Mick's MAME Arcade Controls

I've been a fan of MAME for a good few years and I've always wanted to do it justice by creating a dedicated arcade cabinet. I decided to go for it now my kids are old enough to play Gauntlet! I was going to use my Xmas and birthday allowance to get a GP2X handheld Linux console but I decided I'd be better off spending my time and creative efforts on a large tangible project with an end product that I can share with my family rather than spending more time coding!

I placed an online order on Monday (16 Jan 06) with Ultimarc for two Mag-Stik Plus joysticks (4-8-way selector and magnetic self-centering mechanism) and eight pushbuttons and I recieved them on the Thursday morning!

As it happens I was at home to receive the package on Thursday morning looking after Ruby, my eldest daughter, who was suffering with a high fever from tonsilitis :( .

Whoa! I'm impressed with the engineering quality of these things.

2 players! My proposed layout giving each player 4 buttons.

This is what I'm going to use to provide the controls with an input to the computer: it's a keyboard controller out of an old 104-key Cherry keyboard (circa 1993). As you can see, it has an AT plug so I have added an AT-PS/2 adapter.

Here's the back. I've been playing with keyboard controllers as part of my ongoing DefenderBoard project (a keyboard for playing Defender!).

Matrix ribbon connector A - it has 8 conductors.

Matrix ribbon connector B - it has 19 conductors. I started mapping the keyboard matrix by shorting out pairs of connectors and seeing the keycodes produced. The controller has an 8 x 19 matrix giving a maximum of 152 combinations.

Cherry.

board detail

mapping the matrix by shorting out pairs of coordinates

mapping the matrix

I broke open the ribbon connector shrouds to expose contacts for soldering

I soldered tails onto all contacts

then hid my ugly soldering!

here's matrix axis B

prototype 1 panel woodwork

back of prototype 1

size of prototype 1 600mm x 300mm - will be shaped and coated

Shaped front profile and surfacing with neoprene.

Neoprene surface.

From... discarded mousemats!

Slightly untidy wiring!

Ruby is the red wizard!

Wood paneling installed for front and sides.

I need to do something about that wiring!

Added prototype cardboard button-box for Menu, Pause, Escape, Coin1, Coin2, etc.

A new wiring strategy: connection blocks for each set of controls.

View from back with new wiring - controller not yet fitted.

Wed Feb 8 2006: wiring finished - now using telephone engineers' patch wire

A tidier job. The wire is solid-cored so stays nicely where routed.

All required key contacts are patched into the matrix.

I did want to use krone punch-down idc terminal blocks but didn't have any to hand

Defender. I use the red joystick for up & down, the red button for reverse, and the right-hand buttons: blue = smartbomb, orange = fire, yellow = thrust, green = hyperspace.

I'm not fully decided how to integrate the button box into the panel (if at all). I guess I'll wait until I'm building the cabinet.