Consolecade - playing console games with arcade controls

[Cynicaster]

What is the Consolecade, and why…?

 

Starting with the "why" the answer is simple: these days I just strongly prefer arcade-style controls over hand-held controllers for the types of games that I play most often, even if I played them as a kid with their standard d-pad controllers.   

 

In fact, my dissatisfaction with the d-pad experience is strong enough that I end up not playing some of my consoles very often, even though I know they have lots of fun games. 

 

I decided I wanted to DIY my way to a solution, but I realized building a pile of different controllers was not going to happen.  Plus, I know myself: if, to use these controllers, I have to dig them individually out of storage, clear off a spot to put them down, deal with messy and dark wiring areas to connect them, and then do it all in reverse to put them away, they'd never get used, plain and simple.     

 

The solution: build a dedicated walk-up-and-play console setup in my game area with a single set of arcade controls that can be easily connected to any of my "priority" consoles. 

 

With a day job and 2 young kids, I knew I had to strip the project down to its bare essentials, otherwise I'd never find the time to finish it (and my wife would probably kill me.)  This meant that "utility" took priority over "art."  Simple, straight cuts wherever possible, no designing artwork, etc.  I also wanted to use on-hand materials as much as possible to keep the price and "parts hunting" effort down.  This approach worked well, as I was able to knock the thing together with very little out-of-pocket expense, in just a few sessions of a few hours each (as opposed to my MAME cabinet build which took months - even in my single, pre-kids life - due to all the little fiddly details).   

 

Here it is, and she works great!

 

The Toshiba CRT was just taking up space in my dad's garage so he gave it to me.  The white cabinet holding everything is an old cheap-o sub-IKEA unit my wife had from her previous house and was going to throw in the trash a few years ago, but I decided to lug it down to the basement and save it, thinking it might be useful for something someday.  I had to build the little cubby holes for the consoles and cut some holes for cables, but it's mostly unchanged otherwise. 

 

The controller pedestal is, per the mission statement, very basic and boxy but it works exactly as I hoped it would.

 

 

Using stuff left over from other projects, I did "stained wood" on the sides with black paint on the front/back in a kinda-sorta nod to classic Atari 2600 colors, but other than that, no artwork or creative flourishes of any kind.  There are concrete blocks on the "floor" inside the pedestal to keep it firmly planted during twitchy gameplay. 

 

One of the nice things about this setup as opposed to, for example, buying a commercially available "fight stick" and hunting down adapters to use it on multiple systems, is that I can hand pick the exact systems I want and the interface method is kept the same across the board.  Adding others later is pretty straightforward, too.  Currently, I have:

 

- Atari 2600 with Harmony cart (thinking of putting my 7800 in that spot instead, to cover even more ground)

- NES with Everdrive

- Model 1 Genesis with Everdrive

- PS2 Fat running OPL (lets me run PS2 and PS1 games from a harddrive)

- Emulation PC for emulating anything else I want to play, because… why not? (mostly: TG16, Turbo CD, Sega CD, SNES, GBA, Colecovision, Dreamcast, NAOMI, NEO GEO, and Pico-8).  This PC was one I had on hand and wasn't using.  It connects to the CRT via S-Video and looks surprisingly good (IMO).

 

Pretty soon I'll be able to hook up my PS3 as well but from what I can see there aren't very many games on there that work well with digital controls.  I'm not much into fighting games.  I definitely want to play 1942: Joint Strike and a few other shoot-em-ups, but the list is admittedly fairly short. 

 

On the control panel, from left to right, I have:

 

- Single fire button for "right handed" play (i.e., mostly for Atari 2600 games where my brain requires this setup)

- Sanwa joystick

- (8) Happ arcade buttons + smaller start/select buttons (makes it possible to do full button mapping for Playstation 1/2/3 controllers)

- Atari 2600 paddle

 

To interface the arcade controls to the various systems, I've got a "console interface module" in the cabinet space under the consoles.  That's a fancy/nerdy term I came up with to describe what is nothing more than a board holding a row of "pad hacks" which are then "permanently" plugged into the corresponding consoles above.  I have the best intentions of cleaning up this embarrassing mess of wiring but honestly, who cares - it works and in practice I never have to look at it anyway.  It's hard to see, but from left to right there's the connection for Atari 2600 wiring (1-to-1 wiring so no PCB needed), hacked NES pad, hacked Genesis pad, hacked PS1 controller, and GroovyGameGear USB controller encoder for the emulation PC.  (NOTE: You can put away the pitchforks; all PCB's come from shitty third-party controllers so no real hardware was sacrificed.) 

