out on a game.   But, one other thing I was curious about was how the buttons feel.   I remember from my younger days, playing "Operation Wolf" on the 8-bit Nintendo with the zapper.  The trigger on the zapper was really loud and and made a snapping sound each time you pulled it.   This didn't seem like a big deal for games like Duck Hunt where you only pulled the trigger once in a while, but on games like Operation Wolf, where you pull the trigger rapidly, it was really noisy, and felt as though you were going to break the trigger mechanism in the gun!  Fortunately, these guns are nothing like that.

Each of the switches on this gun seem to be fairly soft.  They make a rubberized "squishing/clicking" sound when you press them.   Very similar to the buttons on remote unlock systems for cars, but probably a little softer.  Overall, I expect they will be pretty quiet when in use.  And, while I am unsure how much I am going to like having a trigger that soft, there does seem to be enough forward force on the trigger so that you could easily tell when you have pulled the trigger fully.   Also, while the trigger looks rather large, it doesn't seem to need to be pulled back very far before you hear the clicking of the switch inside.   I am guessing that for rapid fire games like Operation Wolf, these guns will be comfortable, and not feel like they are going to break like the old NES zapper did.

Finally, as you can probably tell from the picture above, there is quite a bit of USB cord on these guns.  I am very hopeful that there is enough that I can string it through the cabinet and get to the USB ports on the PC inside.  But, I won't know that until the cabinet is complete, which is probably still a couple of months away.

My Insane Arcade System Build (Part 6)

Boy, oh boy!  Orders have been working their way to my house!   Probably enough for a few more posts!

Lets start with a few simple things.  I don't have panels that make up the control panel from North Coast yet.  Those will probably be here in the next week or so.  However, I figured it is never too early to start looking at things to make it pretty.   So, while looking around for T-molding, I came across t-molding.com.  T-molding.com will send you some samples to look at, so I took them up on it and ordered samples of the 5/8" molding to get a feel for how the colors looked.  Here is a picture of the samples :

The one on the farthest left looks like an issue with the camera, but it is actually black with a silver stripe.  It looks really cool, but I am not sure it will look good on a cabinet that is already black.   I'm leaning toward the light blue right now, but have to wait until the first parts of the cabinet show up to be sure.


My order from AllElectronics.com came packed in a pretty typical shipping package from the USPS.

Inside was the goodies that I will need to make the connections to the sticks and buttons.   Which basically boils down to quick connect pieces, a few DSub connectors, and some wire.  It all came packed in a large plastic bag wrapped with some brown packing paper.  When it is unpacked, it looks like this :

I elected to get a wiring that matches the colors used on a standard molex power connector on a computer.  This is because the PACLED64s need power and come with a molex connector.   It seems it will be easiest to keep the colors all the same.

While not the most exciting stuff, it is all necessary to complete the project.  And, since I wanted to document everything involved in it, you get this exciting post!  Enjoy!

My Insane Arcade System Build (Part 5)

We have narrowed down the buttons that we want, but really need to understand how we are going to light them before we make a final decision.    It is probably easiest to buy the buttons and the LED controllers from the same place as you would expect that they have been tested to work together.   So, since we previously established that we were down to the Groovy Game Gear and Ultimarc buttons, it makes sense to look at the controllers they sell as well.

Groovy Game Gear sells the LED-Wiz32 which can control 32 LEDs.   Ultimarc has the PACLED64 that can contol 64 LEDs.   If you will recall, we have 43 buttons, plus 5 sticks, and 1 track ball that we need to light.   So, we have 49 LEDs total that need to be lit.   So, we can order 2 LED-Wiz32s or 1 PACLED64, right?

Not so fast there.  The devil is in the details.   If you read carefully, you will discover that 1 single color LED uses fewer leads than 1 RGB LED.   A single color LED has 2 leads.   An RGB LED has 4!  In addition, the RGB LED needs one lead for each of the three colors, and one lead for ground.   So, we can think of an RGB LED as actually being 3 single color LEDs, which changes the math a bit.   We still have 49 physical LEDs, but since we want to be able to control all three colors in the RGB LEDs, we actually need controls for 49*3, or 147 LEDs.   This means that we need 5 LED-Wiz32s, or 3 PACLED64 boards to drive all of those colors.

