Bacteria's multi-console system project : UNITY

Interestingly, i'd checked out a Thesaurus for words that were similar to "Unity" or similar and it came up with Harmony. It's a good word although taking away its musical meaning, it's akin to systems integrated and talking in harmony rather than being something that universally would integrate. I'd thought of "Singularity" too however that would get references to a FPS game of the same name probably, although saying that, "Singularity" would tick some boxes; ie "the many into one".

I found a graphic for MegaPlay and adapted it and changed it, think it looks pretty good (and the cheesiness works IMO) - designing graphics isn't one of my strong points.


Wondering if that is the name to go for, views?

 

Hmmm. To me, "MegaPlay" loses much meaning other than "Play". What about something like "Play Array" or "Array Box".

 

I'm wondering if "Singularity" might be the best name after all; or some derivative of that?

 

Hmm... Unity 2?

Going back on what I said about MegaPlay. What about MegaBox? PlayBox? MegaPlayBox? PlayUnity? HarmonicUnity? Put a bunch of words in a hat and pull em out one by one until it makes a cool name? lol I dunno man.

 

PolyMono ? quite the opposite of monopoly (which literally means one with many). Polymono could be many in one?

 

What about "Legion" ?
It's a demon ; you can here about him in ShadowMan intro (you should have a look).
His words are pretty these :
"Call me Legion, for we are many".

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

Thing is "Unity" is the best word, I chose it well last time with "Project Unity". I guess therefore i'll call this system simply "Unity".

Looking at the connections in the system available, i'll have to make it as originally intended with the GameCube and PlayStation needing to use their own controllers, all systems up to N64 however will use the same master controller.

Had a good idea though for the master controller - the previous one I made for this project was the SuperPad 64 controller, which is an excellent controller and feels lovely to hold, however the d-pad isn't as good as on some other controllers, also the buttons are green, blue and four yellow, on other consoles of course buttons are different; eg SNES uses 4 colours and in different positions, etc. This means in a game, it may say "press blue button for..." which isn't great if the buttons are a different colour due to making a standard "one fits all" controller. What I will therefore do is to make an interchangeable section which clips into place, so each console can have its own, which pops into place on the controller to automatically change the colours of the buttons.

I thought I might modify a third party PlayStation type controller for this purpose; I have various ones in stock so will use one of those.

 

Stumbled on this great site for making logs with text:

http://cooltext.com/

Using that, made a pretty nice looking logo for the base unit:


...and first of several console systems:



Needed to be black background as that way I can cut it to size to mount onto the vinyl covering.

 

Although I decided to remake the master controller I had done before by making a better one, the control pins will run to the same connections and the same manner, which meant I could test the console system with the previous controller to check all works fine - it does.

Bought some self adhesive white matte vinyl inkjet compatible A4 printer paper for the decals, which should arrive in the next days, so I can print out the decals. This material is vinyl, as I am using for the system, so will be a far better match than using paper, self-adhesive so will stick evenly to the surface, and also claims non-smudge - which has been an issue with previous material I had tried.

 

The photo quality vinyl white matte self adhesive 110gsm printable material arrived, just printed out a sheet with the graphics for this project, result looks really nice, also as claimed, the result is smudge free unlike when using paper material.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WHITE-A4-...338?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e70b6b67a

 

Did the decals for the services area of the system. The decals for the consoles themselves look good however the larger one for the services area looks not so great with the black surround, so I cut out each letter and stuck them into place - now looks good!

 

I'm really liking this project. Just saying

 

Finished the service base unit and also the N64 section. Covered both with vinyl covering, screwed the tops down and used strips of the vinyl to cover the screw holes so looks integrated.

Next job is to make the new master controller...

 

This is how the Unity system will integrate with the lounge; under the 65" television; between the Blu-Ray player and Sky television box; looks pretty nice IMO.

On the middle section on the right part of the unit (which I also built a while back BTW), will be the consoles and some games when done; ie integrated.

Started work on the new master controller, cutting out the right side of the controller; this is how the controller looked originally - it's a USB controller not a PS2 one, going to be suitably modified though.

 

Did some modding work on the controller, cutting out the right joystick and button area as going to totally change it.
Got more preparation on the controller to do, sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding; painting.

 

Finished the controller casing and started the painting of it. It looks really nice even with only one coat as yet applied. Before painting, also installed the hole for the female parallel port which will interface to the base unit.

I haven't progressed with the video of the N64 and base unit as yet so may as well now wait until finished the controller, in order to make the video more content rich, whether I release the updates as one or two videos, not sure yet. Making good progress though.

 

Got the controller lovely and smooth, had intended to spray paint it however I now live in a flat not house, so far more hassle to do it than before, also i'd disposed of the aerosols I had before so would have had to get more. Decided therefore to paint the controller using enamel black gloss paint. The result of course isn't as smooth as spray paint however looks pretty good, went on quite easily and dried quickly. Going to leave it a day or two before handling it properly though so can completely dry as I put on a couple of fairly thick coats. My other motivation for not using spray paint, apart from being time intensive, is I don't usually get as good a result as i'd like; spray painting isn't my strong point, so may as well use paint!

The hole for the parallel female port is done and ready, so soldered some wires to it in preparation as when it is screwed into the casing it will be hard to get to the solder points otherwise.

Working out exact button placement. These buttons are ones I got from ebay a while back, so easy to get more. Idea is to make the button section removable so can personalise the button colours depending on the system being used, also if a system needs 6 buttons it can have, 6, if only needs 2 it only have 2. I shall probably hold each button assembly in place by 3 or 4 small rare earth magnets; so will stay in position yet be easy to remove. Working out the details and mechanics.

 

Just a suggestion ... instead of painting your controllers, you could try hydro dipping. There's a lot of different colors and patterns available. You get a real nice durable finish, better than paint. I have a couple of 360 controllers done in digital camo. There's a lot of YouTube videos on this process. You can hydro dip just about anything and kits are readily available online ...



By the way ... awesome job!

 

Interesting video if you bypass the fact the guy being a dork in places. Takes a fair bit of skill to get that as nice as that for sure, and my spray painting skills aren't good enough as I tend to put it on too thick. Love the effect it gets though.

I've worked out the button layout now so need to cut out the section from the controller and then use the large hole as a template for the button areas.

I don't believe anyone has done the technique I am doing before for controller buttons, which probably isn't surprising as before i'd made Project Unity no-one had made before a generic controller to work with the original game console hardware systems; so wouldn't have needed to.

I'll be documenting this as things progress of course.

 

Cut out the area on the controller and did a mock-up to check all will fit in nicely. The button layout for the below is of course for the N64, not only because it's the console i've completed for this project but also it's the only system apart from MegaDrive that uses 6 buttons. NeoGeo uses 4, SNES 4, NES 2, TurboGrafx 2, i'll be using up to 6 for Jaguar as defined buttons. Systems that use 2 buttons only i''ll probably us the positions in the below indicated by blue and either green or the bottom yellow. SNES can use the 4 yellow buttons for continuity. You get the idea!

The red button is start and black reset button; those can be mounted into the controller as do not need to be interchangeable.

The main button area i've made bigger in places so the styrene pieces will be strong also to give spaces for the magnet mounting.

Going to fine sand the cutout to make it as good as can, then use the hole for a template as it will be complete.