 

 

Switching controls from one console to another is done completely externally to the cabinet and consoles, using an ethernet patch panel.  A single ethernet cable only has 8 conductors so I need a pair of them to cover everything (the pot in the Atari 2600 paddle is an additional 2 conductors - I handle those with the RCA jacks on the left.)  I simply move the 2 cables coming out of the control box to the correct plugs on the patch panel and the controls are interfaced to the console of choice.  There are standard connectors on the market that I could have used to put everything on a single cable, but I opted for Ethernet because most of the materials were already on-hand, and other options were surprisingly expensive. 

I've wired up 2 different ways to connect to the Atari 2600, which enables me to have either "track & field / Decathlon" style controls on the buttons, or "asteroids" style. 

 

There was a bit of extra space in the white cabinet above the TV so I put a Bluetooth receiver and bookshelf speakers up there for tunes - all of which I had just sitting around not being used. 

 

I love it when a plan comes together.  The system works great and I've spent lots of time on it since completing it a few months ago. 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Cynicaster

[Madwindoman]

21 hours ago, Cynicaster said:

What is the Consolecade, and why…?

 

Starting with the "why" the answer is simple: these days I just strongly prefer arcade-style controls over hand-held controllers for the types of games that I play most often, even if I played them as a kid with their standard d-pad controllers.   

 

In fact, my dissatisfaction with the d-pad experience is strong enough that I end up not playing some of my consoles very often, even though I know they have lots of fun games. 

 

I decided I wanted to DIY my way to a solution, but I realized building a pile of different controllers was not going to happen.  Plus, I know myself: if, to use these controllers, I have to dig them individually out of storage, clear off a spot to put them down, deal with messy and dark wiring areas to connect them, and then do it all in reverse to put them away, they'd never get used, plain and simple.     

 

The solution: build a dedicated walk-up-and-play console setup in my game area with a single set of arcade controls that can be easily connected to any of my "priority" consoles. 

 

With a day job and 2 young kids, I knew I had to strip the project down to its bare essentials, otherwise I'd never find the time to finish it (and my wife would probably kill me.)  This meant that "utility" took priority over "art."  Simple, straight cuts wherever possible, no designing artwork, etc.  I also wanted to use on-hand materials as much as possible to keep the price and "parts hunting" effort down.  This approach worked well, as I was able to knock the thing together with very little out-of-pocket expense, in just a few sessions of a few hours each (as opposed to my MAME cabinet build which took months - even in my single, pre-kids life - due to all the little fiddly details).   

 

Here it is, and she works great!

 

The Toshiba CRT was just taking up space in my dad's garage so he gave it to me.  The white cabinet holding everything is an old cheap-o sub-IKEA unit my wife had from her previous house and was going to throw in the trash a few years ago, but I decided to lug it down to the basement and save it, thinking it might be useful for something someday.  I had to build the little cubby holes for the consoles and cut some holes for cables, but it's mostly unchanged otherwise. 

 

The controller pedestal is, per the mission statement, very basic and boxy but it works exactly as I hoped it would.

 

 

Using stuff left over from other projects, I did "stained wood" on the sides with black paint on the front/back in a kinda-sorta nod to classic Atari 2600 colors, but other than that, no artwork or creative flourishes of any kind.  There are concrete blocks on the "floor" inside the pedestal to keep it firmly planted during twitchy gameplay. 

 

One of the nice things about this setup as opposed to, for example, buying a commercially available "fight stick" and hunting down adapters to use it on multiple systems, is that I can hand pick the exact systems I want and the interface method is kept the same across the board.  Adding others later is pretty straightforward, too.  Currently, I have:

 

- Atari 2600 with Harmony cart (thinking of putting my 7800 in that spot instead, to cover even more ground)

- NES with Everdrive

- Model 1 Genesis with Everdrive

- PS2 Fat running OPL (lets me run PS2 and PS1 games from a harddrive)

- Emulation PC for emulating anything else I want to play, because… why not? (mostly: TG16, Turbo CD, Sega CD, SNES, GBA, Colecovision, Dreamcast, NAOMI, NEO GEO, and Pico-8).  This PC was one I had on hand and wasn't using.  It connects to the CRT via S-Video and looks surprisingly good (IMO).