Suddenly, the pricing for getting all of this light looks a bit different.   However, there is another factor to consider that is more aesthetic.  The PACLED64 requires power in addition to the USB cable, where the LED-Wiz32 seems to pull its power from the USB bus.   So, the PACLED64 is going to require some extra wires be extended in to your control panel to light all of the buttons.   However, the LED-Wiz32 will either require additional USB cables going in to the control panel, or a powered USB hub to be installed.   However, one thing to be aware of with powered USB hubs is most HUBs aren't built to provide maximum power to all of the ports on the hub.   So, finding a hub to use with the LED-Wiz32 may well be a guess and check type of proposition.

My decision ultimately came down to cost and difficulty.   While I am not jazzed about pulling extra power wires in to the control panel to power the PACLED64, I am even less jazzed about finding a USB hub with enough power in it to feed the LED-Wiz32.   Not to mention, both basically require pulling power in to the control panel to run the LEDs.   Then, factor in the cost difference between the two, and I elected to go with the PACLED64.    However, it is important to note that my decision was based purely on cost.   How well either board works is something I don't have the money to compare.   So, I am taking a roll of the dice that they both perform similarly.

So, I elected to purchase the LED controller and buttons from Ultimarc.   However, there was an issue when I went to order them.   I needed 43, but the on-line site claimed they only had 20.   So, I shot a quick e-mail over to Andy at Ultimarc to ask when more buttons would be in.  Andy responded within 24 hours saying that it was an issue with the web site, and he had plenty in stock.   The issue was fixed, and I was able to order.

So, the only other things that I needed to sort out is getting the quick connects and wire ordered.   In part 1, I mentioned that I ordered those parts from AllElectronics.com.   The order was pretty much a couple spools of wire, a couple hundred quick connects in a couple of sizes to be safe, and some 24 pin D-Sub connectors (both male and female).

The D-Subs probably seem to come out of left field.  Why the heck would you need them!?   Well, back in part 1 of this effort, I mentioned that I wanted to have the option to wire in a JAMMA harness in the future, so that I could collect the hardware versions of my favorite games.   I figure that if I solder all of the wires from the switches in to some D-Sub connectors then I can later wire a JAMMA harness to the opposite gender D-Sub connectors, and I have a quick way to switch between the systems.   How well this idea works remains to be seen.   However, I figure worst case I end up wasting some time to add some flexibility to the overall project.

My Insane Arcade System Build (Part 4)

Since I decided to go with the U-HID for the primary control method, it seemed that my best option for a trackball and a spinner was to just order them from Ultimarc.   Groovy Game Gear had a much less expensive spinner, which was enticing, but it was unclear how hard it would be to hook to the U-HID, so I decided to pay a bit more and go with the spinner from Ultimarc.   The Ultimarc spinner appears to be the same price as the one at Groovy Game Gear until you realize that you need to purchase the spinner cap in addition to the spinner at Ultimarc.  Then it becomes more expensive.   If you are more confident in your wiring abilities than I am, you can save yourself some money here and order from Groovy Game Gear.

For the trackball, I really liked the idea of not having to deal with a top mount plate.  Ultimarc has a track ball kit that doesn't require a top mount kit.   However, if you go back and look at the pictures for the Ultimate Quad control panel at North Coast Custom Arcades, you will see that it is clearly cut to be used with the top mount plate.   Reading through the various bits of information that I could find, it also became unclear to me if the ball on the Ultimarc U-trak would be too big to fit in the control panel.   It was also unclear if using that track ball would be considered "custom" by North Coast, which would add an additional charge to the purchase of the control panel kit.   However, after talking to the guys at North Coast, I was told that it was not an additional charge, but to get the panel cut for the U-trak track ball, I needed to specify that I planned to use that track ball in the comments section of the order.  (Which is a good reason to know what you are ordering before you do it!)   They also told me that the U-trak is what they used in their own builds, so it should work great.

So, we now have the leg work done for all of the controls except the RGB LED buttons.   Finding the right buttons ended up taking a lot more time than I had expected.   First, I had to try to track down who I could actually order the buttons from, and what kind of buttons are available.   Ultimarc, Groovy Game Gear, and Paradise Arcade Shop all had RGB buttons.   Ultimarc and Groovy Game Gear also appeared to have controllers to run the LEDs.  (Paradise Arcade Shop appeared to sell a controller as well, but it wasn't in stock.)   Ultimarc and Groovy Game Gear sold the complete RGB buttons as a kit, while Paradise Arcade Shop sold the buttons and the RGB lights separately.   With Paradise Arcade shop, they sell at least two different types of RGB LED inserts.   It was unclear to me which inserts went with which buttons.   However, a quick e-mail to them asking if a certain button and light worked together resulted in an answer that I had picked the correct light to match with the button.

