Best products from r/cade

Just some general input.

For a design style I really like the Viewlix.
http://www.donovanmyers.com/ Has got a whole blog on the builds hes done including detailed pdf plans.
It looks fantastic. Works with a 32 tv you can get for 200 bucks and its just awesome to look at.
He has a great video series on youtube.

If you do not have a woodworking shop, and are building on a budget I do not recommend the build it yourself model. You will spend more in tools/materials/painting supplies then if you bought one done by a professional like kraylix http://www.kraylixarcade.com/kraylix%20V4_2PLAYER.html or shameless plug myself. I build the same kit as kraylix but a couple hundred cheaper.

If you don't like the viewlix style and feel its out of your budget most cabinet builders myself included will sell 2 player bartop kits finished or unfinished or a myriad of other styles. Buy unfinished if you think you have the paint skills but personal caveat. I did a couple of cabs with rattle cans or rollers, and eventually it saved me more money to outsource painting to a neighbor that's a professional. Hes got 6000 dollars worth of spray guns, compressors, and years more experience then me. So I get a better finish, have to buy less material, and its honestly a savings. Practical choice unless you just like the DIY mode of it.

If you go the build it yourself route I would recommend finding a makerspace in your area or making friends with someone who has a stocked garage. At minimum you need Circ Saw, Router, assorted router bits , Drill Press, Assorted Fostner bits, drill. Thats just for cutting and fitting. Same for paint, if you build or buy an unfinished kit find a local cabinet painter. They will usually do a better job then you can and for less when you really do the math. For example price out, Rollers, paint, primer, wood filler, acetone, thinner, rattlecans, tape, sandpaper grit 80-220 , handheld orbital sander, clear coat, polishing compound, tacky pads, plastic sheeting. I do all my sanding and prep work and pay my painter a steal of a price. Mostly because he has all the materials in stock except obscure paint colors I use but he gets the stuff in bulk.

Now for the brain and your list of options.

Full Factor PC - cost roughly 200+ which looks like the route your going. Great option lots of benefits like using an easy to configure Front End. Something like Hyperspin, Big Blue or Mala looks great but there is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to getting them right. There are some games you will find it harder to emulate. Console only titles (Marvel vs Capcom 3) but you still have a wide access to a great list of games and some clean looking front ends. Drawbacks I would say are minimal but are there. As I said you wont have support for any console only games. Marvel vs Capcom 3, Blaz Blue, Certain Mortal Kombats, skullgirls etc. Also what I have found with setting up front ends for PC's is that man is it a pain in the ass to get the Button configs right. Things like soft2key or keypress, added with having to define complicated button config management in the front ends, and the nightmare of driver support, plus if anything changes in where the USBs plug in can mess stuff up. I personally have been leaning more to softmodded consoles as you do not have to touch a single button config, and if you need to remap you can do that in the emulator itself or in game. Super Easy and one of those things you should not overlook.

Pi like build. So you can pick up a pi for sub 40 dollars, And there are some nice alternatives. Banana pi is a bit more expensive but where a Raspi will not emulate n64 or sony playstation games or anything above that a Banana Pi will get the job done but barely. There is also a 85 buck cube itx thing I cant recall the name of right now but it will take raspi images. So price is a benefit but you have some disadvantages. You will need to do lots of reading on documentation and learn a bit of linux. Everything lies around RetroPie images, emulation station. OR an XMBC like OS. Linux has less driver support for certain pcb controllers even I have not been able to get all the compatibility testing done. So where you save on price you lose on some power, the added headroom of having to learn a lot more about something that's not super easy to learn. But the size, and ease of cooling the small factor dev boards is nice because getting two 80MM fans and integrating them into the cab if your going to have anything else is needed.

