Build Your Own Arcade Controls FAQ

Build Your Own Arcade Control Center FAQ

OLD CHANGE HISTORY

3/28/99

PC2JAMMA Controversy. James is selling a PC-2-Jamma connector similar (modeled after?) the PC2Jamma project. Specs on the connector can be found here. Brian Lewis has removed the PC2JAMMA page in protest -- apparently he was not consulted. Brian has indicated his page will remain down until James is no longer selling his connector. Brian - my email to you bounced, and I have a question. Please email me.
The Q&A page has been done away with, and replaced with the Technical Department. Questions and answers seem to be working best on the message board. The ghosting question from the Q&A page has been moved to the technical department.
Added a link to the Joystick Troubleshooting Guide of the Windows 95 Trouble Shooting Guide web site to the technical department.
Think building your own controls is a challenge? Try building your own pinball machine! Added the Pin-It-Yourself Project to the links page. If anyone does (has done) this I want to see pictures :)
Added Holger Isenberg's Digital Joystick Interface for PC Gameport to the Inputs page.
Added the 25 Maggio Page's Joystick Construction to the list of stand alone controllers. It's a slick looking plexiglass joystick. You'll have to decide for yourself what game the author's playing based on the picture in his monitor :) The page is in Italian, but you can get a pretty decent translation via Babblefish.
Added Pete's Dragon's Lair MAME Project to the Arcade Cabinets section.
Jay Wilkinson's joystick project has moved, and he's now also added the Interstellar/MAME cabinet project. Added to the Arcade Cabinets page.
Added Natpie's Arcade Cabinet to the Arcade Cabinets section. This now makes 42 various control panels and arcade cabinets!
Check this site out! Game Station X is a big site with loads of technical information on game console hacking, including a nice Arcade Primer, using NeoGeo sticks on a PC, and soon, making your own custom arcade controller. Added links to portions of their site in the Final Assembly arcade monitors section, as well as adding their pages on console controllers to the alternatives section. Be sure to check out the Controller Theory link.
Yet another great site to visit. The Control Center is "the WWW's first site dedicated to PC game controllers." Added links to their site on the technical department page, both for their Controller Basics & Terms and Controller FAQ page.
The Virtual Boy Emulator is looking for some help. They're hoping to complete a project to wire up Virtual Boy controllers to a PC. They've had some progress so far, but haven't managed to finish it. If you have any expertise in this area, maybe you could give them a hand?
Ran into an interesting link while surfing the web. Want to write your own code to interface a Playstation Controller to a PC? Check this out. (Choose the projects link).
Bed time - more later :) There's at least a half dozen sites I still want to review and and possibly reference, and some great emails answering some of the requests for help that have been put up recently. Stay tuned . . . :)

3/21/99

None other than Neil Bradley of Retrocade emailed me regarding building customized arcade controls. He affirmed his intent to support this in Retrocade, which has already been done via "Cabinet mode" which allows keys to be redefined. He asked that if there was anyway that Retrocade could be friendlier to folks designing customized controls to let him know. Awesome! You can, of course, email Neil directly, but I suggest either emailing myself so that I can filter out duplicates and such and not spam him, or using the message board to spark a discussion on what software authors can do in this vein. Thanks Neil!
Looking for a writeup. Have you used a Hagstrom keyboard encoder in your project? I've had several requests from folks for specifics on how to use them. I'm hoping to find someone whose done it to do a short write up, maybe a paragraph (more is welcome of course :) ) on not only the physical setup, but also the matrix they used, and how they programmed it. If you can do this, please help.
Looking for Benjamin. Are you the one who emailed me about N64 adapters in Malaysia? I've lost your email address and need to contact you. Please write :)
After a year and a few months, this web site is close to what I had hoped it would be. One thing that needs fleshing out is the finishing touches. I'd like to enhance/add a section on creating a marquee, customized control panel overlay, side art, etc. I'd also like to emphasize a bit more the layout design of the control panels. Anyone have a few pointers they'd like to share with the rest? Please email me.
Joey Holman sent me his project, and in a word, INCREDIBLE. It features 4 joysticks, a trackball, 20 buttons, and self-made spinner and Star-Wars style yoke! This is one of the best projects I've ever seen. Take a look!
Added a yoke section to the controls page. I'd love to find more to include here!
SURVEY: So far I've received 21 responses to the survey. Thanks everyone! I will wait a few more days for stragglers and then will compile the results.
Removed my Wally's World mirror.
Added another stand-alone arcade controller - check out Fernwood's project. (Follow the Arcade controller link)

Falling asleep - more later :) Got some really interesting things that have found their way to me. This whole hobby is stepping up a notch in terms of the sophistication of the projects out there...

3/14/99

The big news, albeit old by now, is that DirectPadPro has added the drivers for N64 controller support! Also, as a nice bonus, DpadPro49 adds Saturn analog drivers as well!
Stephan Hans is contemplating *MAYBE* selling N64 adapter kits for those who aren't comfortable doing it themselves. It will be a long time before he does (from his web page) but if you're interested, keep checking out his site, but please don't hassle him about it :) He's also updated some of the technical information and added a FAQ.
I'm apparently way too lazy to remember to send out emails when my web site is updated :) I've added a new automated service called NetMind instead. Enter your email and click on the NetMind button at the bottom of this page if you want email notifications of updates. This is in testing right now. They ask some demographic questions that I don't really care about, so feel free to ignore them.
Wally's World returns! Simracing has their official mirror of Wally's World online and running now. My mirror will be coming down soon.
The Lightning 4 (L4) has dropped in price and is now only $73.00 for 4 player capability. More information on this from their page above, or from the Inputs page. Thanks Michael!
Some bad news regarding RetroStik. I've had email from a customer of RetroStik that they placed an order with him but never received the order. More alarming is that the retrostik web site has disappeared along with, apparently, their email account. To be fair, obviously RetroStik has not had a chance to present their side of the situation but since we can't find them, this will be difficult. Anyone with information as to the status of RetroStik please email me.
I received an email from Benjamin about adapters to hook up N64 and/or PS controllers to your PC through the game port. I'm looking for information about these products that anyone might have. If you know about these, please email me.

Hi, just a note to let you know that there exist such a device to connect either N64 or PS controller to the PC through the Game Port. I saw it once in a game shop in Malaysia, and they were selling it for around RM$80. I can't remember the name of the device, but it works and i think it's made from Taiwan (what isn't made from taiwan today! heh heh).

Got 10 minutes to help out? I've added a new survey to gather information on what techniques and products people have used to put their arcade cabinets or stand-alone controls together with. If/when I get enough data, I'll present the results on the page as well. This will help answer the many "How do I ..." or "What should I use to ..." types of questions I get. Please take the few moments and fill it out. It can be downloaded and done offline, or done on-line in an HTML version. To do it online, your browser has to be configured to handle email properly. Thanks!
Hutt's arcade controls undergoes changes. They've undergone a name change to Arcade Solutions, and a total site re-design. Also, the options and pricing structure have changed a bit. The best news for folks interested in their product is that they're holding a trivia game contest with a free joystick as the prize :) Surf on over and check them out!

Back to main history page

-- Home --