Convert an Arcade1Up 4-player Simpsons Cabinet to 2-players with a Grafix Arcade Conversion Deck

[@nickyscarfo1]

Love it, plan on making my NFL Blitz a 2 player cab. As soon as Graffixarcade comes back from vacation. Love your mods !

[@PoppArtstudios]

Thanks for the note and good luck with your mod on the Blitz cab!

[@princevinny0073]

🙂🙂☝☝ the level of complexity on this is outstanding dam you are crazzy kool u undersand all of this :D

[@cpet2000]

Do you think it would be possible to split the output of the buttons similar to the joysticks so you have fewer buttons?

[@PoppArtstudios]

Absolutely! Just wire them like the joystick arrangement and get them to their correct player positions. For whatever reason, when I did the original mod, I was enamored with the colored buttons and didn't consolidate them. While it's not a problem to play the way I set it up, the machine gets used for Simpson Bowling more than anything else, so fewer buttons would have been better. Good luck with the project!

[@cwafflestx]

Thanks for this video @PoppArtstudios I'm not sure I completely am following you on the splicing of the joystick wires. I bought the same connectors you used from Micro Mark. Any pointers or maybe a better way to explain to me how those wires go into the connectors? Thanks!

[@PoppArtstudios]

Hi Charlie, sorry it’s taken me a bit to get back to you. Once you’ve used the suitcase connectors a couple of times, you will get the hang of it. It might be worth trying one with some spare wire to see what they do. If you follow the steps in the video, you should get it right on the first try. As for making the jumper connections, this is the trickiest bit on the installation. You must connect the wires by both correct color and order between the JST plugs for the correct operation. If if you swap a single one of the connections along the way, you’ll create a closed circuit, and you get a character that always tries to keep moving instead of stopping when you let go. If that happens, look to identify which two wires are crossed up and try reconnecting them the other way. That should fix it. When doing this part, Lay the parts out carefully on you work surface, then as shown in the video, make the connections to pair up the JST connectors working your way down the wires from left to right. It should work. Test the first paired controller before starting on the second. Hopefully that helps, and good luck on the project!

[@cwafflestx]

@@PoppArtstudios Thanks! No worries. I watched your video a few times and had some spare wires to test on first. Once I got out of my own head about using the suitcase connectors, I was able to get everything done in under an hour. Your video was EXTREMELY helpful. Some things I noticed is that my stuff was not glued down nearly as strong as yours was. I did not need to use a heat gun to get anything out. Once the screws came out the joysticks just sort of popped out with ease. Same with the trackball. They also now include a replacement panel for the front that has a cutout for the new trackball placement so that area below the deck is covered nicely so I didn't need to construct that piece below the deck like you did. I like this cabinet WAY more now that is sized like the rest of the ones I have.

[@cmart7307]

I notice he had a two player deck for the NFL Blitz cab but would this method also apply for Blitz?

[@PoppArtstudios]

Thanks for the note. I’m not sure how the Blitz cab is set up, as I’ve not played one. I’m going to guess that it’s set up similarly to the other 4-player decks with Wi-Fi ability for online play. As such, you should be able to jumper player one and two on a single left joystick and player 3 and 4 on the right. You won’t be able to play with a teammate, however, unless it’s through online play. For simplicity on the deck, unlike my Simpsons mod where I kept both sets of player buttons, on Blitz, you will probably want just one set for the two remaining positions and jumper those as well. You will likely want to keep all four player selection buttons, however, especially if you still plan on using the Wi-Fi feature. That way you can still play any position on both teams. Hope that helps. Again, I’ve not tried this on the Blitz cab, but the 4-player units seem to follow the same layout. On Simpsons and X-men, once you select a player position for on-line play, it locks out all inputs from other players’ games, so having your controls for the two positions connected together shouldn’t affect other players. Good luck!

[@nostrasimpus8359]

I also downsized my Simpsons cab deck down to a two player but used a company called “Arcademodup”. I don’t know how often, if ever, i will have 4 people standing at the cab at once. Plus if we’re all being honest with ourselves, a four player deck on a 17” screen causes the buttons and joysticks for each individual player to be too close and causes elbow rubbing and shoulder crowding amongst players. They do offer a four player deck at Arcademodup but it is HUGE(that is what she said actually). They do it so players can stand far enough away from each other and have enough space for the extra buttons and upgrade led trackball. Great right!? Well with a 17” screen, the player one and player four controls are almost too far to the side of the small screen for optimal viewing imo. All this to say, for some people, cutting down a 4 player deck to a 2 player deck CAN make sense lol Great video. I wish everyone was so thorough when they do install/mod videos. Thank you!

[@59thfsaviation79]

How was the experience with arcademodup? The reivews on them are either fantastic or horrible. Not much in between. How quick did they ship?

[@PoppArtstudios]

I tried them, buying a complete MAME cab from them. I had a good experience for the most part, and the cabinet built well, but it is a cobbled together system. it doesn’t function as smoothly as an A1Up cab.

[@artcadefourtwenty]

If your changing the controls any way You could of probably just sideloaded retroarch and played the 2 player rom instead of adding buttons for the fourplayer rom on a two player joystick but cool

[@ericharvey2172]

I followed this video to do this mod to my arcade. When splitting the joystick I’m running into an issue with Homer working as normal but Lisa only moves up and right. All the wires are matched in order and I double checked their connection. Any suggestions?

