thinking about building mame dual stick

[osis32]

just curious if anyone has done this. done a ton of research and thinking about picking up the game room solutions arcade control panel:

https://gameroomsolutions.com/shop/arcade-control-panel/

then this button kit with a couple more random buttons:

https://www.amazon.com/Happ-Arcade-Control-Panel-RGB/dp/B00GBC075Y

a couple ultimate Amtrak light guns:

https://www.ultimarc.com/aimtrak.html

then the ultimarc ipac2 to wire it up to:

https://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html

and I haven't decided whether to use a beater pc I have lying around or raspberry pi3 for the emulators. so far I've only done Windows pc's. anyway curious if anyone has done this. has any pointers or recommendations for better hardware. I don't have room for a cabinet or I'd do that.

give me your input fellas I'd love to hear it.

[osis32]

oh and I forgot to mention I'm ditching the happ sucks and replacing them with sanwa jlf sticks. I thought about doing the tank stick but a lot of people online say it sucks.

[UEDan]

Fack, typed up a long post on the toilet and the battery died.... to sum it up:

Gutted my old DIY control panel to build my bartop arcade last summer:
This to This

IMO Layout is better on the tank stick than that one. That one has too many "admin buttons". IPAC allows for shifted buttons so extra buttons not required.
Xarcade buttons and sticks do truly suck. Happ buttons are better but best I've used are Prime buttons from groovygamegear.com. Can't comment on the Sanwa sticks as I use Happ Competitions.
I wouldn't buy the set if you are just going to replace the sticks, unless you want to have some extra Happ Ultimate sticks.

Price for Control panel is meh. Why not go the DIY route? A control panel is essentially a glorified wooden box.

No complaints on the ipac. I have one in my bartop cabinet, solid. I'm not sold on IR tracking guns, so meh for me.

Are you planning on stuffing everything in the control panel? rPi would be the easiest. And with the IR bar for the Aimpoint it'll be a octapuss'd cabling mess.
Then performance becomes a huge concern:
You probably won't be able to play any of the higher requirement gun games.
Bootup times are murder! If my bartop took 5 minutes to load just so I can play 1 game of Pacman, I would never use it. i5 with and SSD booting to hyperspin for me.

You really don't have room for at least a bartop cabinet? I rarely used my 2p control panel, too cumbersome.

[osis32]

I was looking at that cabinet because it comes with plexi glass and to be quite honest I'm too lazy right now to lay out the board get all the center lines and all that stuff I prices it out to make something comparable would be about 60 bucks in tools and materials plus my time and it probably wouldn't come out that nice. if I was going to do more than one then I'd consider it. I don't know what gun games you're running that would benefit from an i5 must be really cool stuff. if be happy with time crisis 2

[UEDan]

Makes sense.

Also Looks like Time Crisis 2 has is emulated and playable on PCSX2:

http://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php/Time_Crisis_II

Having a decent CPU and some sort of GPU helps with emulators likes Dolphin and Demul as well ;-)

[osis32]

was looking at this one too. it's a fully built version similar to the controller I was thinking about assembling. wiring it myself would save me about 100 bucks and get me the better sanwa sticks.

http://www.recroommasters.com/Xtension_Two_Player_Control_Board_Emulator_Edition_p/rm-xt-sd-board-ee.htm

[Ninety]

I have emulation station on a rpi2 and Rpi 3 had to overclock the two for it to run smoothly.

The 3 runs it great.

I'm interested in the controllers..and will be reading your links in a bit ..

I've also used a USB hub to get the Controllers closer to the couch.

Sent from my HTC Desire 626s using Tapatalk

[osis32]

yeah I was thinking I'd need a powered usb hub if I wanted to run the sensor guns. right now my donor pc is an atom processor of some kind with integrated graphics. I think it would still run most older stuff. was thinking about using lakka and wiping Windows.

[SheepDog78]

I've been in this hobby for years. I grew up in the arcades and I wanted to go 100% legit. I built this myself, all from scratch:



I bought the cabinet plans online, bought the MDF sheets from Home Depot, cut all the pieces and put it together. I also designed the control panel layout myself since I couldn't find any which suited my needs (i.e. 2 trackballs, primarily for 2-player Marble Madness). I made the control panel modular so I can swap out the middle joysticks and buttons for other controls, such as 2 joysticks per player for Karate Champ and Smash TV, or rotary joysticks for Ikari Warriors. The cabinet is gray because it's primered, I never got around to painting it, and I've since lost the paint I bought for it so now I need to buy more. It has an original Betson Imperial arcade CRT multisync monitor, and the PC I'm using with it has an Ultimarc ArcadeVGA video card which was designed by Andy at Ultimarc to output the original arcade resolutions and refresh rates, which means pixel perfect games (no hardware stretch).

Anyway, I also bought this for it:



Nobody plays for free! I need to build another cabinet to install it though, and I want to re-design the control panel pedestal anyway, and probably the control panel itself, space it out a little more.

I have one of these light guns, which are the best you can get, since they're the original technology and only work with a CRT screen, but they're the most accurate:



Problem is they are not made anymore and haven't been for years, so the only way you're going to find them is on eBay, and they're usually pretty pricey, but if you want the real deal arcade experience, there's no substitute.

