As promised... *drumroll*
Some technical highlights:
1. Its no-holds-barred audio system—featuring the Allo Volt+, Khadas Tone Board and Markaudio CHR-70–produces distortion-free, crystal clear sound! Yes, to the discerning objectivist audio enthusiast, I admit the speakers are in a downward-facing off-axis position (as is tradition for arcade cabinets) and the cabinet is also untreated which contributes to
some internal reverberations. But taking off my audio enthusiast hat for a brief moment and recognizing the realities of the arcade market, this audio system is a colossal improvement over any normal arcade cabinet’s sound system ($2000+ custom luxury models included) that you would encounter that are muffled sounding and lacking in detail.
2. a. The cabinet’s panel controls are fully XInput compliant meaning they are detected or seen by games and emulators as Xbox controllers by way of x360ce, a free and open source middleware solution. The cabinet controls—two fully analog joysticks and 21 pushbuttons—are automagically merged together from DirectInput sources and are translated into the modern standard XInput protocol via x360ce. x360ce also allows me to power on my previously paired wireless Bluetooth controllers (8BitDo Sn30 Pro+) for either the player 1 or 2, and are then merged instantly with the cabinet controls so both the arcade controls and the gamepads can be used together all at the same time. Also important, to prevent the physical controllers from being detected twice as both an Xbox controller and a standard DirectInput controller, the source DirectInput devices are hidden from the system and all other programs except x360ce with a tool called HidGuardian, which will soon be superseded by HidHide.
b. Each of the 21
Industrias Lorenzo Translucent Concave Long Stem Pushbuttons has
a fully and independently addressable RGB LED lighting unit that was custom manufactured by Paradise Arcade Shop who specializes in arcade RGB lighting solutions. All 21 of these pushbuttons’ RGB LED arrays are in turn connected to and powered by an Ultimarc PacLED64 LED controller, which is in turn managed and programmed by LEDBlinky, an LED control program released in 2007 that is still actively supported to this day.
c. Two Ultimarc Ultrastik 360 analog joysticks feature a revolutionary magnetic-based system totally free of any mechanical contacts or switches for significantly longer endurance and resilience.
3. The main display is the
Magedok T156G, a 15.6” LCD monitor that is lavishly high-end by most every standard imaginable. The T156G is impeccable 4K/UHD resolution with rich 1400:1 contrast ratio and full coverage of the Adobe RGB color gamut, as well as 10-point touch-sensitive input for touchscreen-capable games and applications.
4. The marquee display is the Toshiba Matsushita LTA149B780F, a one-of-a-kind 14.9” dynamic LCD monitor for displaying live interactive content. It was installed with a lightly modified PixelcadeLCD DIY kit. The LTA149B780F can show the relevant marquee banner artwork for an arcade or video game or a virtual pinball table’s backglass display panel.