Homemade Controllers and Baby Pac-Man 7800

[@Acoha7]

I found your channel recently. The rare time KZbin’s recommendations showed me something great. The quality of your videos, both in editing and technical content are sublime.

[@DisplacedGamers]

Thanks!

[@yesticles]

I thought I had imagined this game'd existence, since I had only seen/played it once as a young child at a Major Magic's (a competitor to Chuck E Cheese in the 90s). I remember asking about it on a forum in the early 00s, and most people thought I was just misremembering Jr Pac-Man, thinking the hybridization of an arcade cabinet and pinball table wouldn't have been possible for the time. It's wild to not only see the cabinet again, but to also see a really well done homebrew console port. Thanks for the massive nostalgia blast! Really like your controller, btw! Looking forward to digging through your uploads, this is my first time seeing your content. Keep up the good work bud

[@atarileaf]

If I find another radica I may mod it but I'm one of the few that actually really likes this plug and play. It has an excellent version of Phoenix. Great video, you do a very professional job

[@Ravenfellblade]

I found Baby Pac-Man at Tapper's in Indianapolis. I had never heard of it before, but fell in love with it. Played it for hours!

[@R3TR0R4V3]

Equally as cool as the PS2>5200 adapter, is the PS2 to Vectrex controller! One of the best purchases I've made. :)

[@potomax]

Amazing work. Modding existing stuff is the best.

[@DrTotz]

That's awesome. Years ago I made my own crude arcade stick for the colecovision. ^_^

[@natethefighter]

I built my own 7800 joystick a couple years ago, and it was very much worth it.

[@BabusGameRoom]

This is freakin' awesome!!! I never would've guessed how exciting this would be based on the video title. In hindsight, it's exactly what it says on the tin, but I enjoyed this video even more than I thought I would!

[@SwordsDanceQwilfish]

As a fighting game player with a modified arcade controller, I was aware of the different springs inside the joystick -- I have a 4lb. spring in my Sanwa stick -- but I never gave even a second of thought to the spring mechanism in the buttons themselves. Very interesting video!

[@MaxOakland]

I got the chance to play a real Baby Pac Man arcade machine. I couldn’t believe they actually had it It’s a cool game but it’s extremely hard. Kinda addictive though

[@derekchristenson5711]

That's a nice controller for that game, indeed! I ordered a copy of "Baby Pac-Man" during the "Last Chance" sale at AtariAge, so when it arrives (the backlog is very understandable), I may have to make something like that (but probably from scratch).

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

No idea why this video doesnt have more VIews amazing video !

[@BackForwardPunch]

Nice one! A 4 way joystick would be great for you here! Also a sticker with a baby pac man graphic 😁

[@overkill1473]

Nice vid. Thumbs up for using Seimitsu buttons.

[@thegreatjonzini]

Super cool!

[@SLRModShop]

Thanks for the video mate !

[@NicolasCorte]

I love this channel. All top quality videos. Very knowledgeable. If you would please do some 8-bit home computer hardware capabilities comparisons videos. Thank you.

[@tappersreviews4677]

Great video and a smart mod idea.

[@RedLP5000S]

Nailed it!

[@MarkoZutic]

Id love to to this to a gamecube controller to adapt to ps1/ps2 system. Weather trough arduino or direct wireing of buttons to a board of ps controller

[@teh_supar_hackr]

I only know of 3 controllers that have an option to play left handed Raidca Space Invaders Plug & Play, V.Smile, and V.Flash.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

What I would suggest would be to get yourself a project box and a drill and copy the design onto that, and then use a proper Sanwa joystick. Repurposing plug 'n plays is a neat idea but they were always designed to use the lowest cost and thus lowest quality components possible. Since you put all this effort into making a nice custom controller, you might as well use a nice custom shell too.

[@DisplacedGamers]

It is funny because the project started cheap and then grew in cost. My biggest complaint is that I wish the enclosure were larger. So it seems like I will eventually make another one.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

@@DisplacedGamers If you want to try to make another 7800 specific controller for Baby Pacman, you might want to check out an NES stick made by Beeshu called the Ultimate Superstick. It also has B and A buttons on either side of a central stick. These aren't extremely common, but they're not very expensive either.

[@thumbwarriordx]

Honestly the octagonal or circle gates are probably objectively superior for most shoot-'em-ups, but they do have their drawbacks for fighting games. I'd defer to whatever the original machines had but it's such a pain to switch the gates. I wonder how feasible it would be to put more than just a 4/8-way easy-swich from the user end of the panel.. I can think of a couple ways to go about it but nothing that'd be sturdy, and simple, and within my machining skill. I don't think 3D printing would cut it.

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

What bloody contraption was that? The tuppaware simulator controller? - just curious....

