XEGS Cabinet Modification ?s

Draugr · May 8, 2002

Hi,

I am deciding whether I should get a little creative or not with regards to my XEGS game system. I am a classic game fan/junkie and I have many systems. To have to keep unplugging one system from my TV to setup another is a hassle. I have two projects I'm going to try to work on. One is a bit more difficult. I want to try and make an arcade cabinet or console display kiosk that will use real arcade controls. The hard part is that I will have it support 5 or 6 classic systems. Getting one set of arcade controllers, a trac ball and keypads to work with 6 different console systems will be difficult I would guess. Thankfully, I won't be the one doing that. A friend of mine has a friend who builds/repairs cabinets and the such at a coin-op distributer. He's even taken a playstation system and made the PS use the arcade joysticks instead of the typical PS gamepads. This took some re-wiring and such, so he has experience in this sort of project. Anyhow, that is the hard project. I also was thinking of working on a smaller project first.

My idea for this project is where I have some questions. I want to build a mini kiosk or cabinet for my XEGS game system. While my multi console system will use a 27-33" TV, this mini XEGS specific cabinet will use an old Commodore 1702 monitor. a lot smaller Well, let me list my questions below. I hope some of you might be able to answer them. Sorry for the long intro above.

1. For the arcade controller wiring. I have a question. I know most XEGS games use the typical Atari 2600 joystick, with one fire button. Are there any games (carts) made for the XEGS/XL/XE that require more than one fire button? I'm not talking about games like Star Raiders that require the keyboard. I mean any games that need two seperate fire buttons? Like the Atari 7800 games that need two buttons.

2. As for the Start/Option/Reset buttons. We'd have to open the casing of the XEGS and connect a wire to them that would then connect to a Start button, Option button and Reset button on the controller console correct? If this is so, would it be easier to just take the XEGS out of its casing and mount its board directly into the cabinet or would that be a bad idea?

Well, thats all for now. I'm just trying to get the opinions from some of the 8-bit users. I know that the person who will be building these cabinets with me is a real pro and to him, its probably nothing difficult. I just wnated to get some outside opinions and some answers to questions like #1 from people who are more familair with the 800/XL/XE game carts.

Thanks and Sorry for the Long message.

capnarrr · May 8, 2002

To my knowledge, there are no mainstream games that use two buttons on the atari 8-bit computers.

As far as mounting the sucker, placing the atari face on the outside of the cabinet would probably be a good idea. Many games require the keyboard (pause, setting changes, etc), and aesthetically speaking, the buttons themselves would give it a nice touch. Makes cartridge loading easier as well. The XEGS had a cool detatchable keyboard too, so if you choose to keep the buttons inside, I still suggest you place the keyboard on the outside (maybe on a rolling platform underneath the cabinet?). Have fun!