what I hate

I just realized that what I hate about starting a new project is cleaning up after the last project.

conundrum

There is one question that has been bugging me to death, that I can't find the answer to: How do you mount a full-size MAME control panel onto a standard converted arcade cabinet????? The panel on my cab is only about 6" wide.

No help in the book so far, and no help through the online forums either.

joysticks

I've been trying to decide which joysticks to install in the new panel.
I did decide I would use the existing stick on the panel for the 4-way. A nice homage to the cabinet to include the old joystick in the new design. It feels well used. Hopefully there's some way I can bring it back up to par. Maybe just give it a complete rebuild with new switches and grommet, and put a restrictor on it.
As for the primary sticks, I can't make up my mind which ones to buy. So many choices. There are some retro wico-style leaf sticks available on e-bay, but I wonder about the quality. Also, leaf sticks seem a little bit "mushy" to me, and I think I prefer the microswitch versions for most games. Top of the list right now is Happs Competition.

key encoder

I'm leaning toward either the Hagstrom USB36 or the Ultimarc Mini-PAC. Only about $10 difference in the two. The wiring harness is a nice bonus with the Mini-PAC.

They both handle plenty of keys PLUS the trackball and spinner all on one board. I think either one can handle both a spinner and trackball at the same time, but the Mini-PAC auto-switches depending on movement. The other one probably does too. I'll wire them through a select switch under the panel. I don't like the idea of bumping the spinner and losing tball control.

As soon as the housecleaning chores are done I need to head down to Powells.

more ideas

I like this. It's a good place to store ideas.
Just had another one this evening. Instead of mounting an accessible CD in the cabinet, why not just put a wireless card in it.
Then I can just do any uploads, data updates, etc over the wifi net.
I AM going to want keyboard access there, too, so I don't have to ever open the cabinet. Either a USB port on the front, or a keyboard in a drawer.

item 4

Was just thinking about item 4 in the list of what I want to do. That is probably way too much to deal with. Who wants to stand there all weekend playing adventure games. However .. I do have the C64 and Amiga emulators, with lots of games that would work real well using joy/mouse controls.

Scratch item 4 below.

Replace with:
4. Play C64/Amiga games via emulator.

I'll also need to update the layout so that there are 2 mouse buttons to work with the trackball. I found this key layout of the SlikStick console:


Time for some more reading. There's a lot of buttons there.
I hope when this is all over I don't wish I had just plunked down $500 to drop one of those consoles on the cabinet.

damn

I just had a pang of regret about tossing out my Microsoft Easyball ... What you don't see is that the big yellow ball is actually about 6" diameter. Way cool. I picked it up in a junk store years ago, and eventually returned it to whence it came. I thought it was fun to use, even if it did only have one button. :(
What a cool trackball that might have made.