usb joystick controller board button setup

All of the green pins are fair game for connecting buttons.

We have a nice assortment of arcade-style controls in the shop… Scrap plywood or a metal project box are viable materials (a cigar box works great too!), while a drill, hole saw, Dremel tool or wood rasp are all reasonable tools for making holes. I’m fortunate to have access to a laser cutter that can work with acrylic, but that’s a tall order for most. You’ll also need to build your control panel using the materials and tools best suited to your own skills. For everything else, you can still use a keyboard. Instead, pick a few favorites and devise a layout that handles the most frequently-used inputs well. There’s no One Right Way™ to arrange controls that can cover every game. This is where things take a creative turn. Making your own control box (or even a whole cabinet) is a satisfying DIY project! If the ready-mades meet your needs, fantastic. But maybe you want something simpler, or may have ergonomic preferences (I’ve always prefered right-handed joysticking, for example). They’re often a bit costly though…also, nearly all of them are laid out for 1990s fighting games.

Just as there are USB console-style controllers, so too are there USB arcade-style setups.

Let’s look at arcade-style controls first, since they’re physically larger and thus easier to work with…

Usb joystick controller board button setup