I quickly discovered that I had too many choices of buttons, for my desired goal.   So, I set about trying to narrow down which ones I wanted.   Paradise Arcade Shop has a video on their site about lighted buttons that shows the difference in how buttons can look based on where the LED inside them is positioned.   This was good information that I had not considered previously.   After watching the video, I decided that I wanted buttons that didn't have a significant "hot spot" in the button.   Having a hot spot when the button is pushed is probably less of an issue, since it will be under your finger, but having hot spots when the button is not pushed could result in the buttons not looking as good as I would like.

So, how do I figure out how the different buttons look?   Fortunately, someone on the Arcade Control Forms had the same question, and did some testing to find out.   You can find the post about the different buttons here.  As a quick aside, there seems to be a lot more than just how the buttons look that will factor in to how much you like them.   As I was researching everything there was a lot of discussion about the different types of switches that were used in the buttons.   If you think you are going to be picky about how your buttons respond, I suggest you do some reading on that.   For me, I figured I would go with whatever the default is with the buttons and replace the switches later if I don't like them.

After looking at the forum post, I came to the conclusion that I didn't want clear buttons.  This shrunk my choices a little bit.   However, after looking at the site for Paradise Arcade Shop, I discovered that the non-translucent buttons weren't in stock, which basically brought me down to a decision between the Groovy Game Gear, and the Ultimarc buttons.   But, like the controller for the buttons and sticks, it makes sense to understand how we are going to control the LEDs before we make a final decision.

My Insane Aracde System Build (Part 3)

With the sticks selected and ordered, it was time to move on to the next most easy thing.   The light guns.  If you search around a lot, you will discover that there are a surprising number of options for light guns out there.   Since I plan to use a CRT monitor, I really wanted the classic optical light guns to go along with it.   However, it seems that those just aren't that easy to get integrated with a build like this.  (Not to say it is impossible, just that it is currently beyond the skills of this newbie.)   So, I looked at what was available, did some research, and found a few sets of guns.

At least one set of guns was wireless.   While this sounds like it would be cool, the thought of keeping batteries in the darn things just sounds like a pain.   And, to keep things as authentic as possible, I really wanted something with a wire hanging, just like it would in the arcade.   So, I eventually narrowed myself down to the Arcade Guns light guns, and the AimTrak gun from Ultimarc.    From what I could find, the Ultimarc AimTrak guns sound like they work really well.   I also liked the option of being able to add a recoil function to them to keep things even more authentic.   However, two things kept me from getting the AimTrak guns.  1) They only had the black ones in stock when I tried to order.   2) Adding the recoil functionality requires soldering skills that are probably beyond mine.

After digging in a bit more, I found that the Arcade Guns light guns actually use the AimTrak internals.   They also had the red and blue kits in stock, which would more closely match what I remember from my arcade days.   On closer look, I also think I like the button positioning on the Arcade Guns units.  So, I went ahead and ordered a set of those.   I also opted to save myself a few bucks by ordering the IR bar without a case.  I plan to install it directly in to my cabinet.

As a quick aside, I spoke to the folks at North Coast Custom Arcades, and was assured that once I get my system all assembled, there will be enough space around the control panel to put the light gun cables through.  But, I'll get to the discussions with them in another post.

Ordering the remaining parts ended up becoming an interesting exercise in finding the controller components I wanted, mixed with pricing, and what was available.   While asking some questions on the Arcade Controls Forum, I discovered that there are multiple ways to "implement" a joystick in a MAME cabinet.   You can wire a stick up to send keyboard codes to your computer, or you can wire it up to look to the machine like a standard USB joystick.   It seems to me that the key difference in which method you want to use is based on how you intend to use the sticks, and if they are analog sticks.   If the sticks are only going to be used for emulators, then it shouldn't matter which method you use.   However, if you are using analog sticks, then key presses won't provide the full sweep of options that you would get from an analog stick.  So, the "correct" answer is largely a matter of what hardware you use, and how you plan to use it.   For my build, I wanted the maximum possible flexibility.   After digging around, I came upon the Ultimarc U-HID controller, which seems to be programmable to allow it to show up as either a joystick, or key presses.  However, it is unclear if it would work with an analog joystick, or even how programmable it is.   But, knowing that I plan to primarily use emulators, I should be fine with whatever it ends up being able to do.