Modded-Console- Estimated cost 250 On craigslist you should be able to pick up a ps3 for 150 or less. Maybe you even have one laying around to donate to the project. Your looking for something with 3.55 ofw firmware or less ideally. Those are super easy to softmod. Now they have a decent HD already but you'll likely want to pick up a bigger internal hard drive like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178381&ignorebbr=1&cm_re=ppssGamingHDD-_-22-178-381-_-Product Reason I suggest that one it's the right size, hybrid so it runs cooler and depending on the system heat could be an issue, and its got some space to it. 1TB is not a lot when you start stacking crap ton of PS3 games. Since its hidden away you could probably put any standard sata 5400 rpm high capacity drive, but anything other then a hybrid cool running one and youll want to route the sata and power cable out of the box and just mount the HD in the cab near the PS3. I suggest internal drive over external because there cheaper, and you have to use fat32 with an external drive so only up to 2tb (The internal drive gets specially formatted by the PS3 so you have more room for space) and because of how certain larger game file games are split. You cant have a single file on a fat32 filesystem larger then 4GB and thats only a problem youd have on an external not an internal. Pretty much all the same for the Xbox 360 maybe a bit harder to find a chip modder in your area. I kind of prefer ps3/xbox360 in the terms of a cab because the PCBs for a ps3 are cheaper, I like Final Fantasy games, and easier to mod myself I dont have to send them out to a modder. Now if you get a PS3 that has later then 3.55 ofw send it to this guy, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Indianamodscom/311503718865210?ref=profile hell downgrade it, clean it, throw in your new HD softmod it and ship it back to you. If you want to buy one of my pre-modded ps3's with games loaded shoot me a pm. So the benefits of the console system is access to a larger amount of games, easier configuration of the front end, easier controller configuration, and if you have a 2 player cab but want to play a 4 player game you can just add in 2 PS3 controllers. So easily my favorite option and what I push my customers towards usually.

You need PCB's for getting your joystick and buttons to whichever brain you use.

If you go with a PC cheapest and best option is. http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Zero-Delay-Arcade-USB-Encoder-PC-to-joystick-for-MAME-Fight-Stick-Controls-/171017609206?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27d1719ff6
Super easy to wire, works well with pc's not so great with anything else. It will work on a PS3 but its missing the guide button so pretty useless. Its only 10 bucks though and comes with USB cable and everything you need to wire it in. All the zero delay options save you money in the long run of having all the cabling usb, wire connects, terminals with it. Getting the wiring, disconnects, usb cable could easily set you back 25 bucks depending on another PCB style.

If your dying for LED light up buttons but dont want to spend upwards of another 100 bucks in parts for it go with
http://www.ebay.com/itm/REYANN-ZERO-DELAY-ARCADE-LED-USB-ENCODER-FOR-ARCADE-MAME-GAME-SUPPORT-LED-DIY-/261328773546?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cd868a1aa

Which is a zero delay board with support for self contained led buttons like http://www.amazon.com/Red-Convex-Lighted-Arcade-Pushbutton/dp/B00CK6D39C/ref=sr_1_6?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1404716834&sr=1-6&keywords=LED+pushbutton

Benefits super cheap and easy way to get LED lighted buttons. Disadvantages the button is nice but not super high quality. Granted unless your like a huge arcade jockey hard to tell the difference, but you can negate it by getting cherry arcade switches and swapping them out. http://www.focusattack.com/cherry-d44x-75g-187-microswitch/ is a good source for those.

Skip fake coin door with buttons, just do a real coin door at that point. Easy to wire one up to an ipac or similar depending on what you are doing for an encoder. If you don't want to do the real coin door, you can also just put a yellow button next to each players start button for coin.

Pause, reset, and menu shouldn't have there own buttons. They can be done with shift keys and would be much cleaner looking. For example, holding 1 player start and pressing player 2 start can exit a game. Then you can have holding player 1 start and pulling down on the stick can pause. Reset is so rarely needed that you wouldn't want a button for it, but it is easy enough to add a shift key for it if you would like.

I've played a lot of video pinball, and I do enjoy it for the most part. I have been spoiled by playing it on setups designed exclusively for it however. Virtual pinball really needs to played on a big vertically oriented screen to get the right effect. Any real pinball machine completely outclasses virtual so just be aware that those are easy enough to find. With those things in mind I would say skip the pinball stuff for now.

