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Electronics For the arcade controls, we ordered everything we used from Happ Controls. We chose Perfect 360 joysticks and Competition pushbuttons. Each controller has two joysticks and 20 pushbuttons (10 for each player). Each player has eight gameplay pushbuttons, plus two more for Start and Select functions. A joystick and button are pictured below.
Perfect 360's have six connections - Up, Down, Left, and Right as well as +5v and ground. They come in several pieces, but assembling the joystick is simple. You insert the stick portion into the base through a guard and a couple of circular tubes. Then, put another tube and a clip on the bottom to hold it all together. The pushbutton has three connections. One is a common line that is connected across all of the buttons. The other two are data lines that send the state of the button. You use either one or the other depending on the type of switch. For these buttons, we used the NO (Normally Open) connection. The button comes in three pieces. To install, you put the button piece through your button hole, screw on the black nut, and then clip the switch into the bottom legs. We wanted to differentiate the buttons as much as possible via color. Happ offers the Competitions in seven colors - black, white, red, blue, green, yellow, and purple. We used at least one of each color in the ten buttons for each player, reusing white and black as needed. The picture below shows the color scheme and button layout for each player. We used six different colors for the Street Fighter button set and put the color scheme of the first four were in an SNK/Neo Geo configuration.
We were lucky enough in our purchasing of materials to find multi-colored wire. It has twelve different colors, seven of which actually match the colors of the Happ pushbuttons. Because of this, we were able to fully color code all of the button wiring. We just reused some colors for the joysticks and used the other colors for the common line (orange), power (pink), and ground (dark brown). The wire we used is 22 AWG and is stranded. It shouldn't make a difference to use solid or stranded wire but 22 AWG thickness is recommended. Pretty much all of the electronics and wiring components were purchased at a local electronics store called RS Electronics (they also sell via the Internet and mail order). You should be able to find this kind of stuff at a store local to you, such as Radio Shack. Also, there's always Digikey. InstallationThe first step of installing the arcade controls was to install barrier blocks. Barrier blocks are plastic pieces with 2 rows of screw terminals. Basically, they bridge an electrical connection while allowing for easy disconnection. Crimpable spade plugs are used to connect the wire to the terminals. We set the barrier blocks vertically with the ends screwed into the 1" x 2" wood lining the inner edges. They are set near the center on each side of a DB25 connector. Our blocks have 24 terminals. We also printed a key that describes the relationship between the pin out of the DB25 connector, arcade controls, and console controller buttons. It helps a lot for a quick reference to understand the wiring. Click here to view the pin key and see the pin out we chose. Next, we installed the buttons and joysticks, aligned the buttons into position for easy wiring, gave all of the black nuts a final tightening, and clipped in the switches.
We began the wiring with connecting the buttons and joystick to the barrier blocks. Using the color-coded wire, we first cut wire lengths for each of the buttons and the joysticks individual lines. We then stripped both ends and crimped a spade plug on one end and a female disconnect on the other. After a little bit of work, all ten buttons and the joystick were connected to the barrier block according to our pin out.
Next, we needed to wire the common line. This comes from terminal 18 of the barrier block and then is daisy-chained across all of the buttons. It's the orange wire. With this wire attached, the arcade controls wiring was half complete.
Next, we wired the other side of the barrier block to the male DB25 connector that will be installed on the back of the box. The wiring connects to the barrier block with the spade plugs and is soldered to the DB25 connector on the other end. It's a similar process as before - cut each wire to length, strip the ends, crimp on the spade plug to one end, but then solder the other end to the appropriate pin of the DB25 connector.
To install, we pushed all of the wiring through the DB25 hole from the outside. The DB25 seats neatly into the hole and is fastened with screws, washers, and nuts. We then connected the wires to the barrier block.
After completing both player's controls, all wiring for the arcade box is now complete.
Now we build all of the console control interface boxes. Console ControlsThe adaptation of each console's controller is detailed in individual pages, but there are several basic construction points that apply to them all. To build the console interfaces, each controller's PCB (printed circuit board) was removed from the plastic casing. All non-essential components were then removed, such as plastic brackets and rumble motors. The PCB's were then transplanted into black, plastic project boxes purchased from RS Electronics. Using a Dremel, openings were made in the project boxes for a male DB25 connector and the controller cord. Some gamepads required additional openings as well. The DB25 was installed into the project box and then wired by soldering to the controller PCB. Pictured below is a sample project box with a wired DB25 ready to go.
Once the electronics and project box modifications were complete, the box was closed by attaching the bottom panel with the 4 included screws. Individual artwork via printed stick-on labels was also applied to each box to denote the system it is used for and to tie it aesthetically to the main arcade box. To view the process used to convert the various controllers, you can refer to the individual sections with the links below or from above on the navigation bar.
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