Star Wars Cockpit Arcade Project

dav09

Example of an original:


Current Progress on the Project:


So, where do I start? I've always been fascinated by amazing, unique and groundbreaking arcade machines. Star Wars, R360, Afterburner Deluxe to name a few. The latter two I'll probably never own due to their size and scarcity. The Star Wars I probably won't own either, saving up 7/8 grand for one isn't realistic in this climate with the way things are lately, even if I did get that sorta money together at some stage, I don't think I could justify spending that on a Star Wars now. So with that being said, I started looking into options, and there's a lot of measurements and drawing out there for a Star Wars Arcade Cockpit. I started piecing things together and found that this might be realistic. With lockdown seeming like it's never-ending, I said why not and dove right in. I said I'd do this thread as a sorta build log too on the project.

I never really did a serious woodwork project before and even using power tools my experience is very limited. So I wasn't sure how this would all turn out. I knew from research that this cabinet was going to be very heavy and would need a really good structure and support base. So there were many challenging moments during this project, particularly with assembly and doing it on my own. Having screws not showing on the sides was tricky, as this was the way with the original design. And also making them discrete in other areas

Bezel: One of the most challenging parts of this was also the Bezel. I knew with good woodwork skills one could be crafted, but due to my unconfidence and inexperience, I decided to 3D print a lot of it. Thankfully it turned out really well, even having to print it in multiple pieces due to its sizes. Still another bit of detail to add, along with creating the Control Panel. Parts are out there but out of my budget for this, would have been another 500+ for them it seems now which seems mad.






Cabinet. I also had the cabinet plans CNC'd by a local company. Word of warning to people, some of the ones online are not 100% accurate and will need some modifications before sending to the CNC, I did some modifications and it arrived fine, a few missing pieces it seems but I bought some spare wood and a jigsaw so that sorted that. I used some measurements online to work it out and piece it together when it arrived. It's like buying something from IKEA without instructions. It's also in MDF over the original plywood, seems to be a better option now.



Electronics. So I had a dilemma here. Either go with original electronics or newer parts and emulate it/ FPGA. Right now original electronics will cost me an extra 1k plus, along with the difficulty in finding them and potentially dealing with troublesome WG6100s or the 25" Ampliphones. So I decided to buy the new GRS Repro Star Wars Yoke which gives the best of both worse, so it plugs into USB while having the possibility of using with an original board should I decide to swap it out in the future. Or even replace it with FPGA if that board ever comes. It's a really nice Yoke too and even more durable than the original apparently. It looks and feels exactly like an original which is fantastic.



So what's left to do:
Finish assembly, roof and marquee part, CP + Bezel Installation.
Coin Door Installation (I 3D printed it, might by a proper one soon)
Finish Electronics
3D Print Extra Bezel Detail
CRT Installation
Create Control Panel (tricky as the original is different to the upright)
Apply Art (ordered and waiting on delivery)
Prime + Paint the remainder
Repro'ing back glass/polycarbonate

There are probably a few more bits and pieces, but I reckon I'm about 70% there in the grand scheme of things. A lot of the time spent on this was planning and researching. Although the cabinet assembly has been 50hrs+ already, I can see why only few repros have been done before.

Thanks everyone for your support on the project, it's been enjoyable with some ups and downs along the way but is coming along better than expected.

YoshiReturns

Brilliant. Great work and attitude. Looking forward to seeing the end result.

RedXIV

This looks awesome! Will follow with extreme interest

Ikozma

Look forward to seeing more on this, fair play to you and good luck with it

Gradius

That's a serious undertaking there, fair play! Perfect project for the pandemic, when we come out the other side of it you'll be able to say "there's how I spent some of it"

I remember having an Atari star wars pcb that I never tested but I can't remember where it is offhand. I have pictures of it alright. Either it's long gone in some trade or I'll find it. Happy to let you have it if it's still here, no use to me without a vector anyway.

Will be great to see this finished and running, good luck

Very very cool .
Would you consider putting the guts of an arcade 1up in it ?

dav09

Thanks All, really nice to see the kind words

Gradius wrote: »

That's a serious undertaking there, fair play! Perfect project for the pandemic, when we come out the other side of it you'll be able to say "there's how I spent some of it"

I remember having an Atari star wars pcb that I never tested but I can't remember where it is offhand. I have pictures of it alright. Either it's long gone in some trade or I'll find it. Happy to let you have it if it's still here, no use to me without a vector anyway.

Will be great to see this finished and running, good luck

Wow that would be fantastic! Thank you, let me know what you're looking for it if you find it, I'll have no excuse then not to find either the WG Or Amplifone for it to have it pretty much fully original eventually:)

BrownFinger wrote: »

Very very cool .
Would you consider putting the guts of an arcade 1up in it ?

That was one option considered, but just getting a PCB seems impossible and the machines weren't released over in most European countries it seems so they're scarce over here, would become quite costly importing. I considered it before I bought the yoke (although the yoke works directly with 1UP outputs on it too along with original and USB). Would have been a great option if easier to get.