However, one aspect to consider with the controllers is how many devices and switches you need to control.  We know that we have 43 buttons, with one switch each.   We also know that we have 5 sticks.  Each stick is going to have 4 switches for a total of 20 switches.  So, we will have 63 switches plus a track ball and spinner.   Since the U-HID only has 50 controls, we will either need 2 of them, or 1 of them and 1 of something else.   (As I write this, I realized I only ordered 1!  Looks like I need to figure out how to support the remaining 13 switches + track ball and spinner!   More on that later, I guess..)

My Insane Aracde System Build (Part 2)

As with all "simple" projects, this one got out of hand in a hurry.   The first thing I needed to do was to figure out all of the things I didn't know I needed to know about.   That is always a fun thing.   So, with a little Googleing, I tracked down the Arcade Controls Forum.   This place is an insane wealth of information about every aspect of arcade game systems you could imagine.   Perhaps the worst thing about the forum is that there is SO MUCH information that it can be really hard to track down exactly what you are looking for.   However, when I couldn't find what I wanted to know, I found that registering and asking a question in the forum usually netted useful information, with few exceptions.

But, lets start with a quick recap of what we know, and what we need to figure out.

1. The arcade cabinet will be a North Coast Custom Arcade Ultimate Arcade II Cabinet kit.
2. The control panel (where the sticks and buttons are installed) will be North Coast Custom Arcade Ultimate Quad kit.  (I chose not to have the pinball buttons added, as the size of the control panel seemed like it would put them too far apart for comfort.)
3. I want RGB lighted sticks, buttons, and trackball.
4. I need some kind of computer to run it all.
5. I want the computer to boot up and be ready to play without needed to use a keyboard or mouse.

Tracking down a computer was pretty easy.   I have an old AMD Phenom 1.9 Ghz Quad Core system that badly needed to be upgraded to support my wife's need for the latest versions of PhotoShop.   So, I ordered parts for a new system from NewEgg, and decided to convert the old system to be my arcade machine.

With the machine figured out, I needed to get the parts ordered so that I could start to assemble my control panel.   After doing some Google searches, and reading through a bunch of posts on the Arcade Controls Forum, I game up with a list of a few places to order parts for the control panel.

• Ultimarc - Has quite a good selection of buttons, sticks, trackballs, and light guns.  The web site was also reasonably easy to navigate for a newbie like me.
• Groovy Game Gear - Also has a good selection of buttons, sticks, and trackballs.  The web site was also reasonably easy to navigate for a newbie, but did take a bit more effort as they seemed to have a larger selection than Ultimarc.
• Paradise Arcade Shop - Has one of the largest selections of buttons and sticks of all the places I looked.  The web site was a bit more difficult to navigate for a newbie.   But, once you figure out who the different vendors for sticks and buttons are, it becomes a bit easier to understand the layout.
• Arcade Guns - Strangely enough, it is a source for light guns for building arcade systems.  With deeper digging, you will find they use the same innards as the Ultimarc guns.   However, the button layout, and shells are different.   They also don't seem to offer a recoil add-on like Ultimarc does.

Finally, you will need a bunch of wire and quick connects.   While some of the shops above offer these things, I found they were a tad cheaper at AllElectronics.com.

But, before I could start going crazy with the credit card, I needed to figure out exactly what parts I wanted to use so I could be sure that the control panel kit fit them all correctly.   The easiest thing to do is figure out a list of all of the obvious parts that are needed to assemble the control panel.   If you go to the page for the North Cost Custom Arcade Ultimate Quad kit, and scroll down a bit, you can find a template that is to be used to design an overlay for the panel.  The overlay graphic is perfect for getting a count of what we need. By my count, we need the following :

• 43 (total) buttons.  7 for each of the 8-way stick positions, 4 for players 1-4, 4 for coin inputs for the 4 players, and 7 more for the trackball, 4-way sitck, and asteroids buttons.
• 1 spinner
• 1 track ball
• 4 8-way sticks
• 1 4-way stick
• 2 light guns (not part of the control panel, but we need them anyway)

Then, of course, we need all of the gear to actually wire up those devices to be used by the computer.

