The first design I came up with. My brother put this together for me using a left over PC case and parts he had laying around. I took this with me to SAAM Arcade in 2017. This event took place in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian Museum of Art.
Well. Today would have been the day I boarded my flight to Seattle for PAX West 2021. I mentioned in my last post that I was working towards making this “one to remember.” So here it is. My boy Matt over at Stronghold, the folks who have continued to include ADHD in their competition, has been one solid dude. It’s thanks to him, and my brother but more on that later, that I can write up this post. An Arcade Cab for ADHD is in the works and I was hoping to reveal it at PAX West 2021. That won’t be happening. The unveiling at least. That’s one of the many reasons I was extremely disappointed in having to cancel Ask An Enemy Studios’ presence.
My buddy Rob at Three Flip Studios got me started with his EXTREMELY helpful direction, words of encouragement, and what seemed like an unlimited list of resources for making arcade cabs. After all he and his team created one for their game Armed and Gelatinous which you should absolutely check out. There’s a demo available on Xbox, but you can also check out their Steam page.
I decided to go with a classic cab that I grew up playing megaton fucks of when I could find it at local arcades. That game? Defender. I always found this game intriguing based on it’s controls and gameplay. You couldn’t move left and right by traditional means. You could only “thrust” or go in “reverse.” My buddy Mo, of VertexPop, has come the closest to nailing this mechanic with his game Graceful Explosion Machine. I’m proud to call that guy my friend. So it’s only fitting that I pay homage to Defender’s weird control scheme with my own. Even if it’s a deep cut no one will ever notice.
What kind of kid who grew up like I did wouldn’t want an arcade cab of his own right? Well now add on top of that a custom arcade cab of a game that he created!!! That kid would absolutely shat, and shatted I have. It just turns out that my brother happened to start up his own fabrication company right at the time that I needed his help the most. If it weren’t for him and Matt this thing would absolutely not exist. At least not in this time frame. It’s still not 100% complete, but I’m heading over to his place today to start fine tuning the control layout. Which has gone through multiple iterations. After so many it suddenly clicked that I should go with what felt like “keyboard and mouse” controls.
The current layout as it stands. The trackball casing is actually a fucking beast which required some “modifications” to allow for the rest of the buttons to fit this specific layout. No artwork yet. That’s…in the making ;)
The HR-D’s layout is very reminiscent of what the KB layout is like. For those familiar, imagine WASD controls with Left Shift, and Spacebar as the main components. While the DF-R uses a trackball for movement, and your index, middle, and ring finger for the rest of it’s layout. The “gimmicky” thing I wanted to go for was in the layout for Extraction. I felt like having the Assault and Recovery Extract buttons at the top of the cab by the marquee would be soooo stupid it would be cool. Remove your hands from the controls and raise them up in the air all Fred Durst style and EXTRACT!! That was dumb. Primarily though because my brother came up with the genius idea of allowing the control panel to be removed in case I needed to, or was only able to, take it with me to shows. If the cab itself became a hindrance at the very least the control panel is always available for travel. I’ve yet to see how he plans to implement this, but I have no doubts he can do it.
It’s still a work in progress and the artwork of course is missing, but man is it going to look fucking unbelievable once it’s done. I’m hoping, with my fingers crossed so tight, I might just lose ‘em, that PAX South 2022 is a go! If so that might just be the first place anyone gets to see it, and most importantly play it. In the meantime I still have some work to do, because believe me as fucking rad as this thing is I’m extremely excited and hella looking forward to the next project.
<3 Jaycee