Gradius

If I still have it you can take it for a packet of rancheros, happy to let it go for such a good project.

dav09

Gradius wrote: »

If I still have it you can take it for a packet of rancheros, happy to let it go for such a good project.

Wow thank you! In that case I'll send you the biggest packet of rancheros I can find

Inviere

Fantastic work, very well done. I'm always amazed at the woodwork side of things in projects like this. I'm convinced I've some type of disability when it comes to measuring and cutting wood....if I measure the same piece of wood three times, I get three different measurements

Lemming

Dav, if you're needing any measurements of photos of specific bits of an original, either contact Arcade Club in Leeds, UK - or when the local lockdown gets lifted here I can head on up and get photos/measurements for you if needed (it's a 45 min drive for me, and another trip to Arcade Club into the bargain :pac:).

dav09

Lemming wrote: »

Dav, if you're needing any measurements of photos of specific bits of an original, either contact Arcade Club in Leeds, UK - or when the local lockdown gets lifted here I can head on up and get photos/measurements for you if needed (it's a 45 min drive for me, and another trip to Arcade Club into the bargain :pac:).

Good idea yeah, thankfully I've found a lot of the measurements online but a few pieces (particularly angles) have been guess work. Cheers though if Im stuck in a few weeks I might give you a shout. I've met Andy before so I could probably give him a bell if needed but have got away with it so far it seems!

dav09

Slow progress the past week or so, lockdown makes it very uninspiring to do anything but a little progress. Artwork arriving in today so I'm slowly sizing it up and applying it, nice to see it coming together. Very impressed with it. Repro art was by Olly @ ArcadeArtShop who I highly recommend as always.

Some applied some not but shaping up nice.

dav09

This evening's work, starting to take shape now

Optimus Prime

Wow that looks brilliant, well done!

Savage work.
Have you figured out the hardware yet?

dav09

BrownFinger wrote: »

Savage work.
Have you figured out the hardware yet?

Thanks all

As for hardware I've had no luck sourcing a reasonably priced PCB so I'm just going to throw a CRT into it and a mame system for now. The Yoke gives me the option down the line to make it fully original as it has the pinout, if I can find a WG6100/Ampliphone CRT AND PCB. If anyone has any sources on one though let me know

Inviere

Amazing work, really well done. Mame will serve you well for the game until you grab a pcb somewhere. If there's a Mister core for the game then that would be a lovely solution, as they can output 15Khz natively.

What are you thinking for sound/speakers? Can't say I've ever played the game in the original cab, but those cockpit cabs can pack a lovely audio punch.

BGOllie

wow very nice work

Zilog

Amazing work!

Bit late for you now, but Perifractic on YouTube converted the Arcade1up to a full cockpit machine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xinJW0uZbg8

a bit of advice,
dont play it until the cabinet is 100% finished .
very easy to forget about finishing it once its playable.
I think it took me 4 years to put the wheels on my donkey kong.
and I only did it because I was moving house.

Inviere

BrownFinger wrote: »

a bit of advice,
dont play it until the cabinet is 100% finished .
very easy to forget about finishing it once its playable.
I think it took me 4 years to put the wheels on my donkey kong.
and I only did it because I was moving house.

Listen to this advice and take it

dav09

Zilog wrote: »

Amazing work!

Bit late for you now, but Perifractic on YouTube converted the Arcade1up to a full cockpit machine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xinJW0uZbg8

Thanks all again!

Yeah I seen that, very cool and was something I was looking at, but getting one from the US and the cost of that would have made the project well over budget, unfortunately (even though it has the PCB and Yoke with it), I was also trying to find replacement parts from the 1UP to buy but hard to find.

BrownFinger wrote: »

a bit of advice,
dont play it until the cabinet is 100% finished .
very easy to forget about finishing it once its playable.
I think it took me 4 years to put the wheels on my donkey kong.
and I only did it because I was moving house.

And yes that is a great idea, I've done little work on the Electronics side besides having all the parts here, I reckon I'm 2-3 weeks out from finishing it (depending how busy work and some other things are) so yeah I'm going to take that on board and leave them until last.

dav09

Slowly making progress, some pictures from yesterday. Not full right but getting there, trying to shape up how it all will fit together.





I see someone is selling another replica on Ebay for crazy money, have no intention of selling this as it's a grail cab but for that sorta mad money I'd probably sell it and build another :pac: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144024812040

Inviere

^^ nearly 4k sterling and not even a crt in it....rolleyes

Yours is looking fantastic, really great

DaveyDave

How did I miss this thread...looks absolutely savage! Looking forward to seeing the end result.

dav09

Cheers all, another few photos, have done a bit of work on it again. Working on finishing the control panel next and the internals. Also I designed 2 repro air vents for the top like with the original so I'm waiting for them to print.

o1s1n

This is looking absolutely incredible.

Any thoughts on the monitor setup give it's a vector game?

dav09

o1s1n wrote: »

This is looking absolutely incredible.