[@geddon8817]

nice. I have recently been thinking about and prototyping good controls for c64 and amiga. their pinout is almost the same, but buttons 2 and 3 on amiga use vcc instead of ground. so pretty easy to install a switch for that. I converted a borked ps3 fightstick i got for cheap and put button 1 as the first upper row button and put up on button 2 since a lot of games back then used up for jump which i hate since i grew up on nes and arcade controls. i added a switch so up on the joystick could be disabled. then i also wired button 1, 2, and 3 to the first three bottom row buttons, figuring i could use those for multi button games, but I think they are pretty rare. so the fire button is on 2 buttons and the up function is on up on the joystick and on a button. I've since learned some games have a function on spacebar on c64 and you can get to it on the other joystick port, so I plan to map a button for that function too. Once I created this my brother thought of a more radical design with 9 buttons. center button is simply button 1. the outer buttons are button 1 plus a direction or multiple directions like up and left for diagonal left. the idea being that lots of these games had a different function on each combination. examples are ninja on c64 and moonstone on amiga. with this config it is easy to execute the function you want where just using a joystick and a button can be imprecise and clunky. also games like archon where you may want to turn and shoot instantly then continue moving in a different direction are pretty hard to play with the standard controls. An issue i ran into is the joystick directions combined with the multi function buttons so then I thought we need to temporarily disable the joystick switches when any of the multi function buttons are pressed. So if you are running left in archon and want to shoot up, when you press the fire + up button the left switch on the joystick needs to be disabled or you will instead shoot diagonal left when you wanted to shoot up. I thought a lot about this and a buddy of mine thought we could do it with some ICs and a fairly complex circuit. I eventually figured it out with some clever routing of the ground line and using both the normally closed and normally open terminals on the multi function buttons. If anyone is curios I could explain it better and maybe make a diagram. Also I should add any button that triggers multiple functions needs a diode on each incoming button input for this to work. anyway it works great and makes a lot of these games much more playable. i'm now working on a better button layout and will probably use smaller buttons because the standard 9 button grid on my prototype is kind of clunky with the spacing.

[@fontainelefunk]

I would fill the empty space inside with dead weight to help keep it stationary.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

When I was at a thift store today, I spotted the Radica Space Invaders and immediately remembered this video. I picked it up for $8 and will probably do the same thing you did, convert it to Atari 7800. One thing that I find confusing - the orange ball top on the stick itself has four small indentations. Do you have any idea why? They're too small to add extra grib, so I don't see why they are there.

[@rob6231981]

Wait... Where did you get a Power glove with full fingers? Werent they all half-fingered?

[@Frish__]

How does this channel only have 20,000 subscribers??

[@lurkerrekrul]

I've wanted to build my own controller for a while. I know there are kits that include a joystick, buttons and a USB board, but what I'd really like to do is to build a twin-stick controller with two joysticks. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a ready-made USB circuit for that. Most people would probably use the miraculous Arduino(!!!!!!!), but I have absolutely no clue how to hook one up or program it. I did consider using the guts out of a dual analog USB gamepad, but then the sticks are analog, not digital, and I don't have the first clue how to connect a digital stick so that it registers the values that the analog stick would read when moved to each of the four directions. Then I thought of just using two vintage analog sticks and wiring them in place of the ones on the board, but I'm told that wouldn't work as the resistance values are too different. The best I can come up with is putting two separate joystick builds into one box and using two USB cables to plug it in, but that seems really clunky.

[@PigeonHoledByYT]

I feel like you responded to my recent comment directly in your first sentence.

[@PigeonHoledByYT]

In response to your 'What makes a good game controller?' video I stated, among other things, 'people whine too much about controllers.' Now I feel a bit like a prick. This set-up seems pretty awesome.

[@jinchoung]

hey, if you ever get dry for content, make a left hand joystick for FPSs on pcs! i've always thought that controllers were awesome for fps for MOVEMENT because that left thumbstick is just waaaaaaay better than the WASD setup that always ends up giving me first person shooter CLAW on my left hand.... but of course, for aiming, the mouse is waaaaaay better than a right thumbstick... so howabout a controller that just gives you a thumbstick instead of WASD? actually a tiny 7800 controller wouldn't be bad with the right button at least being somewhat usable for jump.

[@IsaacKuo]

On the Dreamcast, I loved being able to use an arcade stick for movement and a mouse for aiming. The big problem with that setup was lack of control buttons, since my left hand could only access the movement stick. A left-handed "trackball" with the thumb-ball replaced with a thumbstick would solve that problem. You'd have your four fingers resting on control key buttons, with your thumb on the movement stick. Or maybe a simple box shape, with four buttons on far side and the thumbstick on the near side.

[@LittleRainGames]

Ive been designing controllers for over a year now. Going to do a kickstarter in the next year. Ive actually had this exact idea for a while but have been too busy, when i get the chance i will.

[@LittleRainGames]

@@IsaacKuo your idea is a bit different, so you want a mouse with a small joystick? Might feel wierd, especially using right thumb for movement(unless you meant left hand thumb for left handed people). Might be doable using switch or 3ds sticks, of course it is, but i mean to be comfortable and accurately playable.

