It wasn’t that long ago that you could only play “Street Fighter” in a dark and noisy room with glow-in-the-dark carpet. But these days there are a ton of great arcade games available for your computer or console that you could once only find in an actual arcade. For home entertainment, that’s great, but who are we kidding? Jamming away at a keyboard is not the same as having a joystick and buttons at your finger tips. Sid Devic wanted such a “fightstick” to level up his gaming experience and came up with this beautiful, spacey arcade gaming controller.
With the help of his father, who is a long time Maker and Retro Pi gamer, Sid put together this awesome piece of gaming equipment. The project itself wasn’t difficult and, as Sid points out, is a very approachable project for anyone who might want their own Arcade set up:
Honestly, the project itself is not that complicated, I believe anybody with wood cutting tools could make it. However, the hardest part is probably the wiring itself, as the wires might get entangled if you don’t plan out the order before hand, and to those unfamiliar with soldering, connecting the wires to the buttons might pose a slight problem. Nothing with the construction of the box is incredibly difficult.
Sid got the space scene plexiglass from Tek-Innovations, a company that sells custom plexiglass covers with templates specifically for arcade buttons and joysticks. Once they had the plexiglass and other materials, Sid and his dad cut and glued the box together. Then it was on to the wiring.
The wiring itself was deceptively simple; each button had 2 terminals, one for ground and another for switch. We wired all the grounds together first, then each button to its respective position on the PCB. The joystick had a 5 wire clip, 1 for ground and 1 for each of the cardinal directions, and we connected our PCB to our PC to test which joystick direction on the PCB matched the joystick position we wanted, then wired it all up together.
This is solid proof that a project doesn’t need to be complicated in order to be fun and have great results. And what’s next for this project? According to Sid, “A couple months of heavy use, until I either become pro at Street Fighter (not happening), or my dad becomes pro at some game on his retro pi!”
[via Reddit]
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