I recently gutted some old arcade machines in order to salvage parts for a Playstation 2 arcade stick, and I have enough spare buttons and sticks to make a couple of sticks for my A500, too.
The first design I came up with is a simple 2-button design with the second button serving as either fire button 2, or joystick up. That way it will work great for single-button action games where up serves as jump, as well as two-button shooters like R-Type and Starray. I plan on using all of my old leaf-switch parts for this one, since I have exactly one stick and two-buttons from an early 80's arcade machine.
The second Stick will use microswitch components, like those found on Street Fighter arcade games. Here is what I've come up with so far:
I have more spare parts for this one, so I want to go all out.
I added a down button for racing games that use up and down as accelerate and brake.
I probably won't get around to building this one any time soon, so I was hoping to get some ideas and insight about the design.
Is there any point in adding a button for fire button 3?I'm not aware of any games for A500 that use all three buttons. Few even use the second fire button.
A three button layout could also work, with a button for up/fb2 and another for down/fb3, but I'd like to avoid using switches on this one.
Any advice about how to build a decent shell for the stick would also be greatly appreciated. I'm thinking of doing it all in wood, but I do have access to a machine shop sometimes, so sheet metal or aluminum could be used for at least some of the construction.