I wired up the control panel myself, which has already gone through 2 overhauls and it's pretty time consuming:



I do have a powered USB hub in there, which I needed to limit the wires coming out of the control panel, and for all the interfaces:



I wired the primary control interfaces to VGA connectors and made quick change plugs for the removable control panels. I'm actually still working on it, but slowly making progress. I have to resist the urge to play it because once I start playing, work really stops!

Just some more quick info about the parts I used, this website was my best friend through the process, and they have some of the best stuff you can get for control panels and cabinets: http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/

I am using 2 of the GP-Wiz40 interfaces for joysticks and buttons, 2 of the Opti-Wiz interfaces for the trackballs, a TurboTwist 2 arcade spinner, and also bought all the buttons and microswitches from them. I'm using the TrueLeaf switches, which are so much better than the standard Cherry microswitches used by Happ and similar products. They're a little pricier, but the tactile feedback is so much better, and more like the original arcade switches, and they're faster. I believe the Sanwa JLF joysticks you are wanting to get use original leaf switches, but I'm not positive. Sanwa makes good stuff. Happ makes good stuff too. My trackballs are both Happ. I also have two of their 8-way fighter sticks, which are your standard Street Fighter type joysticks, with Cherry microswitches, which give you that "click click" feel and sound when you change directions. The 2 main joysticks are Ultimarc UltraStik 360s, which are amazing, but a little pricey compared to others, but if you want the best... They are both USB and programmable, so they don't need to connect to a control interface: http://ultimarc.com/ultrastik_info.html

This is a really fun hobby for me and I've been into emulation for about 16 years, and if you're at least OK at wood working, it's so satisfying to build your own controls, and you can design them however you want. Anyway, OP, I can tell you anything you want to know about this hobby and more, so feel free to shoot me a PM.

[UEDan]

Ima leave this here:


Now hurry up and paint and t-mold that thing!

I've heard nothing bad about the Xtension panel. Only gripe is button spacing(too damn far). What kind of games will you be primarily playing Osis??

[osis32]

that's pretty cool man. I really really like it. I'm not going to be running a crt (i know it's the best for light gun games due to refresh rate and other factors)it's too big and cumbersome plus I've got a donor 32" lcd just begging for this project. those aimtraks are supposed to be the closest you can get for lcds. I don't have a work shop no nor the space or I would make my own controller.

everything I've read says the sanwa jlfs are the gold standard for sticks mostly because it uses the short arm micro switch lever.

what emulators do you use I set up an snes emulator the other day but I have never used the front loaders. just start up Windows and run the program and open the game. that's as far as I've gotten so far.

as far as the track ball is concerned I want one mostly to use for the mouse cursor in case something goes wrong. I don't really play golden tee or anything and I don't think the controller kit I'm looking at even has space for a track ball.

[osis32]

I was going to run a pretty large gamut between old consoles to various street fighters, mortal kombats and killer instincts, shooting games like area 51 and time crisises. I haven't even made a proper list yet.

[SheepDog78]

Ima leave this here:


Now hurry up and paint and t-mold that thing!

I've heard nothing bad about the Xtension panel. Only gripe is button spacing(too damn far). What kind of games will you be primarily playing Osis??

Eh, doesn't work for me, too plain. I thought about my design for a good while and laid it out on a "blueprint" several times before actually building it. I tried to think about all my favorite games to play when I was young and how the controls were configured. I like to have the Neo Geo layout on the bottom row, hence the 7th button in the lower left corner. The middle joystick is a dedicated 4-way, for the Pac-Man type games, which are miserable to try to play on an 8-way stick.

Since I'll be building a new cabinet, I'm not going to worry about T-molding and paint until after that's done. It'll give me a chance to correct a few things I am not happy with on the current cabinet.

[SheepDog78]

that's pretty cool man. I really really like it. I'm not going to be running a crt (i know it's the best for light gun games due to refresh rate and other factors)it's too big and cumbersome plus I've got a donor 32" lcd just begging for this project. those aimtraks are supposed to be the closest you can get for lcds. I don't have a work shop no nor the space or I would make my own controller.

what emulators do you use I set up an snes emulator the other day but I have never used the front loaders. just start up Windows and run the program and open the game. that's as far as I've gotten so far.

Yeah CRTs are not for everybody. They're expensive and hard to find these days, and heavy! I had to get mine from an arcade machine distributor in Hayward and that was years ago. Bought the 29" you see in the picture for about $400. I am an arcade purist though so I had to get one.

I have historically used ZSNES and Snes9x for Super Nintendo emulation, but open to trying others. I think BSNES is a good one too. As far as front ends, for you, I'd try LaunchBox: https://www.launchbox-app.com/ It's free, easy to set up, and even if you're not emulating a lot of systems, a front end is really nice because you can navigate the menus and launch games using your controls rather than having to rely on a keyboard all the time. I purchased GameEx, which is another front end and very highly customizable. For my arcade cabinet, I'm using HyperSpin, which is awesome for a cabinet, but pretty complicated and time consuming to set up, especially when used in conjunction with RocketLauncher. You can find a demo on YouTube if you want to see how it works.

[osis32]

see I thought that seventh button was the run button for mortal combat. that's the traditional placement for it.