Bacteria's project: "Project Unity"

[bacteria]

System will work as thus:

An 8PDT switch will be used to select the console system (the 8PDT switch will carry the 8 data lines of a console system controller), and a normal switch will select between a system being on and off. I'll have an LED showing when the 8PDT switch is "on" to keep it easy; this "on" switch will complete the voltage circuit by connecting ground to isolate that console from all the others, the ground also feeding to the audio, video and controller ground too.

Just won a pack of 20 of these on ebay for a very cheap price, they can cost a few bucks each plus postage, got 20 for $26; which is about £0.65 each! Ideal! Just enough too!!

[bacteria]

Ok, done the Intellivision controller section now, completed but not tested; hoping it works ok. Need to connect the wires from the console to the master controller before can test though (not today, out of time).

Here's the wiring inside the controller casing, normally you get a controller board of course, however in this scenario there's a stack of diodes and wiring, which is of course what's needed in the Intellivision controls.



Normally a d-pad is secured inside a casing with groves to keep the d-pad cross in position. I can't do that as the d-pad needs to be free standing, consequently the d-pad will rotate a bit during gameplay; the way I eliminated this problem was to cut up a spare joystick cap and use that instead of a d-pad cross or d-pad circle - if it does rotate a bit it doesn't matter now. The normal d-pad on the master controller also works, so when playing games that are 4 way (eg Lock'n'Chase, Night Stalker, etc) can use the d-pad joystick or proper d-pad, and for other games that need 8 way, use the d-pad joystick.

Here it is mounted into the case, with a joystick blank on the other side:

[bacteria]

I didn't feel like doing a little soldering work today and testing the Intellivision, so instead was busy doing something else quite important - the overlays for the keypad. I know I did some a while back, but lost the files when had problems on the other computer and it corrupted the master records on the hard disks. Made this one better anyway.

This is the first overlay done, may change the "player 1" colour, not decided. In the pic you see the original overlay and the one I made on the master controller.

Originally, the plan was to use the four shoulder buttons on the master controller for the Intellivision shoulder buttons (logical after all), however on the Intellivision, the shoulder buttons were for actions like "run", "fire" etc, so makes sense instead to use the 4 action buttons (the coloured ones in the pic) instead. The Intellivision used the bottom two shoulder buttons independently, but the two top ones were the same, so therefore up and down is top shoulder buttons and the left and right are the two separate bottom left shoulder buttons, if that makes sense.

The reason I made the keypad off-centre and to the right a bit is now evident - in games like Tron Deadly Discs (rats, realised I typed "Discs of Tron" not "Tron Deadly Discs" - will have to reprint the overlay!) it isn't easy to stretch my finger over to the left keypad area if the keypad had been centred, whereas where it is, it is fine. Just in case you were wondering. There was a good reason! lol

[jfrost]

The reason I made the keypad off-centre and to the right a bit is now evident - in games like Tron Deadly Discs (rats, realised I typed "Discs of Tron" not "Tron Deadly Discs" - will have to reprint the overlay!) it isn't easy to stretch my finger over to the left keypad area if the keypad had been centred, whereas where it is, it is fine. Just in case you were wondering. There was a good reason! lol

It was actually driving me nuts, thanks for clarifying.

[bacteria]

Really?

Tested the Intellivision controller section in the master controller, works great - even better than expected! Next job - make some videos! That will take a while to do as will comprise of various mini videos to make one good video, will make a start tomorrow on them though! Yay!

[CRTGAMER]

The reason I made the keypad off-centre and to the right a bit is now evident - in games like Tron Deadly Discs (rats, realised I typed "Discs of Tron" not "Tron Deadly Discs" - will have to reprint the overlay!) it isn't easy to stretch my finger over to the left keypad area if the keypad had been centred, whereas where it is, it is fine. Just in case you were wondering. There was a good reason! lol

It was actually driving me nuts, thanks for clarifying.

Yeah, same here. I knew it wasn't a grinding error, thought a PCB clearance issue inside. Pretty slick!