How you want to do your sound setup will best determine how to deal with volume. Some folk use an amp and home theater rear speakers, or car audio speakers. If you were to go that route I would say just hide the actual knob somewhere that is easy to access. Maybe up near the power switch that you would want to mount near the top right side of the machine, above and behind the marquee. Some decent 2.1 pc speakers come with a volume knob that could easily be mounted in that spot as well. If you are determined to do it in software, you can use shift keys as mentioned earlier.

Here is the controversial opinion: Don't bother 6 buttons per player. I find that while many of those 6 button fighting games are great, they just don't get played enough to warrant all of those buttons. If you need to scratch that fighting game itch you can go with something Neo Geo, like Last Blade 2, Samurai Showdown 2, or Garou. All of which are amazing games by the way.

I would also say don't bother with a keyboard and mouse tray. Just adds another level on complexity that isn't needed. Just use a wireless mouse keyboard combo and throw it on top of the cab when you aren't using it. I personally use one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B9996LA/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

TL;DR Less is more

I think I get what you are trying to do here, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. So you want to run a pi more or less with arcade controllers? If that's the case, I think you are really going the long way around for no real reason.

The video you linked is for a switch, which makes sense to me, if you wanted arcade controls to play on a nintendo switch, I don't know much about the switch but I'm assuming hacking up a controller like that is the only option as of now.

Getting back to the pi, there's no reaaaalllll reason I can think of to hack up a controller. It's just going to be messy and lot of soldering and time for no real reason. I think you would be far better off buying an encoder and saving yourself some headache.

to try an simplify, let's say you have a pi (or computer) running whatever arcade game you want, and you have a keyboard hooked up to play it. You press "w" to go forward, "s" to go back, etc etc doesn't matter. If you have just a normal keyboard there's a board inside of it called an encoder, its what figures out if you pressed 'w' or 's' or whatever else key you did.

Now if you have a computer/pi that works with a keyboard (more or less anything computer based will outside of a nintendo switch or other custom hacks) you need want to have a joystick and buttons, not a keyboard yes? This is where buying just the encoder part comes in. Imagine you had that part, but instead of going to a keyboard with the letter 'w' it went to the 'up' on player 1 joystick. End of the day, it's all just buttons, the computer doesn't care if it's a joystick, 30mm button, or a 'w' key on the keyboard, it's all the same.

What you're proposing to do, isn't impossible by any means, but doesn't make a lot of sense. Yes you can take apart controllers and solder to the contacts to make new buttons, but that's a lot of work, time, and soldering, a keyboard encoder can be bought for like $10usd and damn near be plug and play.

I would suggest looking into something like the Zero Delay USB encoder: https://www.amazon.com/Reyann-Arcade-Encoder-Joystick-Fighting/dp/B00UUROWWK

You take that piece, it even comes with wires, plug the usb cord into that PCB, plug the wires into the PCB then into each button / joystick you have, plug that into the pi, and you're more or less ready to go. I have over simplified this to some extent, but honestly I think that's going to be a much better route to go than hacking up gamepads.

Here is something really basic to visually see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQh3xrT_47A

I would suggest just spending a night youtubing what you can to get better perspective as to what you're doing.

Ah, so my hunch was right, that 8-way joysticks simply are designed so they ground out two switches at the same time? That's good. I suppose that means all I need is to find one that fits in my cabinet.

Do you have a link to your joystick? I found plenty of adjustable 2/4/8 or 4/8 joysticks but none of them can be done on the fly like you described. I'd love to have one I can swap between 4 and 8 on the fly.

Also for reference, this is the OEM joystick my cab has;

https://www.namcoparts.com/ECommerce/product/vg80-03212-10/joystick-4-way-red-knob

It appears most joysticks I find look like this, eyeballing it the holes look similar enough, but I'll have to take measurements;

https://www.amazon.com/BLEE-Adjustable-Arcade-Joystick-Fighting/dp/B01N3XBYJK/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=adjustable+8+way+joystick&qid=1571556915&sr=8-5

I bought a real Pandora’s box 6. You can add ROMs to it. I found a set called Community Edition. It added like 1300 new ones along with video previews.
I’m happy with my device.
I bought the 8 button edition. I’d recommend getting the 6 button version u less you want to use it as a joystick.
Here is a link to what I bought from Amazon:
Wisamic Real Pandora's Box 6 Arcade Game Console - Add Additional Games, Support 3D Games, with Full HD, Games Classification, Upgraded CPU, Support PS3 PC TV 2 Players, No Games Included (8 Buttons) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H96KPPH/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_lyYzDbA10M1B0

Let me expand on Haruman's answer here.

