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Arcade Stick

2021-12-30T20:37

At the beginning of 2021 I made a computer for playing retro games. Nothing fancy, just an old Phenom II 555 with a gig or two of RAM.

On it I installed Lakka and a ton of ROMs. I'm seriously impressed with the state of emulation today. Automatic hiscore saving is great (when it works) and pixel shaders are just wow.

I was just using control pads for various consoles but I couldn't find anything that worked just right. I started with a SNES controller, but it didn't have enough buttons. The same for the Saturn. The XBox 360 was better but it has a terrible D-Pad making games like Pacman and Lode Runner not much fun. Control pads are also too hard for my 3 year old to use.

I decided the solution would be to use an arcade stick, and naturally, that I would make it.

I spent a couple of weeks thinking about the design and modelling it up in QCad (a seriously great tool by the way). I ended up with this as the plan.

Model

I took three days off work and went to my shed. This was just after Melbourne came out of a lock-down and Sydney was trying to get a handle on Delta. I had little doubt that Delta would soon also be in Melbourne too, and once it arrived we could be locked down until we're all vaccinated.

And here is the progress from those days.

And as I expected, a week later we were locked down again and I couldn't return to my shed for months. I don't even know how long. It's become such a blur.

In the meantime I waited for little baggies of AliExpress bits.

When I finally got back to my shed to finish it up the wood and paint.

A week later after the paint had time to cure, I polished it up.

And a few more weeks later I got around getting the firmware running, fixing a couple of bugs in the wiring and putting on the rubber feet.

233

234

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Then it was done. Probably 4 or 5 months in the making.

Some technical specs are:

Wood: Mountain Ash

Colour: Torquay Sand

Switches: Sanwa OBSF

Joystick: Sanwa JLF

Buttons: 12

Firmware: QMK

Micro controller: Teensy LC

Width: 400mm

Depth: 215mm

Height: 60mm + feet + stick

Weight: 2.6kg

Port: USB Type-B

I've now been using it a few times a week for a couple of months and it works really well. It's built like a tank. I have no concerns with my kid breaking it, I'm more concerned about her dropping it on her foot. Button mashing games like Phoenix, Galaga, 1942 are a lot more fun. It isn't very comfortable to use while laying on the couch, you really need to sit up, but I love it. My daughter still has trouble with the stick in its 8-way position, but it is much easier for her when in the 4-way. Right now one stick is enough. Neither my kid nor my partner are that into games, but maybe one day that might change. I myself am only a very casual gamer.

The paint is very thin and a bit ratty but I think it adds to the retro vibe. I didn't put any clear over it, which definitely reduces its shine. I'm still happy with the look and its nice not being precious about its finish.

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