modessitt
Volunteer: Encyclopedia Submission Moderator
At work, we have a client who wants a 19-in-1 MultiWilliams. We are doing this in a restored (by me) Joust cabinet. The guy is a bit of a Defender/Stargate fanatic, and wants a control panel that will play those two games perfectly (2-way joystick). But he also wants to be able to play Joust, Robotron, SMB, Ghosts-n-Goblins, etc.
So, we've talked to him, explained the problems of the MW control panel from AS when paired with the 19-in-1 (which has no button mapping feature), and have decided to make TWO control panels. One will be a dedicated Stargate control panel with original 2-way Stargate joystick, new CPO, and buttons. This will allow him to play Defender/Stargate perfectly. The other control panel will be a Joust control panel with Joust CPO, but with 8-ways where the Joust 2-ways go (I'm not going to find pale yellow and pale blue round-top 8-ways so will most likely use black or red), with two yellow buttons on the left and two blue buttons on the right - which will allow him to play the other 17 games with no problems, including the 2-player simultaneous games like Joust and Mario Bros.
So, I'm going to wire the cabinet with two control panel plugs - one for the Stargate and one for the Joust - so that I can route controls properly and he won't have to go into the menu to switch between Upright 1 Joystick and Upright 2 Joysticks. What I'm looking for are ideas as to a quicker and easier way to swap the control panels than to remove the bolts, remove the control panel, swap, then but the bolts back in. Perhaps use some type of hook that the bottom part of the control panel sets into/onto, then the snaps are put down and it's on firm? I need it to look original from the outside.
Maybe I'll just reverse the bolts so that the nuts are on the control panel side of the cab, then put wingnuts on to make them easy to remove without a wrench/socket. It shouldn't be that difficult to undo two snaps, lower, unplug one connector, remove three (four?) wingnuts, remove, install, put on the wingnuts, connect the connector, raise, and latch. What- 5 minutes once you get the hang of it?
Any other brilliant ideas that would be fairly easy to do and not cost a lot?
So, we've talked to him, explained the problems of the MW control panel from AS when paired with the 19-in-1 (which has no button mapping feature), and have decided to make TWO control panels. One will be a dedicated Stargate control panel with original 2-way Stargate joystick, new CPO, and buttons. This will allow him to play Defender/Stargate perfectly. The other control panel will be a Joust control panel with Joust CPO, but with 8-ways where the Joust 2-ways go (I'm not going to find pale yellow and pale blue round-top 8-ways so will most likely use black or red), with two yellow buttons on the left and two blue buttons on the right - which will allow him to play the other 17 games with no problems, including the 2-player simultaneous games like Joust and Mario Bros.
So, I'm going to wire the cabinet with two control panel plugs - one for the Stargate and one for the Joust - so that I can route controls properly and he won't have to go into the menu to switch between Upright 1 Joystick and Upright 2 Joysticks. What I'm looking for are ideas as to a quicker and easier way to swap the control panels than to remove the bolts, remove the control panel, swap, then but the bolts back in. Perhaps use some type of hook that the bottom part of the control panel sets into/onto, then the snaps are put down and it's on firm? I need it to look original from the outside.
Maybe I'll just reverse the bolts so that the nuts are on the control panel side of the cab, then put wingnuts on to make them easy to remove without a wrench/socket. It shouldn't be that difficult to undo two snaps, lower, unplug one connector, remove three (four?) wingnuts, remove, install, put on the wingnuts, connect the connector, raise, and latch. What- 5 minutes once you get the hang of it?
Any other brilliant ideas that would be fairly easy to do and not cost a lot?
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