Reconstructing Street Fighter (original) Arcade Pneumatic Controls for a custom stick

Tech Talk
1

Hi,
I’ve been trying to get a unique custom stick project going for a while but due to the scarcity of information on the original SF arcade machines controls I am having trouble. I simply am looking to create as close a replica of the origainal “bash pads” as I can (as getting originals is impossible and even if I could I think they would be better served existing in an origianl cab) and setting them in a robust arcade stick case next to a regular arcade stick (which will not be sanwa, seimitsu or happ competition as I already have those in conventional sticks - I’ll probaly go with the happ perfect 360 as I’m curous about them).

I have managed to track down the patent information for the set up but with no more technical information it is proving difficult to get started. I have contacted the only person I can find who has a set of the original pneumatic controls but I fear he is unwilling to help possibly because he wants to protect to rarity of his aquisition. If I have no luck getting sufficient info to reconstruct the originals I will make a modern version that emulates the effect without having anything in common with the origianl parts. Does anyone know where I may be able to find information on the originals or have ideas for an alternative? Any one is free to contribute this and they will be given credit when I finally finnish the project.

Technical Considerations
-the original pad conveyed compressed air to a region of the pcb to be conveted into the desired signal. I would be making the pads talk to a MC CTHULHU board so I will be converting the pneumatic pressure before it gets to the board (unless I discover or are advised of a completely different solution)

-contructing custom parts will not be difficult so feel free to contribute novel design ideas that do not incorporate existing components

-there may already be analog\digital buttons with three zones (or more) of sensitivity large enough to be hit with a closed fist. If anyone knows of parts like this please let me know

Thanks for taking time to read and or consider suggestions for this project :slight_smile:

Anyone who wants images of the patent just let me know and I’ll email them in jpeg gif or psd format.

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Wow, I had never heard this before, I guess I learned something today:

http://www.arcade-museum.com/images/11/118124217352.jpg

Can you imagine??!! Instead of three buttons each for punch and kick, you had one BIG button, and whether you got L M or H depends on how hard you hit it??

I would have loved to have seen the face of the arcade operator when you explained this to them … :bgrin:

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Try doing Ultra Combos with those! It’d be nigh impossible, forget about Kara-cancels. :lol:

But to address the thread, couldn’t you fulfill the same deal with analog buttons? Granted, they aren’t quite pressure based, but I’d think that having different depths activate different attacks would serve similar purpose to pressure detection. Or maybe I’m wrong? Forgive me if so; this is a really cool project!

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Thanks for the replies ! :slight_smile: Yeah I’m probably going to have to resort to analog buttons. The issue is finding them big enough with suitable sensitivity levels (or modifying existing ones). It doesn’t matter if there is more than three zones (in fact it could be an advantage) because you can have several zones mapped to one attack level. Another solution would be to have the time of activation initiate the different attack strenghts. eg tap for light and hold down for strong but this would make input time for hard strikes too impracticle. I am not intending on using this for competition. I use a Mad CatZ TE for that, and it does the job perfectly. Its just a different project and offers a little more challenge than a regular custom stick. My kids would get a blast out of it too.

Lol, yeah kara cancels are out but ultras not necessarily so. If you have more than three zones a fourth can be used for all three strenghts. Time based inputs could use the same principle but it really isn’t intended for high level play. Once again thanks for the input