[@DisplacedGamers]

Hey Jin! It sounds almost like you want a Wii Nunchuck in your left hand and a mouse in your right. Wow. That sounds kinda brilliant and weird at the same time! I want to try it out.

[@IsaacKuo]

​@@LittleRainGames Yes, I meant left hand thumb for movement. The right hand uses a normal mouse for aiming. The left hand uses something that is similar to a trackball (it is fixed on the table unlike a mouse, which moves around). But instead of a thumb-ball, it has a thumb-stick. Looking around, I see that the Razer Orbweaver is similar to what I'm talking about. So basically, a Razer Orbweaver except with only four buttons rather than a ton of keys. And also not costing $500. However, I was actually thinking of a shape similar to this (but mirror reversed): xahlee.info/kbd/itb/logitech_trackman_trackball_96033-s.jpg

[@Greenchrysopsaro]

I have an Atari 5200 the controllers don't work I need this PS2 converter

[@mrburns366]

Since you've already blown your budget you might as we put a Pi zero in there and make it the ultimate plug and play console :)

[@shawnschaller]

I've been craving clear instructions on turning a genesis controller into a 2-button-functional Atari 7800 controller. Can you provide a little guidance?

[@bland9876]

I'm going to assume that the buttons in here are worse than the buttons on the PlayStation One arcade stick I have. I prefer the PlayStation ones membrane buttons over regular arcade stick buttons because they are smaller and my fingers don't have to spread out so far which is uncomfortable for me.

[@poble]

punctuation pls

[@bland9876]

@@poble happy now?

[@poble]

@@bland9876 yes, much better

[@TheRealJPhillips]

😳👍🏾

[@sickotronic9205]

I was seeing this kind of video coming, don't know why. I hope that the next video was about moding or tunning mechanical parts of some controller. I wish you make something more of this but touching audio or video enhacement, or console motherboards desing or manufacture mistakes. I still enjoining the trip with you, thank you.

[@jek__]

Great video! One thing though, there is a high pitched whine at the end of the video, which I find extremely intolerable, even hearing it briefly makes me nauseous. I've heard they can be hard to catch and I enjoy your content enough to power through, but surely they act as a deterrent. I don't really understand why theyre hard to catch, but I've never edited video. Surely one could just scrap all high pitched sounds from the audio file? Like, anywhere where the computer attempts to send a signal thats higher than a certain threshold just dont. I guess maybe you risk losing lower frequency data? I don't know why speakers can even produce those sounds frankly. It's like if our screens had the ability to produce blinding flashes. Why does that even exist? lol

[@Obscure_man31]

Pretty good video though you forgot circular gates that are used for 3d games

[@DisplacedGamers]

I could have mentioned 3D games. That is true. I mentioned circular gates but didn’t have one to show on camera. Ack. Sorry.

[@Obscure_man31]

@@DisplacedGamers its alright also i enjoy your content you bring allot of good discussions

[@uzairdurrani755]

I don't understand why people have so much issue with buttons and their mushiness or tactile responses.

[@Yipper64]

i want to do this sort of thing. So imma definitely save this.

[@KuraIthys]

Ah, controllers. My reaction to the first playstation controller. 'Holy hell do I hate the way this thing feels in my hands' So of course, _THAT_ thing somehow wins the global popularity contest and becomes the most popular controller design and barely changes in 4 hardware generations. Joy. The perils of not agreeing with the mainstream opinion I guess. But when you personally find something uncomfortable and disturbing to hold it's just that much more difficult to understand why everyone else loves it so much...

[@KuraIthys]

Also those 7800 controllers are the only 'official' controllers I have for my 800XL, and they are near useless. Of course, I simply went with the option of using my Mega Drive controller instead. Granted most of the buttons don't work... But a d-pad + 1 button is fine for most atari games. And technically, if you're writing your own stuff, you can read a second button. (you'd need a more complex adapter circuit to stand any hope of reading all 4 buttons of a Mega Drive controller, much less the additional ones of the 6 button pad I am using...)

[@duffman18]

I'd argue the xbox design has become the de facto standard rather than the PlayStation. Having the left stick in that position makes way more sense, and almost every single 3rd party controller, even ones for the ps4, are in the xbox design, sometimes pretty much literally the exact same in shape as well as layout. Nintendo have also switched to this design too now. And PC gamers don't tend to buy ps4 controllers to use on their pc even though that's possible to do, they get 360 or xbone controllers. I never had an issue back in the day playing the PS1 or ps2, the controllers were fine. But nowadays it's hard to go back to that, to go back to having to stretch my thumb awkwardly to the middle of the controller. It's not a deal breaker but it certainly isn't comfortable. The PlayStation d-pad though I'm a big fan of, they always seemed very comfortable to me, easy to be accurate with precise inputs because of it being 4 "buttons", and it works well on fighting games compared to some other controllers.

[@KopperNeoman]

The original PS1 pad is just ergonomically wrong. The DualShock was the one that nailed it. Nintendo and Microsoft then iterated by putting the left stick ABOVE the D-Pad.