Any thoughts on the monitor setup give it's a vector game?

Right now until I can find a board and a monitor I'm going to emulate it, I have a spare CRT (17", a little small but should do for now) which should give it more of a vector feel. I can't seem to find a WG6100 or the 25" Amplifone, any recommendations to what I should use when I get an original board? I know there's some new methods to make raster CRTs into vectors, and also Alan-1 in the USA are doing some repro W6100 deflector boards too, I just want the game stable really whichever method I go with.

dav09

Hadn't updated this in a while, with other projects and life taking over a bit it was stuck at probably 90% complete for a few months, I have some space to work and finish it again (as I ended up not really having access to it for a while due to it being at the back of a storage unit). The CP came out really well along with the bezel considering it was all 3D Printed/ Done with my limited woodworking skills. Finally, the game is fully playable and runs really well, emulated at the minute but I'm sure there'll be a phase 2 down the line restoring it to fully original hardware. Monitor not mounted yet looking for a CRT that'll work nicely in it. Will hopefully have some finished photos of it over the next week. May do a video of it too.

dav09

Finally this thing is fully finished, cut and put on the last plexi today, I recorded the making of it so am going to compile it into a video format for fun. Took a good bit longer than expected mostly due to lack of space and time but it's finally complete!

(Edit: same pic posted twice, won't seem to delete on mobile)

Inviere

Class @dav09, absolutely class. Well done.

eddhorse

Looks great and look forward to the video

KeRbDoG

Looking forward to the video - did you go with emulation or FPGA (simulation?) in the end?

DaveyDave

Very cool!

dav09

Thanks very much all, it was very much enjoyable but took a lot more work that I originally thought.

In terms of the setup, sadly it's just emulation. I played around with a CRT in it but the only space I had that would fit the correct size was meh, had too much screen burn and wasn't bright enough. So since this, I went with an LCD it just uses an autoboot pi setup. I'll probably revisit this sometime down the line. USB DVG may be an interesting setup down the line if FPGA cores come available for Atari Star wars, but not 100% sure what type of vector monitors that works with. The controller also has outputs for an original board, so potentially if I got a tube with the right scan coils I'd probably get the WG 6100 repro boards from ALAN-1 in the US, but again I need more research into that too. I'm finding it more difficult to justify troublesome original boards for home set up lately as it turns out to be a lot of maintenance for little enjoyment. More thought needed but happy to park this for now to focus on the many other project cabs and have a nice working setup with a game that feels as good as the original!

One last thing that's still left to arrive is a small minor aesthetic, some special t-molding for the top part. It can be bought online still but was stupid expensive, should arrive over the next few weeks.

Yakboy

What a fabulous project...thanks for sharing. I am currently building up a GRS yoke to use with my PC so I can play Star Wars properly but the eventual aim is to build a Cockpit so your thread is essential reading. Any advice on sources of correct CAD files and .Stl files for the bezel surround would be gratefully recieved. I will be heading down the emulation route as I would like to play all the other Star Wars arcade games in the cockpit. I still remember spending all my holiday money in 1983 sitting in the cockpit arcade machine and no arcade game since has come close to the experience.

dav09

Hey! Apologies for the late reply, just seen you sent a message too. But yeah all the plans were on the Classicarcadecabinets site which has lots of CNC designs. Now, a word of warning, there were some small panels wrong here and actually I believe the original cabinets could be split in half (where as this is all in one due to the CNC). But it's about 90% correct and all of the major parts are all good. Just make sure you have some spare wood and a Jigsaw. The GRS Flight Yoke is a great investment, it's really fun and works well, nice weight to it too. Honest, happy to help with whatever you need, it's in storage in Limerick at the minute so if you wanted a look at it before you started let me know. It won't be cheap to build you're talking maybe 800-2k (incl the yoke) depending on what routes you go but emulation is definitely the way imo unless you really want the vector and the trouble. It's lots of fun and am delighted I finished the project, definitely happy I didn't sell off most of the collection and buy a real one as they'd have to be close to 7/8k now after import and customs now.

Some of the CAD files were custom files I designed for 3D printing i.e. the bezel and vents + a few bits. happy to provide them too for anything needed.

Yakboy

Thanks Dave for the reply, just trying to get everything together and also trying to find some mythical time to construct it. Looking forward to your video walkround

dav09

Finally pretty much done (again). Added on one or two finishing pieces that were sort of 'icing on the cake' more than necessary.

First off the roof. I made a home-made roof for it initially out of scrap polycarbonate. You can see it in the photos above in previous posts. It honestly didn't turn out great, didn't bend properly and wouldn't smoke properly. A first attempt at anything like that. Mine looked very average, out of my skillset for sure. But by stroke of luck someone started selling repros of the original. It makes a huge difference when you see it in person.

Also, you can see in the photo above you can see I added some t-molding to it. Apparently NOS parts and very specialised t-molding just for Star Wars Cockpits, very difficult to get and not cheap.

Both really put the finishing touches to the cabinet and make a big difference when looking at it to make it more original looking.