 

Pretty soon I'll be able to hook up my PS3 as well but from what I can see there aren't very many games on there that work well with digital controls.  I'm not much into fighting games.  I definitely want to play 1942: Joint Strike and a few other shoot-em-ups, but the list is admittedly fairly short. 

 

On the control panel, from left to right, I have:

 

- Single fire button for "right handed" play (i.e., mostly for Atari 2600 games where my brain requires this setup)

- Sanwa joystick

- (8) Happ arcade buttons + smaller start/select buttons (makes it possible to do full button mapping for Playstation 1/2/3 controllers)

- Atari 2600 paddle

 

To interface the arcade controls to the various systems, I've got a "console interface module" in the cabinet space under the consoles.  That's a fancy/nerdy term I came up with to describe what is nothing more than a board holding a row of "pad hacks" which are then "permanently" plugged into the corresponding consoles above.  I have the best intentions of cleaning up this embarrassing mess of wiring but honestly, who cares - it works and in practice I never have to look at it anyway.  It's hard to see, but from left to right there's the connection for Atari 2600 wiring (1-to-1 wiring so no PCB needed), hacked NES pad, hacked Genesis pad, hacked PS1 controller, and GroovyGameGear USB controller encoder for the emulation PC.  (NOTE: You can put away the pitchforks; all PCB's come from shitty third-party controllers so no real hardware was sacrificed.) 

 

 

Switching controls from one console to another is done completely externally to the cabinet and consoles, using an ethernet patch panel.  A single ethernet cable only has 8 conductors so I need a pair of them to cover everything (the pot in the Atari 2600 paddle is an additional 2 conductors - I handle those with the RCA jacks on the left.)  I simply move the 2 cables coming out of the control box to the correct plugs on the patch panel and the controls are interfaced to the console of choice.  There are standard connectors on the market that I could have used to put everything on a single cable, but I opted for Ethernet because most of the materials were already on-hand, and other options were surprisingly expensive. 

I've wired up 2 different ways to connect to the Atari 2600, which enables me to have either "track & field / Decathlon" style controls on the buttons, or "asteroids" style. 

 

There was a bit of extra space in the white cabinet above the TV so I put a Bluetooth receiver and bookshelf speakers up there for tunes - all of which I had just sitting around not being used. 

 

I love it when a plan comes together.  The system works great and I've spent lots of time on it since completing it a few months ago. 

 

 

That’s awsome man!!!! Very impressive. You got alot going on there and I think it looks pretty organized. I did a padhack a lil while pack with a shitty 3rd party Sega genesis contoller to use my neo sticks and I definitely agree with you. It is pretty cool to use arcade controls on some of the console games

[Cynicaster]

19 hours ago, Madwindoman said:

That’s awsome man!!!! Very impressive. You got alot going on there and I think it looks pretty organized. I did a padhack a lil while pack with a shitty 3rd party Sega genesis contoller to use my neo sticks and I definitely agree with you. It is pretty cool to use arcade controls on some of the console games

Thanks.  I realize it's a very personalized setup that probably wouldn't appeal much to many retro game fans but I do see semi-regular posts about people building arcade sticks for old consoles so I thought I'd share my project too.  

 

I was a huge console kid in the 80s and 90s, with arcades being secondary (mostly because I never had the cash to burn at arcades).  But as an adult, my main "jam" in gaming is playing arcade games, either on my MAME cabinet or visiting retro arcades.  After 10+ years solid of doing that, I got to a point where I just "need" arcade-style controls to play arcade-style games, even those on consoles.  Shoot-em-ups, beat-em-ups, and maze games especially.  The only types of games I don't mind with d-pads are puzzle games and, for whatever reason, scrolling platformers (still need the arcade stick for fixed-screen platformers like Donkey Kong, etc.  )

 

 

 

 

 

[MrMaddog]

This is a great idea, I've always wanted an NES Advantage or Sega Arcade Power Stick because I grew up playing arcade games and missed that feeling with the third generation (and onwards) systems.

[Cynicaster]

1 hour ago, MrMaddog said:

This is a great idea, I've always wanted an NES Advantage or Sega Arcade Power Stick because I grew up playing arcade games and missed that feeling with the third generation (and onwards) systems.

 

I used to have the arcade sticks you mentioned and I remember liking them at the time but trying them recently they felt a bit unsatisfying.  Hacking a cheap game pad into a custom arcade controller is really quite straightforward so highly recommended to anyone who likes the feel of real arcade parts.