I've done a bunch of restorations over the last two years, several of which I've described in detail here: Tail Gunner 2, Space War, Solar Quest, Star Trek dedicated and Star Trek Captain's Chair. This project is a bit different. It's not exactly a restoration, more of a conversion.
My daughter's favorite arcade game is Mad Planets. She got to play it a few times at a nearby arcade [2084] and loved it. I love it too so I wanted to get one. But given the price of a complete working game I decided to take another approach. Step 1 was to buy a JROK board. That takes care of a working board for the project. The JROK board sat on a shelf for several months while I pondered how do find the rest of the parts.
There are two parts that are pretty difficult to find: the joystick and the spinner. They go for around $350-$400 each when they come up for sale. I learned you could substitute a Tempest spinner with the JROK board and I found one of those pretty easily. The real problem was finding a joystick...
After a bit of research I discovered that there was one joystick still being made which had a similar design. So I bought one:
Some of you may recognize this as a Xenophobe joystick. As you can see, the design is pretty close to the original MP stick, especially below the panel. The handle is also a similar shape (that's actually the Tron handle only in black). But there is one serious problem with it:
The shaft is bent forward which means it will always look and feel a bit funny if used as a Mad Planets controller. I talked to Takeman about the idea of doing a replacement shaft. I figured there had to be a few more people doing a Mad Planets build. And after an interest thread and a for sale thread, the project actually went forward. So the replacement shafts are now being made and that should make this a pretty affordable replacement for the MP stick. Not perfect mind you, but pretty close for a lot less money.
Next up: Finding a cabinet.
My daughter's favorite arcade game is Mad Planets. She got to play it a few times at a nearby arcade [2084] and loved it. I love it too so I wanted to get one. But given the price of a complete working game I decided to take another approach. Step 1 was to buy a JROK board. That takes care of a working board for the project. The JROK board sat on a shelf for several months while I pondered how do find the rest of the parts.
There are two parts that are pretty difficult to find: the joystick and the spinner. They go for around $350-$400 each when they come up for sale. I learned you could substitute a Tempest spinner with the JROK board and I found one of those pretty easily. The real problem was finding a joystick...
After a bit of research I discovered that there was one joystick still being made which had a similar design. So I bought one:
Some of you may recognize this as a Xenophobe joystick. As you can see, the design is pretty close to the original MP stick, especially below the panel. The handle is also a similar shape (that's actually the Tron handle only in black). But there is one serious problem with it:
The shaft is bent forward which means it will always look and feel a bit funny if used as a Mad Planets controller. I talked to Takeman about the idea of doing a replacement shaft. I figured there had to be a few more people doing a Mad Planets build. And after an interest thread and a for sale thread, the project actually went forward. So the replacement shafts are now being made and that should make this a pretty affordable replacement for the MP stick. Not perfect mind you, but pretty close for a lot less money.
Next up: Finding a cabinet.