But, lets start with the easy decision.   Of all of the places I listed, the only one that had the RGB LED joysticks that I wanted was Paradise Arcade Shop.   At Paradise Arcade Shop, they sell complete sticks with the RGB LEDs, along with kits to add RGB LEDs to other sticks.   Since I am a newbie to all of this, I opted to go with the Paradise Arcade sticks, rather than buy other sticks and retro fit them with kits.   One thing that was really unclear to me is if they offered a 4-way stick, or if I would need to customize one to work.   So, I e-mailed them to see what they had to say, while I continued to research 4-way sticks.  In my research, I discovered that most 8 way sticks could have a restrictor plate inserted in them that would convert them to a 4-way stick.   In addition, I discovered that both 4 way and 8 way sticks only use 4 switches for control.   8 way sticks were just able to hit 2 switches at once, where 4 way sticks couldn't.  So, there is not a lot of difference between the two.   However, many comments on the Internet indicated that a stick in 8 way mode can cause strange behavior on emulators with a game that is made for a pure 4 way stick.   So, I wanted to make sure I had a "pure" 4 way stick for those games.

After more research, and an e-mail response from Paradise Arcade Shop, I found that the 8 way LED sticks actually include the restrictor plate to force the stick to a 4 way, or even a 2 way stick.  (Bonus!)   So, the decision on which sticks to buy was complete.   I ordered 5 of the RGB LED sticks from Paradise Arcade Shop.

My Insane Arcade System Build (Part 1)

I am a child of  the 80s and 90s.   When I was young, there was very little in the world better than spending an insane amount of time playing video games.   The grocery stores near my house had a hand full of different game systems that I would save my quarters to go play.   I had my favorites, but in general I was a huge fan of having a hand full of change and landing in an arcade full of cabinets.   The more games the better.

I remember distinctly thinking to myself, "When I am old enough to own a house, the whole basement will be decked out with every game I can get my hands on!"   My basement would rival the arcades I grew up with.

Unfortunately, like many childhood dreams, I didn't end up becoming filthy rich enough to own the 10,000+ sq.ft. house I would need to store all of those systems, let alone have enough cash to buy them all.   I did, however amass a large collection of home video game systems and games that I plan to have in a prominent place once I finish my basement.

Which brings me to the fun part.  I must have talked about my arcade dream enough, that my wife picked up on how much I would love to own a cabinet.   When it came time to finish the basement, I started looking in to what it would cost to have one, and promptly told her it was just too much money.  She insisted that it was something I get because I have dreamed of it for so long.   So, I started looking.  While I would love to have a JAMMA cabinet and start to collect boards, I figured I would start with a MAME cabinet that I could easily rewire to support JAMMA boards in the future.

And thus began my hunt for the ultimate home arcade system.   The first thing I needed to do was figure out the parameters for the system I wanted.   My wife started by telling me what she would require to allow me to display the cabinet in the basement once it was finished :

1. It can't look like a crappy home built system made from parts found at the hardware store.  --   While there are lots of folks on the Internet that have the skills to build something that looks great using parts from the hardware store, I know I am not one of them.   So, reality dictates that I start to look at what I could buy pre-made.

2. It *HAS* to play light gun games.  --  While dating, and even on our honeymoon, my wife and I loved to play games like House of the Dead and Area 51.  If she is going to let me build this, she insisted that her favorite games be playable.

Simple enough, right?   I figured I would just buy a pre-made system and then tweak it for my own needs.  I was aware of the X-Arcade systems, so I figured I would start there.   This looked like a nice system, and having tried out the X-Arcade controller at Fry's years ago, it seemed like it would be a great first system.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wanted a 4 player system.   So, I started to look around at other places such as Dream Arcades, and North Coast Custom Arcades.

I loved the North Coast Ultimate Arcade II cabinet with the 4 player controls.   Even more, I loved the pictures of that system using the RGB LED lighted buttons and sticks.   But, my concern was how hard it was going to be to move a fully assembled system down in to my basement, along with the cost of buying that unit outright.   So, I decided to purchase the various parts, and put it together myself.   It should be much easier to move individual pieces of the system in to the basement.   In addition, I could order the control panel now and start to put it together while I wait for the basement work to be finished.   When the basement is nearly done, I can order the main cabinet along with the other large and heavy pieces like the monitor.

Pretty simple, right?