The STAR FORCE PI - Electronic Tabletop Mini-Arcade

Started by TrekMD, October 03, 2015, 14:48:52 PM

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starforcepilot

Alright, we've got a handle on construction cost now, and it is damn expensive to build something from the ground up! I mean, I knew it wasn't going to be cheap, but dayamn. Nevertheless, I've made a preliminary layout on how to finance the campaign, and keep this 199 euro cap in in place.

But this means that preliminary research & development is done, and it's looking good! We have a few things more to discuss, but I think we will be able to bring our development plan and project platform to KickStarter pretty soon. In the meantime; if you have arcade insights or feedback, we'd really appreciate it. We're bringing some very cool extra features to the system, so it's time to put your Xmas money aside to pledge for some Ultimate Arcade Gaming :P

TrekMD

So, you think you can pull it off for under your max price?

Going to the final frontier, gaming...


Greyfox

Only just seeing this thread now and reading through, truly incredible stuff here, a fantastic concept and design. I think you've cracked the gap in the Arcade market place, your packaging is spot on, your execution of delivery is that of a quality sales person. And I'm very sure ....no I'm positive this will be highly successful for you in what your attempting to deliver. Its perfect for an arcade lover in the office place, he can take this and play the classics on their lunch time, or someone wanting to have a blast at a classic in their lap. It's all good!!

If things fit into place for me in the next few weeks, you can guarantee my support and backing on this fantastic project.

Cheers :113:

zapiy

Quote from: "starforcepilot"Alright, we've got a handle on construction cost now, and it is damn expensive to build something from the ground up! I mean, I knew it wasn't going to be cheap, but dayamn. Nevertheless, I've made a preliminary layout on how to finance the campaign, and keep this 199 euro cap in in place.

But this means that preliminary research & development is done, and it's looking good! We have a few things more to discuss, but I think we will be able to bring our development plan and project platform to KickStarter pretty soon. In the meantime; if you have arcade insights or feedback, we'd really appreciate it. We're bringing some very cool extra features to the system, so it's time to put your Xmas money aside to pledge for some Ultimate Arcade Gaming :P

This is awesome news chap, whats the cool extra features?

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starforcepilot

TrekMD: it's actually more difficult than I thought, but I think we could offer the system in a few different variations, with 199 euro being the Core System as it were; no fancy packaging or pretty manuals, just a good, solid device. Then we move up a few tiers to a Custom Edition (choose your own colors) and Collectors Edition (limited edition, artwork, the whole fanfare). And, we'll probably also sell the Case & Arcade Shield loose to people that want to mod and design their own system, so that could work out a little cheaper for some people if they have parts laying around.

And I can't really tell much about the extra features, zapiy, as I still have to hear back of its feasability (don't want to promise something, and then go back on it), but one thing I am working on is a modular screen mount. With this, the user can open up the case and change the orientation of the screen, fixing it in vertical/tate or horizontal position. It's actually a relatively easy addition, but could be very meaningful for gamers.

Thanks for your response, Greyfox, it really cheered me up :) We'll do our best to get this thing out there, so stay tuned!

TrekMD

Hmm, at least if you go with KS you'll have the ability to offer additional packages for more money.  :)

Going to the final frontier, gaming...


starforcepilot

Exactly, case/arcade shield for the modder, core & custom SFP for the gamer, collector's edition SFP for the collector, that's the plan :)

dot.fyre

One of the best things I've seen for a long time.
I'll be honest, might be too expensive for a purchase but I do appreciate the time/costs involved.  :1:

starforcepilot

You're right, I'm a little bit concerned people might think it will be a bit too expensive as well, but we'll be offering base components as well. Then at least people that don't want an all in one system can just get the SFP case to build their own game device, or just buy the arcade shield and connect their own screen/speakers/rasPi/joystick/buttons etc. Hell, if you don't need the battery in there, and you have your own rasPi, that's 40-50 euro you've already saved. So we'll add some flexibility to the reward tiers, but our primary concern is an all-in-one gaming platform.

