DIY arcade & arcade1up pinball revisited

Partially unrelated to your post about DIY arcades, but you need to get over and check out Game Terminal off of Foster Ave. All the cabinet games are F2P and there are like 100 pinball machines. I stopped by there a couple weeks ago and it's legit af.

Yeah. It's in a very odd location, but it's pretty awesome. Kid-friendly up until a certain time at night, too.

I am torn between the at games legend pinball and the arcade1up.

Both have pros and cons and I think I'm going to need to see them in person to make a decision.

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One neat thing I did was, using a design by u/legochuck on Reddit, I modified his 3d model and outfitted my mod to be able to switch between a 4 way and 8 way joystick from the top.

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I need this! Do you have the thread handy?

I was up all night last night ssh into my pi to modify a virtualman image to my 5:4 Dell monitor.

Also disappointed how much manual work there is to locate and properly size background art, etc.

One I have a solid set of ROMs, bezels, background art, samples and marquees I'm going to be very happy.

If you want something done right..


Eta I'm at the point now where I can guide anyone through this now. There's no A-Z guide anywhere just bits and pieces so if anyone gets frustrated ping me.

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I need this! Do you have the thread handy?

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Legochuck’s thread

My thread

I actually also followed u/madmexicano’s thread and hooked my stock volume switch to a mini amplifier chip, a PAM 8803, and back to the stock speakers. This allows me to control the volume with the stock switch.

I also used the IcculusPlan for using the stock on/off switch to power on/off the raspberry pi.

Oh, I forgot to explain why I had to modify legochuck’s design. He glued the “key” down to make it work. His hardware must also be slightly different than mine because the throw on the joystick wasn’t quite far enough for me, so I had to widen the gate a bit. I added a cap that fit on the key and has a little protrusion that fits into the flathead groove on the base of the stick so that I wouldn’t have to glue it. Printing it in pla was too brittle but petg works great.

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pongze

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thats insane. i thought i was pretty OCD about reading every single post that comes in on the 1up sub but i completely missed this when you posted it.

i dont have a 3D printer but given the popularity of 1ups and modding i can't believe someone hasn't come up with a solution for the 4way/8way issue. i am using thumb screws to make pulling my panel off easier to get to the gate but i feel like a neanderthal compared to what you've done.

1up should be shot for releasing the burger time cab with an 8-way because of the other games.

i saw the 2 threads about the elegant 'power down' and using stock volume control but was too lazy to implement either of them.

now that i'm moving to a pi4 and larger screen after doing my 'test run' with a pi2 i'd like to make the whole cabinet more robust.

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Even with a proper 4-way stick, the controls are still very dodgy. It has terrible collision detection, and extremely tight directional allowance.

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i do remember being extremely frustrated at 'dead' spaces where i expected to whip around a corner in burgertime and being PISSED when he just stopped and waited for the eggs to catch him while i furiously worked the stick. if the BT guy kept moving like pacman this wouldn't be an issue if you didn't change direction at the exact microsecond.

i wonder if someone ever created a cheat that made 90 degree turns less infuriating. i assume with an 8 way stick you might as well gouge your eyes out.

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So someone did come up with an elegant but not necessarily visually pleasing solution:

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that wouldn't work for me since i put loctite on my joystick balls. got frustrated with them constantly unscrewing. a collar with a tiny set screw could have solved this.

i much prefer what you came up with and i did lol at the guy who did it via servo and added light up buttons on the CP showing which mode the joystick was in

I have a 7 year old that I would love to build a arcade machine for. Any good beginner resources I should be looking at or recommendations on where to start?

Thank you. I’m in the process of remodeling a house I’ve purchased so I’m sure it will be slow going but I know it’s something we will both enjoy whenever we can get a machine built.

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CAD, i recently came across a arcade1up machine (4 Player XMen)

Can i use This Box?? What else do i need?

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you done done it now a-aron.



there are guides (particularly on reddit) but it depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go.

you primarily looking for console gaming? classic arcade gaming?

you're best served with an old PC or raspberry pi then hit me up as to where to get the game library.

usually the 'pre packaged' ones on amazon suck and there's 33,000 games that you've never heard of and you would never want to play.

in hindsight i'd probably go pc vs raspberry pi because i've found the linux 'club' to be very snobby and you have to crawl and beg for information to get that maddeningly frustrating system beaten into submission.

xmen is a great cab to use since it already has 6 buttons and a joystick for 2 players.

think of what games you REALLY want on there. in particular you'll need to think through if it uses special hardware like a spinner or trackball and take that into account if you need to modify your control deck.

in short, nothing is plug-and-play to get that 1up cab going but its not overly complicated to make the changes you need but you will have to do some legwork to make it happen. plenty of guides online and i'm happy to help.

i currently have 2 1up cabs and a legends pinball. the 1 cabinet i've done the most work to includes a digital marquee as well as a pi and assorted crap like computer speakers, a 20" monitor and other controllers to get the most out of it.

if you can find a cheap legends machine (maybe at sams?) that is a better initial platform to mod for arcade because its larger & already includes spinners and trackballs and the 'coinops' path to add your own games to it is much simpler than the retro pi stuff i used.