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You can drive an arcade monitor via a VGA port on SOME cards, but it will take some patience, some configuration,special drivers, and some time -- and a lot of research so you don't electrocute yourself.

http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?id=295

Get yourself a compatible graphics card, download crt_emudriver -- For arcade games, you're going to use groovymame. For other emulators, you'll have to look up how to configure 15khz mode.

​

To hook up to the arcade monitor, you're going to need something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Twinkle-Bay-Terminal-Breakout-Connector/dp/B07F9QFMKN/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=vga+female+breakout+case&qid=1564493341&s=electronics&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1

And you'll wire up the R, G, B, H AND/OR VSync and GND to a connector that will wire up to the monitor chassis you have pictured above..

https://i.stack.imgur.com/DtrXl.gif

--- Good Luck.

Very nice looking. Thanks for the image reference. I agree vinyl is definitely the way to go.

Looking around I found this thread where a guy put the labels on top of the buttons.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=153964.0

I'm going to buy some vinyl sheets from amazon

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00NMCU9ZO/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_GidVDbSM0AQ6N

and see how it works out.

Question would be cost, honestly that's an extremely old PC in a shell built to run what is probably a modded version of MAME, not that this is a bad thing if you are not computer/mechanically inclined, but I am guessing for the price and some work on your part you could build a MAME box from an old i5 business machine that would work just as well if not better. the Jamma adapter is a nice touch though, and I am sure the system has a video card designed for use with an arcade CRT, so there is that... A Pandora's box 5 or 6 would probably do the job for you too somethign like this: https://www.amazon.com/Pandoras-Multi-Jamma-Board-Output/dp/B07FBCD9N6/ref=sr_1_30?ie=UTF8&qid=1537196047&sr=8-30&keywords=pandoras+box+jamma

Those holes in the front drove me nuts!

I put a USB extender in where the hole was (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MY1WDIU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) had to expand it a bit with a rotary tool) but I just covered up the rectangle with the graphics I ordered from Game Room Solutions as I couldn't find anything that really fit.

I did something like this for power: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Vhkgq4JEg and just have my PC set to boot automatically upon power restoration in my BIOS settings. As soon as my master switch is turned on in the back, it boots up.

I also have hot keys setup to put the PC to sleep and wake. I'm using an iPAC Ultimate so it sort of had those built in, I think the Mini-iPacs can do the same thing though.

It was a pain to put together for sure but well worth it.

You can make one with a desk, a chair, a steering wheel and screens for pretty cheap with one of these from amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Mount-Freestanding-Compatible-MI-2789-Horizontal/dp/B01HSJX1FG

If you are modest about it you can get some 22 inch screens used for pretty cheap.

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A three screen setup works great on gran turismo 4 on ps2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHM42OcnX_E

3 ps2s and 3 games required on network setup.

Yup, I have 2 speakers that I have plugged into my Raspberry Pi 3. I didn't use any type of AMP, I find it sounds really good already. I used Retropie for the games, it was actually pretty easy to use.

Here are the some of the things I bought:

Raspberry Pi 3 - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01M5AGSGN/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Speakers - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B003JTHO3U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Speaker Cover - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B076CN6256/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Buttons - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01M7R7YW3/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

SD Card - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B073JYVKNX/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

SD Card Adaptor - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01MSL6KJ4/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cooling Fan - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00G059G86/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I had the same problem with my Alpha Cade joysticks. I ended up just gutting the whole thing and replaced the controller board with two of these...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C5J5AJO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It was super easy there is really nothing to it. I followed ETA Primes tutorial here.

https://youtu.be/Bs78q_JCnZ0

Just make sure you wire both controllers to the same buttons on both boards cuz retropie will override the button configs cuz both boards will be using the same button configurations.

