With the control panel finished, it’s time to move forward. The arcade base, a new challenge begins. The goal, build a sturdy foundation that capable of not only holding a lot of weight and not toppling over easily, but that’s also strong enough to transport without everything falling apart?
In a rush to complete the top, I hurry to order more pieces. However, this time, I plan to finally give it some wicked 80’s flare, azure-colored tiles!
The finish line is ahead and now it’s time to work upwards, towards the back of the control panel. Most of the challenges are finally behind me.
Figuring out how to mount the buttons was a huge step forward. Now I can start wiring up players 1 and 2, which will be a wiring nightmare.
This will cover the installation of the first joystick. I also install the first circuit board, using only LEGO® brick, not screws. This controls the directional movement allowed by the joystick.
Beginning the build is going to consist of a lot of LEGO® brick! So, I won’t go much into exactly what I order, as I’ll be ordering bits and pieces throughout this process. Instead, I’ll provide key points along the way as I attempt to build this massive structure.
Starting a project like this from a blank canvas might not seem very difficult, but where would one actually even start? Do I start just randomly sticking pieces together and see what works? But how do I know what pieces I need in the first place? Should I buy the hardware first? Oh yeah, then there’s the computer and software to get together too!
So this is still more of an introduction to the whole thing and sadly there really is much to show here in terms of picture or video. This is more about the early process of my thinking through things, seeing if what I was wanting to do was even plausible. I mean it is LEGO® brick right? Anything is possible! So, I’m going to try to keep this very “summary” oriented.
