Home Arcade Teardown

Spent the weekend pulling the old monitor, wires, and controls from arcade panel. The arcade panel is being sent to a local machine shop to add a button hole on either side of the joystick. I was able to buy an additional "Gauntlet" arcade panel for $5.00 at the same time we bought the arcade This will provide us with the extra buttons we need as well as some backup sticks. After this panel is returned from the machinist, we'll peel the old "Jungle King" sticker off, and clean it down to a flat black.

This arcade will become a Propeller/Mame arcade allowing us to play Parallax Propeller games as well as arcade classics.

Father & Sons Project: Home Arcade

Matthew and I just returned from the White Rose Gameroom Show in York, PA. The six hour return trip was a little heavier than when we left. One of the outside vendors had several old, non-working arcade machines for sale for $50, so after playing a few hours of pinball, we loaded this machine into my Escort wagon as a new father/son project. Since I repair computers for a living, we should be able to convert this into a MAME arcade for winter. (I have plenty of parts to re-fill the innards of this machine.) Matthew made an interesting comment on the way home. He said that he's pretty certain this will be the one and only arcade machine in the town of Orrville. Being a child of the 80's this kinda makes me sad, but we've got plenty of garage space, and plan to return next year with a van.

Busy Summer!

It's been a while since I've posted to this blog. It's been an extremely busy summer!

I just returned from the Unofficial Propeller Expo West 2009. UPEW, which was hosted at Parallax headquarters was an incredible event! We raised $2000. for the American Red Cross! A recap of the event with pictures and video is posted here. Now with less than 30 days to UPENE 2009 (to be hosted in Norwalk, OH) We are gearing up for another big Propeller event.

If you haven't had a chance to attend an Unofficial Propeller Expo, I'd strong encourage you to attend!

Jeff/OBC

SpinStudio Game Stacker Review

Next to Parallax, uController.com creates and sells some of my favorite Propeller compatible products, and I've had the good fortune to get a sneak peek at a new addition to SpinStudio. The product is SpinStudio Game Stacker. This module plugs directly into the four ports of SpinStudio giving you two NES controller ports, keyboard & mouse, composite video, left & right audio, and SD socket. While many Propeller boards have incorporated a debug LED. Game Stacker takes that one step further with an RGB LED.

This is a perfect product for Propeller game creation, or use as a PropMICRO Propeller based microcomputer. Dozens of great games remakes are already playable on this platform as well as a version of BASIC.

Game Stacker will be sold as kit with an expected price of $35.00. Of course you will need to order a SpinStudio board which comes with the Propeller for $34.99. uController kits come with easy to follow instructions and can be generally soldered together in a single evening.

For those who are uncomfortable with soldering, uController.com says "Please don't let soldering stop you from enjoying our products. If you want the kits soldered for you before they are shipped to you, please contact me and I'd be happy to assemble them for you for a modest charge."

Wii Nunchuck Interface for the Commodore 64

Adapting the Wii Nunchuck to the Commodore 64

Here's a quick video of the controller in action, playing Master of the Lamps.

After finishing my Propeller Skateboard Project, it wasn't a big stretch to setup this project.
This interface uses the same transistor switching for the joystick, switching out the Accelerometer for a Wii controller. If there is interest, I will make this setup available as a kit from Gadget Gangster in the near future.

The Propeller/Commodore Skateboard Interface

This is a project that has been on my TODO list for the past year:
Playing Skate or Die with a real Skateboard Interface!

I was recently inspired to get this finished by Johannes Ahlebrand's release of his Propeller based Commodore tape emulator code and thought I'd demonstrate both projects together. (In all fairness, I didn't tell Johannes that his project would be featured, so don't blame him for the speed. He's working on a faster, polished loader.)

Video part #1 demonstrates both the Propeller TAP loader as well as the Skateboard Interface.

The Skareboard interface is using a Memsic 2125 Accelerometer attached to the tail of the skateboard. It reports back the tilt of the board several times a second. Once a pre-programmed angle is detected, the Propeller triggers one of the switches on the joystick port. (A simple transistor interface.)

I've learned more about creating videos while doing this and lighting mistakes, etc so Shelly and I went back into the workshop again and filmed some additonal footage of the actual game screen. (Hard to photograph!) She had a blast doing the demonstration and is excited to tell her friends that she's famous on Youtube now, so run the views up. :)

OBC

Unofficial Propeller Expo West 2009 Annouced!

Unofficial Propeller Expo West 2009 is hosted at Parallax!
June 27th and 28th

Parallax has agreed to host the UPEW this year at their facility in Rocklin, CA.
The official website can be found here, and discussion about the expo
can be found on this forum thread.
No charge for attendance. RSVP required.