[@PoppArtstudios]

Hello Eric. I’m sorry you’re having trouble with the mod. I was afraid Something like that might happen. So, is Lisa running away on her own? Or are those the only two directions she will move? If that is the only direction she will move, Try plugging the joystick into just the Lisa recepticals, but with the unspliced plugs. If Lisa works normally, then the spliced plugs aren’t completing the circuit. You may want to replace the connectors on the wires for the two directions that aren’t working and try again. I know a number of people who don’t like insulation displacement connectors because the single connectors can provide poor contact. The scotch lock connectors I use have a double splice on them, and I can’t recall any of them failing. The best connection, of course, would be soldering. But then you’ve got a lot of insulation work to do to protect all those joints. It’s hard to try and help troubleshoot from afar, but I will do what I can to help. Best wishes on the project.

[@ericharvey2172]

I found the issue after continuing on to the other 2 players joystick and it worked perfect. I followed all the wire connectors and found that a couple of them weren’t crimped all the way down. Great video! Instructions were easy to follow for a first timer like me.

[@PoppArtstudios]

@@ericharvey2172 great Eric! Glad it worked!

[@allthingsangel1869]

Why run seperate buttons, why not 2 buttons on each side and split them

[@PoppArtstudios]

Yes, you could split the buttons just like the joysticks without a problem. I used both sets of buttons simply because I liked the how the colors looked on the original. Thanks for the note!

[@artcadefourtwenty]

Why not just side load retroarch and use the two player rom you guys know this machine runs on android right

[@castleranch738]

Just curious...why would you want to do this when the original was a 4-player? Besides being able to fit it a bit easier, is there any benefit? Genuinely asking as I have two 4-player cabs and while this is very interesting to me, I struggle with changing it from the original. Love how informative your vids are! Subbed!!!

[@PoppArtstudios]

Thanks for the note. I loved my Simpsons game as a 4-player game, but I really don't have much room. And, by converting my Golden Axe and Simpsons games to two-player, it freed up enough room to fit another game in there. Since I'm usually in the game room with just me or one other person, it made sense. Plus, at least for Simpsons, I can still play 4-player with the LIVE feature on the cabinet. Also, I've saved all the parts for revert both games to 4-player should I get the space. Thanks for the sub!

[@cachanilla1375]

@@PoppArtstudios why you just mod a cheaper arcade 1up cabinet like street fighter II champion black to 2 player simpson cabinet??

[@PoppArtstudios]

@@cachanilla1375 true, you could convert another cab to play the game. However, a couple of weeks ago, Walmart blew these out at $199. You won’t find them much cheaper than that. Plus, most of the time I’m alone in the arcade, so this worked for me. And I enjoyed tinkering with it and figuring the whole thing out. It works for me.

[@Hans_Lex]

Holy hell. I hope the version he sells now is easier. Just ordered this panel for Simpsons and splicing wires and everything is nothing like your golden axe video he links in the product page

[@PoppArtstudios]

Hi Hans, sorry for the late reply. Splicing the wires isn't as hard as it may appear, but it's also the reason why I kept the buttons separate for the four characters. A little of that work goes a long way. If you do the mod, be sure to use the double-bladed IDCs. I've had a couple of problems on other projects with the very small encoder wires used on the A1Up machines. Usually I could fix it by trying it again. Good luck with the project!

[@keithunderwood8803]

can you make one for Tmnt with Leo and Mikey on player 1 and Donni and Raph on player 2.

[@PoppArtstudios]

Sorry for the late reply, Keith. Talk with Adrian at Grafix Arcade through Etsy. He will likely be able to do just about any version you ask for.

[@TheCornerCade]

Can you do this for my Simpsons Arcade1Up!?

[@PoppArtstudios]

Sorry, I've been traveling and didn't see this until tonight. Yes, you can do this modification to any Simpsons cabinet. If you have the version with the lighted deck, when you buy the modified board from Adrian at GrafixArcade, tell him that. He has to cut the back of the deck differently to fit the LED mounting strip. It's very easy to attach the LEDs to the new deck.

[@TheCornerCade]

No worries I actually bought an NBA JAM control panel from Adrian but it was really bad quality and the left side holes were not drilled at all, kinda disappointing since I saw your videos and that inspired me to do this for some of my cabs. Would you be able to wire and do all of this and I can pay you!?

[@PoppArtstudios]

Did you contact Adrian about it? He will fix the problem for you if you do. I’d gotten my Golden axe deck with a plexiglass protector that didn’t have some of the holes drilled, and he just sent me a new piece. These are all done with a CNC router, and sometimes layers for certain holes get turned off accidentally in the software. Unfortunately, as I don’t have the NBA Jam cabinet, I’d have no way to test it. Really, with the suitcase connectors, these are very easy mods. Just work slowly and transfer 1 component at a time and you’ll get it. To do what I did for Simpsons to the NBA Jam cabinet, you will need Adrian to include all 4 player start buttons so you can choose the position. Since you need him to fix something on it for you anyway, he should be able to add the new start button holes at the same time. Good luck!

[@LandRunProductions]

But...why?

[@Justnothankyou132]

Oh god why