RHauf
Member
One of my fav games of all time is Descent and Descent II. Recently I've been thinking that it's actually very well suited for an arcade link-system style setup. Has anybody ever built a wrap around cab for a flight sim type game, or a wrap around cab at all?
Since the "rebirth" descent games have come out, supporting modern hardware and high resolutions, it's even better.
I was thinking something similar to the Star wars cockpit style cab, with surround sound, a bass shaker or sub (for those explosions!) and either a 32" 144hz gaming monitor (i found a good deal on one) or a large CRT (which i'd actually prefer except for the added weight) and of course some cool lighting to give it that over the top feel.
Anybody whose played the game knows there are a TON of buttons that can be assigned for weapon select, flare, bomb, after burner, look various directions, strafe, slide, elevation, cruise, headlight, and various weapon controls. Well... a whole "dashboard" full of light-up arcade style buttons with graphics for each of their functions seems like a good start, with perhaps a 4 position mini stick for the left hand (surrounded by buttons) and a sidewinder 3d pro graphed into the cab for the right hand controls. oh, and of course foot pedals for the yaw (and maybe the headlight switch).
In terms of making all the tech work, that's easy. My only hangup is building the cabinet, I'm not so good at wood working and I need to come up with a good design. also I don't have any free time w/ work and family and all. so that could slow the build slightly.
I'd like to build at least 4 of them to link together.. I figure once the first one is built I can just duplicate it for the others.
Phase two would be to have the weapon select buttons light up when those weapons are available, and have some analog gauges/meters to display things like shield level, afterburner charge, and power level. of course I realize this would require some programming which i won't be doing. so, i'll just leave "phase two" as an even further pipe dream for now.
Since the "rebirth" descent games have come out, supporting modern hardware and high resolutions, it's even better.
I was thinking something similar to the Star wars cockpit style cab, with surround sound, a bass shaker or sub (for those explosions!) and either a 32" 144hz gaming monitor (i found a good deal on one) or a large CRT (which i'd actually prefer except for the added weight) and of course some cool lighting to give it that over the top feel.
Anybody whose played the game knows there are a TON of buttons that can be assigned for weapon select, flare, bomb, after burner, look various directions, strafe, slide, elevation, cruise, headlight, and various weapon controls. Well... a whole "dashboard" full of light-up arcade style buttons with graphics for each of their functions seems like a good start, with perhaps a 4 position mini stick for the left hand (surrounded by buttons) and a sidewinder 3d pro graphed into the cab for the right hand controls. oh, and of course foot pedals for the yaw (and maybe the headlight switch).
In terms of making all the tech work, that's easy. My only hangup is building the cabinet, I'm not so good at wood working and I need to come up with a good design. also I don't have any free time w/ work and family and all. so that could slow the build slightly.
I'd like to build at least 4 of them to link together.. I figure once the first one is built I can just duplicate it for the others.
Phase two would be to have the weapon select buttons light up when those weapons are available, and have some analog gauges/meters to display things like shield level, afterburner charge, and power level. of course I realize this would require some programming which i won't be doing. so, i'll just leave "phase two" as an even further pipe dream for now.

