{"id":369,"date":"2022-12-27T14:35:25","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T13:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/?p=369"},"modified":"2022-12-27T15:46:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T14:46:55","slug":"retro-gaming-controls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/?p=369","title":{"rendered":"Retro Gaming Controls (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve been playing around with Mame<\/a> on a RaspberryPi<\/a> for a while, and while it’s working fine using an Xbox game controller, something was missing to give it the real arcade look and feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I decided to embark on a small project to build my own arcade controller. Initially I played with the thought of building a full-size arcade cabinet, but that would probably have raised some eyebrows with the rest of the household :-). So my first design was a so called bartop arcade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The design for this, I made using Autodesk Fusion 360<\/a>. In the past I have been using SketchUp for home modelling projects, but Fusion 360 is way more powerful, as it uses so called parametric modelling. For home-use there is a free version available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As can be seen in the screenshots, I was able to draw a quite detailed model of the bartop arcade. Models for the components I was planning to use, could be found on the internet. This allowed me to play around with placement, to make sure everything would fit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also made me see, the thing would still become quite bulky, and I would have to fit it with a huge display. So I decided to tune it a step back and to only make the control surface itself (for now…).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This had the additional advantage of me being able to do all the woodworking, without having to outsource the (CNC)cutting, so saving some costs. I made some inquiries though and one party in The Netherlands who can do this, is CNC Den Haag<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole thing was made using 18mm MDF, holes drilled using regular speed drills. Rounded corners just by jigsaw and some sanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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24mm (for all buttons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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83mm (for trackball)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To finish the thing with a nice retro touch, I added T-Moulding<\/a> around the edges. To attach T-Moulding, you need a router (“Frees in Dutch”) to make groove exactly in the middle along the side of the edges. You can then gently hammer the T-moulding in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Router bit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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T-Moulding<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While all buttons could be fitted in place without additional provisions, the joysticks and trackball required screws to fit them. To do this without being visible from the top-side, I used “Inslagmoeren” (sorry Dutch).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the next article, I will go into more details on the components I used.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been playing around with Mame on a RaspberryPi for a while, and while it’s working fine using an Xbox game controller, something was missing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","col-md-4 col-sm-4"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/munnik.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screenshot-2022-12-26-at-15.38.59.png?fit=1165%2C590&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1YJQj-5X","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":401,"href":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions\/401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munnik.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}