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Building a wall mount for control panels

twistedsymphony said:
so no more guesses on what game my button stick panel is actually for? 🤔
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I'd guess some sort of Ikari Warrior style shooter, with a fire button on the joystick and some rotate clockwise/counter-clockwise buttons + grenade ?
 
For those interested the 3 games (that I know of) that are designed to use a push button joystick are
1. Ninja Gaiden (aka Shadow Warriors)
Ninja_Gaiden_CP_Left.png


2. Silk Worm
silk_worm.jpg


3. Block Out
blockout.jpg


Specifically my panel was designed for Block Out.

Annoyingly, all 3 of these games use different button mapping and NONE of them make sense

Ninja Gaiden has button 3 on the joystick then buttons 1 and 2 on the panel, that's fine but they also swap P1 an P2, so if you were to plug in a normal JAMMA harness your player sides would be backwards.

Silk Worm has button 3 on the joystick but then the panel has button 2 on the left and button 1 on the right, they ALSO swap P1 and P2 controls, though it's less noticeable since the player you choose determines your vehicle.

Block Out has button 1 on the joystick, then from left to right is button 4, 3, 2 for some dumb reason, thankfully it doesn't swap player positions though.

For those unfamiliar, Block out is a 3D Tetris game, the 3 buttons rotate the part along each of the 3 axis and the joystick button drops the part. I've also seen this game wired up with two normal joysticks, where left, up, and right on the right joystick rotates, and down on the right joystick drops.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tn_WoNxG2M
 
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Another fun fact, while I'm thinking of it

Agress: Missile Daisenryaku is another really fun puzzle game that uses the same hardware as Block Out. Either game can be easily ROM swapped to the other. (though Block Out is WAY easier to find)
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg0uFPSRhP8


Agress doesn't use a button stick but if you watch the video you'll hear they share a lot of sound effects.

As fun as Agress is, it is extremely buggy and during a long play session you get some serious slow-downs. Still a weird and fun game though.
 
@twistedsymphony - If you haven't spent any time with Nova 2001, you should take a bit of time and check it out.....it uses the top button for strafe which gives it an interesting mechanic...and it has an obvious bit of Xevious feel, but instead of scrolling vertically, its almost like a top-down arena shooter. It would work well with your panel.

I really like Block-Out, and should probably find a PCB to add to my puzzle collection at some point. I've only ever mame'd it, and had not seen a cabinet...so I had no idea it used the top button sticks.
 
bagheera369 said:
@twistedsymphony - If you haven't spent any time with Nova 2001, you should take a bit of time and check it out.....it uses the top button for strafe which gives it an interesting mechanic...and it has an obvious bit of Xevious feel, but instead of scrolling vertically, its almost like a top-down arena shooter. It would work well with your panel.

I really like Block-Out, and should probably find a PCB to add to my puzzle collection at some point. I've only ever mame'd it, and had not seen a cabinet...so I had no idea it used the top button sticks.
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very cool! another one for the list. Pre-JAMMA stuff usually isn't on my radar but I'll check it out
 
I was lucky enough to find a pair of the sticks.

I'm down to a few items I am looking for in order to follow @twistedsymphony lead.

I am still looking for a monkey ball panel or a banana.
I am looking for the ghox spinners.
I am looking for a pair of loop 24 spinners.
I am looking for a Bass Fishing or Marine Fishing panel.
 
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twistedsymphony said:
I've got a ton of control panels and for the longest time I've wanted to hang them on the wall. I designed a few 3d printed mounts tried some from others but ultimately decided that it'd be a ton of work to properly space and align every panel. Then using drywall hooks.

I looked at a number of other options but eventually had the idea for a wooden rack. This would easily keep all the panels in alignment. One rack could handled a bunch of boards at once and I could mount the rack directly into the wall studs nice and secure.
I also wanted to be able to easily swap out the panels to use them.

It's a really simple design. Each panel takes up about 6in in height which is enough for the panel and a little extra to get your hand in there to remove or install it.

IMG_20240727_105501676.jpg


I bought some 4in by 3/4in poplar at my local hardware store. I cut two lengths to 74in and then 8 shorter lengths to 23 and 7/8th. The size of those shorter lengths is critical because you need just right that the sides of the rack line up with bolt holes in the panel. This size was really based around how much space I had on my wall but was enough for 12 panels.

The rack is a simple box with two extra horizontal supports for rigidity. Each horizontal support has a matching vertical support and these are used to mount the rack to the wall.
IMG_20240727_130056560.jpg


IMG_20240727_164213683.jpg


I used picture hangers to attach the panels to the rack. I found that the "10lbs" hangers are perfect and the 30lbs or larger hangers are too big.

IMG_20240727_164223647.jpg


Overall I'm super happy with the results. Some panels that are heavier on the back hang at an angle instead of flat. I think an improved design would maybe be to taper the face of the rack by 5 deg (so it's deeper at the bottom and more shallow at the top) or so to counteract this. Alternatively I might add some magnets into the sides to hold down the bottom of the panels and keep them all perfectly upright.

Total Material cost here was about $115 and 90% of that was the wood, it took me about 3 hours to put together and get it installed. Tools used were a skill saw for cutting the wood, a drill for pilot holes and the screws and a hammer to put in the hooks. Most hardware stores will cut wood for too so you could probably save yourself a little time having them do that for you. I didn't have exact measurements until I had material in hand.

I do plan on painting it, but I'm having people over tomorrow and didn't really have time to do that and let the paint dry.

Anyway I'm really happy with that result. Figured I'd post this if anyone else has a similar need.

The sad part is that this is less than half of my panel collection. Other Panels NOT on the rack:
2x more VOOT Panel
Another Pachinko Panel (one is for sale BTW)
A repo New Net City Panel
4x Outtrigger Panels
2x Aleck 64 Panels
2x Repo Monkeyball Panels
A Repo Forgotten Worlds Panel
A P1 Virtua Bowling Panel
A Paca Paca Passion Panel
A SFIV P1 Panel
A Sega Virtua Tennis 1P Panel
A Taito 2P Spinner Panel
Probably some other's I'm not remembering
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Did you ever sell your spare pachinko panel?
 
itsmedario said:
I was lucky enough to find a pair of the sticks.

I'm down to a few items I am looking for in order to follow @twistedsymphony lead.

I am still looking for a monkey ball panel or a banana.
I am looking for the ghox spinners.
I am looking for a pair of loop 24 spinners.
I am looking for a Bass Fishing or Marine Fishing panel.
Click to expand...
Two of the above have been purchased and are on their way.
 
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