As we did arcade

Almost two years ago, my friend ellanorsh wrote an article "Life homemade arcade» . And I would like to tell the continuation of our history.

After all, there is talk about. We visited on a number of measures to try to collect money to build a machine through crowdfunding and finally agreed with the authors of the game Shovel Knight did own arcade machine with our design.






In his first experiments we did in the arcade nightstand Chinese jamma board that six months out of order.



But during this time we have managed to bring their nightstand for STARKON, Boom picnic and a couple of smaller events. Everywhere our ikeevskoy arcade nightstand a queue. It looked something like this:



During the event, we tried to attract players to our kraudfandingovy project in the Russian analogue of the Kick - Planeta.ru. There we wanted to raise funds to build a really cool arcade. Then install it in a public place in St. Petersburg. Implement our plan did not work, but we did not even think to give up.



Then we wanted to not just copy the classic arcade and do something something. In all our experiments, we met with a bunch of interesting and interested people, and our team has grown from two people to five.

Around the same time, I have supported the project on Kickstarter retro toys Shovel Knight . A year after I got Kick up your game and she led me into raptures. Adventures of knight with a shovel, cool bosses and juicy levels - just what you need for the new arcade. So I decided to contact their developers to get their permission to manufacture arcade with artifacts and the actual game. Developers were delighted with our proposal, and the work has begun to boil.

For a start, we have outlined a new version of the arcade housing in google Sketchup, inserting Wall Lee for scale.



Then make a detailed drawing in AutoCAD and with him went to the studio and released to the carcass.



Since the game is designed for the PC, the machine is installed inside a computer with a budget derived power and reset buttons.



The buttons and joystick to control panel connected to a special Chinese dresses that are connected via USB, and are perceived as controllers without additional software. For easy access to them and easy replacement of buttons and check connections, it was decided to make the control panel hinged, as the hood of the car. Naturally, the hood can be attached to the handle extra to not climbed.



Machine itself is made from laminated wood and Plexiglas. Stickers on the side printed on the film, but the title and the top control panel overlay in a special plastic. And here it is worth to say that the complexity of the assembly arose at every stage.

First we fought with the master, who a month could not begin sawing chipboard sheets, inventing ever new excuses. After the "serious" conversation machine frame was sawed and assembled in a week.



Then, the right to delay the process of assembly passed printing. At first she could not print the week our order and then another week remade defective rolls. But the result was worth it! However, it turned out that the machine sidewalls were sawn to the eye and did not match the drawings and stickers, but the problem we have consulted, gluing strips of empty defective versions of the film. On his next machine will print illustrations directly on a piece of chipboard. And, of course, also want the future to cut the frame laser to reduce errors to a minimum.



On the finished machine, we put build Shovel Knight, who have provided us with game developers. For them, we have removed a small demo with treatment.



You may have noticed that the game is designed for one player, but the machine has a pair of joysticks and two sets of keys. Because the machine does not include a coin, we also found it an emulator MAME and bought the shell Maximus Arcade , in addition to a knight with a shovel could Play «Marvel vs Capcom» and any other arcade hits.

Here, incidentally, is also not without difficulties. Deal with the emulator MAME - is the job of work still. It is necessary to download the emulator itself, the BIOS for games, the games themselves, and all of this must be compatible with each other. Some games had to put five copies, to select among them those versions that are properly run, contain less all "unnecessary" screens and normally operate at the desired resolution.



And now, in the light of experience, we have already started to produce the next unit. We will try to get rid of all the rough edges, hone business processes and optimize the design.





Source: geektimes.ru/post/249984/