[bacteria]

Playing Intellivision, like on Tron Deadly Discs, left thumb uses the d-pad joystick, the right thumb uses the keypad buttons. Holding the controller normally, my thumb can just reach the left keypad buttons fine, even 1/2 cm to the left would mean holding the controller awkwardly, so therefore, the keypad had to be a little off to the right. Placement as it is at the moment works great. Most games don't use the keypad much of course, if at all, however for me, Tron Deadly Discs is one of my top few Intellivision titles. Most controllers have buttons and controls off-centre anyway, so it isn't an issue!

Just played several minutes of that game, plays nicely. Having proper and responsive diagonals makes a big difference to the gameplay!

My forthcoming video will be one of the most important ones of the series, so I am looking forward to making it.


BTW - had a thought - original idea was to have CD drive sections pull out like a drawer, and game carts to be installed so they were sticking out of the front of the system roughly equally.

I have to keep the CD systems as pull-out drawers, and it looks neat anyway. What I have decided though, is to make the top of the system hinged, with all the game carts accessible from the top. That means all game carts will be internal, so therefore the system will look far far nicer. It will also mean it will be far easier to install secured cart slot sections at different positions in the casing as they will be on a strong platform base and alongside each other now. The only downside is that the system might be a bit taller than originally planned, however might be able to design it so it isn't.

[bacteria]

I was asked by a member on my forum for more details of the plans for the system, so copied that to here as I thought you guys would be interested too:

Sure - very rough sketch of plan:



Top section (hinged top), where the game carts will be located for all game cart consoles (ie carts for: Atari 2600, Atari 7800, TurobGrafx/PCengine, Jaguar, N64, SNES, NES, SMS, MegaDrive/Genesis, Intellivision, ColecoVision), Amstrad GX4000. Also in that section will be two quite powerful inlet exhaust fans to bring airflow into the system.

2nd section - the game cart system motherboards laid horizontally to conserve space.

3rd - 5th section (will actually need 4 sections not 3 as per above pic!) - CD systems - Xbox, GameCube, Amiga CD32, Philips CD-i, Saturn, PS2, DreamCast (ie 4 sections, all pull-out drawer sections)

Bottom section - two more of the powerful exhaust fans, to suck air out of the system. Being at the opposite end of the system, good airflow. These exhaust fans were off a commercial mixing deck I was told, so quite good! Also on the bottom section will be the single controller port, and the switches to select which console is being used and the on/off power switch for each system too.

This means I can be creative in the appearance of the system at the latter stages of the project.

[bacteria]

Ok, here's the video:

YouTube link

Enjoy!

[bacteria]

Ok, decent update time!

Started making the skeleton for this project today. The base is 6mm thick MDF, the sides is just chipboard. The unit will be about 2/3 the height in the pic when done, I don't know the exact height so left the extra length for the meantime to cut down later. Just screwed some thin board on the top so the struts are straight and strong at the moment.

It doesn't matter how bad this looks, the outer layer will be what is seen, that will be done later in the project, the priority at the moment is getting the structure built for the inside.

I had intended to have the various switches and buttons for selecting the console system, and the controller port, along the bottom of the unit, however it makes far more sense for the purpose of wiring, and to get to the buttons and switches if I need to, to have that on the side; so it's on the left side. The power supply port and the various power regulators will be there too. The unit is 42 cms wide, will be between 37-39 cms deep, and for the height, well at a guesstimate about 40 cms when done.

As you see in the pic, the Amiga CD32 and GameCube/GBA section are in place, i'll need to make shelves for next systems of course.

Regards airflow, each console system that makes heat will have heatsinks and fans as needed of course, but to provide good airflow for the whole system, had thought about some 14 cms square fan air extractors I bought a while back, used for recording decks, but they have a bit of a hum; instead, going to use my Alaka 22cms 12v fan, it is very quiet and also has included some blue LED's too. That gives excellent airflow and ideal.



Had been thinking of rigging up these two consoles and the other three already done to the 8Pdt switches I have and making the next video for upload to demonstrate the system working independently over those systems; I think instead i'll up the ante and make that video when i've included the PS2 and CD-i consoles too; that will be a much more awesome video then - i'll demonstrate working up to 7 systems, or certainly 4 or 5 depending on video time available.

So, as I fixed my PS2 console yesterday, I may as well crack on with that next - so that will be the feature of my next video; then Philips CD-1.