​

Other than that I am really happy with my Alpha Cade. The sticks turned me into a happ convert (been using sanwa jlfs).

Would love a solid lead on a FULL replacement monitor for my cabinet. As in everything I need to connect it up and be done with it (obviously fitment/bezel work is on me). I tried that rabbit hole probably a year ago and it was filled with $300~$400 solutions and too many maybes, shoulds, and mights for me to drop that kind of cash. I did recently see a board on amazon that may do this magic, but "may" is just maybe again:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IBJCAIG?pf_rd_p=183f5289-9dc0-416f-942e-e8f213ef368b&pf_rd_r=HQ0ZRBN7A45B06ZMATEH
The Street fighter cab around me is working and only $300... But I honestly would still prefer a straight monitor swap if it's reasonable.

Super possible. Any controller is just a series of push switches, which are relatively easy to rewire. However, if you're not experienced with soldering and basic wiring, you should really be looking at encoders built for your specific purposes, as they will save you a few hours of button-mapping and soldering.

this is a cheap, high quality option.

Hmmm...I think I might go with Pandora; the games are all easily loaded on, it comes in a single package, and the emulation seems decent. Yeah, it might be a little lazy, especially since I already have a couple ROMS on my computer, but it's convenient. :D Plus, I found this on Amazon, which I've verified IS a legit 3-A device, and I can get it without the ridiculous shipping. XD

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H96KPPH?pf_rd_p=183f5289-9dc0-416f-942e-e8f213ef368b&pf_rd_r=JHE80BZQGB31HR00YFME

I'm not the one who's confused. Here is another picture of that style trackball. https://www.amazon.com/Happ-Trackball-Diameter-White-56-5500-11/dp/B07D6W4JRQ/ The wire harness on it looks like this. https://www.amazon.com/d/Grown-Up-Toys/Jamma-Replacement-Wiring-Harness-Trackball/B00F1YQHMK The optic sensor boards are what the wire harness is plugged into on the trackball (you can see the wires going into a connector and another bundle of wires going to the other end of the trackball.)

You can also use a wire harness that looks like this. https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Market-Trackball-Interface-Compatible/dp/B07HQ693PP/ Although I'm pretty sure the pinout on that specific one would be wrong for an I-PAC, it looks like it'd be easy to fix. If I was the OP, I'd email Andy and ask what he needs to make what he has work.

Thanks! I normally use BING so I will see if google can provide better results. This is the first results..

​

https://www.amazon.com/Easyget-Encoder-Joystick-Illuminated-Buttons/dp/B00WAY9848

​

I am looking for just the led not the whole kit.

​

back to BING i guess. Thank you!!

I bought a pair of these: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B001RNNX8K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_bzVDzbKZAHRXN

And something like this: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00T9DX538/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_tAVDzbFYVYR9R

Then covered them with speaker grills.

Works really well and gets decent sound while not costing too much money and it was way easier to setup than tearing apart old computer speakers.

I never put in a sub nor did I fully think it was worthwhile.

I think you're on track! I used to buy the encoder separately from all the buttons and joysticks, but now there are a lot of options for bundles. I just finished my first bartop (my 4th machine overall). That was also my first pi. That pi bundle came with usb controllers, so that's what I used in that cab for now. May switch out later.

I'm building a small console machine now, and this is what I bought off Amazon. The little easy-get kits, with the zero-delay usb encoders. I've used the zero delay encoders before, and they are a great cheap alternative to the $30/$40 encoders.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WAY9848/ref


The 4.3mm and 6.8mm reference, was that in reference to the dimensions of the cherry switch? That is too large to be in reference to "how far button travels before triggering the switch".

Sometimes there is also a measurement on how much presssure takes to activate the switch. This amount of pressure can make it feel more/less realistic to an original arcade machine. My unskilled fingers cannot tell the difference...

The older dell soundbars that attached under monitors had decent sound. I had used one on my old bartop. New ones don't have AC adapter like the old ones. Run off USB power.