I've mentioned this on AtariAge as well, that I'm loosely designing the system along the lines of Gameboy creator Gunpei Yokoi's philosophy of Lateral Thinking of Withered Technology: 'take mature technology which is cheap and well understood, and find new ways of using it. Toys and games do not necessarily require cutting edge technology: novel and fun gameplay are more important'.  Hence the use of relatively cheap, replaceable, off-the-shelf components and building the case and arcade shield around it.

But yeah, developing stuff from the ground up is crazy expensive :P

zapiy

I have to say I am really impressed with your thinking here.. When do you envisage the KS going live?

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Papa

I've built several arcade cabinets (9 total) and modded a couple as well.  I would stay away from SFII in advertisement as it is a six button game (or more).  There are plenty of great (possibly better?) games out there that would shine on this system.  Neo Geo games are generally four buttons or less and that would be great.  A lot of their shooters are graphical powerhouses and would make the system look great.  Of course any popular old school console game is gonna be attractive to the retro enthused.  I don't think that a couple of hundred bucks is too much if the system is very high quality.  A couple of small arcade systems have come out lately to lackluster reviews.  One has very poor emulation (some games have no sound while others play poorly) and others lack the real hardware as they are usually just touchscreen adapters with controller software.  A great screen with real arcade controls would make all the difference.   :67:
And all the Who's down in Whoville will cry
"OH $#IT!"

starforcepilot

We're only going for a 4-button configuration, I played with the idea of adding perhaps two small buttons somewhere on there, but it'll just be cramped and unwieldly. As you mentioned, NeoGeo is primarily the system I used to model the SFP on, and I hope I can convince the people of NG:DEV-Team to license a Neo Geo game or two of theirs to us, but I haven't heard back from them yet. However, we'll add 6-button support to the internal Arcade shield that fits on top of the RasPi though, so people can buy it separately and use it for their own projects or mod their STARFORCE PI, or just mod and hack their own SFP to their liking. There should be quite a bit of versatility in the system, without needing to be too tech savvy.

The arcade controls are going to be good; they're components that come straight from a full sized arcade cabinet, so it's excellent, even in the first iteration of the SFP. With the video screen we have a problem: we can't get a decent 4:3 ratio screen for our system for less than 50 euro, and that's just too expensive. This ratio is just not popular anymore, so we have to be clever. Firstly, we're going with a 16:9 screen that's cheap, and configure the emulator suite we're using right now (PiPlay) to 4:3 ratio, running at 320x240 resolution. The unused part of the screen will likely have some light bleed through, giving these distracting black bars on the side. I hate these. So we'll cover them up with a 4:3 plastic window that sits on top of the screen. Secondly, the screen will be relatively deep behind the magnified window, and will be slightly tinted, so it deepens the black on the screen, without affecting the colors too much. The magnified, sunken effect also goes a long way with the arcade vibe, it's really a nice feature that seems slight, but during gameplay is very enjoyable.

But, as I mentioned before, if you're a purist, and you own or have built your own arcade, this may only be interesting due to its portability. I will announce the Kickstarter date on the 21st of October: when Marty McFly returns to us 

zapiy

Great stuff, I really hope you can get the NG:DEV guys on board, certainly be good be both parties.

Own: Jaguar, Lynx, Dreamcast, Saturn, MegaDrive, MegaCD, 32X, GameGear, PS3, PS, PSP, Wii, GameCube, N64, DS, GBA, GBC, GBP, GB,  Xbox, 3DO, CDi,  WonderSwan, WonderSwan Colour NGPC

Saturn

That is incredible and I'll be in for at least one, or even the kit if the max is exceeded.
Either way, count on my support 8)

starforcepilot

Excellent, cheers guys. I don't know if I mentioned this, but I'm working on building the screen mount in such a way, that users can open up the SFP and fix the screen into either vertical/tate or horizontal position, so topdown and side scrollers can be played in the correct orientation. Should be good!