Step One is complete. Though it was fraught with delays (such as waiting overnight for a new cordless drill to charge), I've completed a standalone arcade spinner control for Karen, so she can now play Tempest to her heart's content — and it also acted as my gauge for whether or not I'd have the skills to build a MAME cabinet.

For although no actual woodworking was involved, the idea of building a precision controller device out of common hardware supplies and a cannibalized mouse was probably the scariest part of the whole cabinet project.

The hardware was the easy part. I did as much drilling through metal as I could using an old-fashioned hand drill, but then I needed to stop work overnight to charge the cordless drill's batteries because the 3/4" hole saw just wasn't working on the hand drill. A few nuts and bolts, a couple of tie plates, a patio door bearing, a PVC test cap, a junction-box cover and a rubber wheel later, and I had the mechanical part of the spinner finished. I bought a cheap mouse and threw away everything but the innards and the cable. I decided to add two arcade buttons to the spinner, so I used a larger project box than the plans called for, and I desoldered not only the horizontal optical components from the mouse's circuit board, but the button switches as well.

The arcade buttons went in easily. The optical sensors were a pain in the ass; for not only did I have to solder them onto a custom PCB, I had to also run wires to their original locations on the mouse's PCB. The fourth time was the charm. The first time, one of the copper traces on the custom PCB came off. The second time, I got everything soldered perfectly, and then the custom PCB snapped when I tried to enlarge its bracket's mounting hole. The third time, another copper trace came off. But the fourth time, everything went swimmingly.

It works like a dream; there's no stutter in the movement, and it feels great. I tried it out on Tempest, and with my first game I more than doubled my previous high score. Having the right controller really does help, I guess.

So... the big experiment succeeded, and I'm confident enough to start laying out my first control panel design.