Otherwise it's an amp and speakers like these. I used these in my full size arcade build:
4in Speakers and


Amp

X-input is definitely the way to go. The question you need to ask, will you be adding any consoles to the build, like a ps4? If so, you'll want a PS4 fighting board+ https://paradisearcadeshop.com/en/home/electrical/pcbs-lighting/pcbs-for-controllers/brook-pcbs/2450_brook-ps3-ps4-fighting-board-plus

​

This will support ps3, ps4 and pc.

​

If you are only going the pc route, you can just use these zero delay usb boards https://www.amazon.com/Reyann-Arcade-Encoder-Joystick-Fighting/dp/B00UUROWWK

​

Or you can use the Xin-mo boards

​

http://www.xin-mo.com/dual_player.html

​

​

From personal Experience, you cant beat Brook boards. It's true X input. I think the zero delay boards emulate a keyboard? Im not sure. And Xin-mo, I also brought up as I hear people use those as well. But I never hear bad things about them for mame setups.

​

Im always weary of keyboard emulation, my personal thing. Thats why I go with brook.

OK so you need:

1. JAMMA harness (https://www.amazon.com/Standard-Cabinet-Wiring-Harness-Multigame/dp/B019OIY3CE)
   
2. 2x Player 3 and 4 harness (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Konami-3-4-Player-Auxiliary-Kick-Harness-Arcade-Turtles-Simpsons-Xmen/292802670868)
   
3. Switching Power Supply (https://www.amazon.com/WINIT-Switching-Cabinets-Upright-Cocktail/dp/B01C5E8W3K)
   
4. Video converter (https://www.amazon.com/Paddsun-Converter-Output-Monitor-GBS-8200/dp/B01IBJCAIG)
   
5. Joysticks (4), buttons (8) and buttons to trigger coin-ups unless you do the free-play ROM hack (TMNT doesn't have free play built in).
   
   Audio is going to be up to you based on what you're trying to hook up monitor wise.
   
   

I used this kit from Amazon. The keycaps are removable to add button art and they light when pressed or can be wired to stay lit all the time. Works great and i've not had any lag issues or any other problems. https://www.amazon.com/Easyget-Encoder-Joystick-Illuminated-Buttons/dp/B00WAY9848

This is what I purchased: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WAY9848/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm also just nervous about splicing the Jamma wires, I really liked the well labeled Jamma harness a didn't want to have to wait to get another one if I screw it up royally.

Something like this look good?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UUROWWK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_sLxJAbY7XNH6S

Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Reyann-Arcade-Encoder-Joystick-Fighting/dp/B00UUROWWK

Wire it like this on the joystick. One on the NO terminal and one on the ground terminal. You may need to replace the spade connectors on wires that came with the usb boards with bigger ones. I literally just did this today to attach my new joysticks. I got a couple of packs of these from home depot and clipped off the old ones, stripped it, then crimped the new ones onto the wires. Okay, that's the joystick side. On the boards, look at the bottom photo on the amazon listing. See where it says up down right left? That's where you plug in the joystick. Remember that the directions are opposite on the under side of the stick, but (I THINK) that shouldn't matter since you can map it in retropie anyway. Let me know if that works for you.

As requested:


Bartop kit - $139.99 link


Buttons - $66 link


Raspberry Pi 3 - $35 link


Raspberry Pi Case - $7.95 link


Power Recpetical - $5.99 link


USB Hub - $11.99 - linl


Zip Ties for cable management - $5.98 - link


External USB Ports - $11.90 link


Velcro Pads for mounting speakers and Raspberry Pi case - $2.98 link


64 gb SD Card - $24.88 link


HDMI to VGA adapter - $7.99 link


20 ft of 3/4 inch t-molding - $6.99 link


Total cost so far including shipping - $361.13

sorry, it is sold under a lot of brand names, but they all look the same. it's this one

I had pretty much the same problem in my build where I ran out of buttons on my IPAC4 and only needed a few more.

I bought the Zero Delay USB Encoder and was able to map my 3 admin buttons with little effort: Exit (Esc), Enter (Enter) and Pause (Numpad+)