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Let's build an arcade racing/emulator setup.

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I've been contemplating buying a driving cabinet for a really long time now. I wanted an initial D cabinet over the years but none ever really popped up when i was looking and now they are fairly hard to find where i am. On top of this, i was always torn about being stuck with 1 game in a cabinet. I don't really know much about wiring arcade steering setups so that was part of the reason i never got a driving cab as well.

Someone i know got a pc racing sim setup recently and i was able to test it out for a while. I knew after that what was about to happen.

The aim here is to build a driving frame, get a pc steering wheel/pedals/shifter/joystick setup and use emulators to play.... Wangan Maximum Midnight TUne, Initial d.... and pretty much any other driving games i want. I also want to be able to play flight/space arcade games that require an analogue joystick setup. Things like afterburner, star wars pod etc. I've played them with the thumbsticks of a ps4 controller but it's just not the same.

So... GOAL= comfortable driving/flightsim setup that I can use a pc to play emulator games on. Something i can sit in for hours that has a high level of comfort but also needs to be really sturdy and feel a lot like im playing an arcade machine. It can also double as a pc game station for playing some cool games like forza 4, dirt 2 etc.
 
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wow.. thats gonna be awesome man!! Keep us updated with pics along the way :D
 
Building a sim racing setup was one of my pandemic stress relief projects. If you run into any issues where my experience might help lemme know. The aluminum rail system is pretty fool proof though.

I opted for triple ultrawides, and as such it's more sim-oriented, though games like Forza Horizon 4 still look great even stretched. The ideal is AC or PC2 with true triple angle separate camera views. None of this would work well at all with trying to run arcade titles with Tekno Parrot. So no Inital D etc, which is a pity, but I kinda doubt anyone is going to look at my monitors and feel sorry for me. Got them at a ridiculously good price from a Monoprice sale, couldn't resist.

I will say this: I kind of feel you're better off going for one style or the other, and not trying to make a rig that will run everything. Because the needs are just different, and you're going to end up feeling like you can't optimize for any of them trying to accommodate every style of game.

IMG_2770 2.jpg
 
Looking forward to where this thread goes!
A sim racing rig is a long gestating project of mine also.
Are you considering the Butt kicker amps at all?
 
small guide for beginners

Best bang for your buck for 80/20
https://sim-lab.eu/shop

racing/pedals/shifter - If SIMM racing buy all fanatec, buy the lowest tear gear and use that for a long while..If you find out that you are really into racing them upgrade to Fanatec direct wheel drive. Fanatec gear keep it's value.

racing/pedals/shifer - if arcade, buy the cheapest shit that you can find and mount it on the 80/20

tip - play arcade games racing before you experience SIMM Racing.. It will be hard to go back to arcade games because you will notice that on arcade games, the cars pretty much drive themselves and you are just doing minimal input, like steering a bit and a lot of GAS pedals. also, don't spent too much on the seat, get the cheapest seat that works for your 80/20 and buy your 80/20 from sim-lab if shipping is not terrible now, many moons ago, shipping to the USA was cheap.

edit - on the monitors, what worked for me was a triple monitor detachable stand setup because you can adjust the distance of the monitors to your eyes as needed and you can mount whatever you want, a Big TV, 3 monitors, one monitor or whatever...when I used triple monitors what worked for me were, 3 24" freesync/Gsynch monitors 1080p IPS.. I used to have 27" 1440p and that did not work well due to the size. Basically if SIMM racing use 3 monitors.. If arcade, I would use the LG 48" OLED now.
 
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Murray said:
I half plan on getting a fanatec wheel base in the future just so i can get a more suited wheel, your wheel is pretty much exactly what i would like, but i'll play around with the thrustmaster wheel for a while first and see how it works with the arcade games.
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I'm really happy with my 'base' Fanatec setup. I can't imagine wanting more power than what I have honestly. Direct drive feels like it would be crazy compared to the base level belt drive I have.
 
Murray said:
I spent an entire day assembling the frame.... it takes a long time to build and get it all adjusted. I wouldn't say it's difficult and the instructions were easy to follow, it's just time consuming.
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Haha yup, my experience too. It's not hard at all, but it definitely takes time to fiddle with it all. It's looking great!

Murray said:
get a new bracket for the shifter so i can move it lower and back further
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I can't see the end of the bar your shifter is on, but I found I needed to add another bit of aluminum bar to the end of mine to make it feel rock solid during shifting. Hard to take a good pic, but tried to show what I mean, the vertical bar going down under the hand brake.

IMG_3200.jpg
 
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