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CONSTRUCTION
NOTES:
(Last Updated 12/27/09)
Our design is an
exact replica of the original unit produced by Atari for use
in their Star Wars game in 1983 and later used in Return of the Jedi
in 1984, Firefox in 1984 and Empire Strikes Back in 1985. It
was also used by other arcade manufacturers for the following
games: Turbo Sub by Entertainment Sciences in 1985, Lock On by
Nihon Bussan in 1986 and Apache 3 by Tatsumi in 1988. Atari
also used similar controllers in various games they produced over
the years. In 1987, Atari produced a game called "RoadBlasters"
and this game used a controller which was somewhat similar to the
Star Wars controller. Aside from the obvious glaring
differences, this controller had no y-axis movement at all.
Additionally, unlike every other incarnation of the SW controller,
the RoadBlasters controller had an optical encoder board for the
x-axis movement, instead of analog potentiometers. In 1989,
Atari produced a game called S.T.U.N. Runner and in 1990 a game
called Hydra. Each of them used a modified version of the Star
Wars controller which had different grips and limited Y-axis
movement. With the addition of a spring and the removal of a
stop plate, this controller will function exactly like the original
SW controller. Furthermore, replacement of the handles and
their internal components will essentially make this controller
physically identical to the SW controller.
This
by far has been the most interesting reproduction project to
date. It took many parts from many companies across a wide
range of industries to assemble a beast like this one.
Overall, it's a fairly straight-forward design, but the highly
custom gears were an immediate concern before we even began
production.
Early
on, the gears were thought to have been the only serious concern throughout the production of this
controller. We finally managed to get the price point down
to a manageable level by creating our own tooling for the gears,
which saved us roughly $15K per tooling ($45K!). We placed
the order for the gears and received them in record time. All
of the gears are made from injection molded Delrin which is a modern
day plastic, considered to be an upgrade to the original Nylon
material which commonly used. The hubs are machined aluminum
components which are an exact match for the original hubs used by
Atari. Additionally, our version of the smallest (14-tooth)
gear is considered to be an upgrade to the original and should not
fail as easily as the original does. We took our time with
this one in an effort to correct an obvious flaw with the original
controller.
The
thumb buttons and triggers were manufactured from aluminum and hard
black anodized. The handles were also going to be manufactured from solid
aluminum (not die cast) and hard black anodized, but the plans
changed somewhere near the end of the production phase.
Machining the handles from aluminum proved to be difficult, netting
a part that wasn't quite close enough in look to the original
part. After several prototypes were rejected, it was decided
to go to a casting process. We have in our possession the
original molds used by Atari, so casting seemed like an obvious
choice once we abandoned the idea of machining the handles.
Because of this, we had within our capacity to run off
the handles using the same exact process as the originals, using the
exact same materials. Using the original materials resulted in
a
part that wasn't adequate enough with regard to strength. The
original die cast part was prone to breaking, cracking and failing
due to the nature of die cast components. Many improvements
have been made with regard to the options available for the casting
process since the days of Atari. Namely, the wide range of
materials which can be used to cast the part and the overall
tolerances achieved during the process. Obviously, we opted
for a better casting method, using a much stronger aluminum
alloy. With that said, the handles,
buttons and triggers are all upgraded and inherently more durable
than the original parts.
We
had a rough
(and we mean VERY rough) prototype unit assembled early on for fine tuning of
all the individual components. Surprisingly, the prototype
parts were dead-on, so construction was a breeze. Our
prototype unit looks and functions identical to the original
flight controller and no faults in design were observed at this
point in time. Everything appears to be acceptable, so we've
made minor changes to perfect the assembly and await our next article
inspection.
Amusingly enough,
the 3-conductor wire used in the original controller was another
concern we were trying to resolve. An exact match for the wire
has proven to be quite difficult, but we didn't give up. Who ever thought wire
would hold up a project? None of us, that's for sure!
After searching high and low for the exact wire Atari used, we
figured out that it just wasn't going to happen. Why would we
want to use the exact same wire? Well, to put it bluntly, it
was perfect! It was the right size to fit inside of the shafts
without binding up and it was a superior wire type which was capable
of withstanding quite a bit of excessive abuse. Faced with the
inability of sourcing the wire, we opted to contract a local wire
company to produce an exact version of the wire. We
contemplated upgrades, but there was really no need. As it
stands, this wire is perfect in every regard all the way down to the
strand count. Yes, we counted the stands of wire to make sure
we got it right. That's the kind of attention to detail we had
throughout this entire project.
When
it was all said and done, the powder coating turned out to be the
monster of all problems with this project. Early on, it seemed
as if the only concern was going to be the gears which actually
turned out to be nothing by comparison. We went through
several vendors, trying to perfect the powder coat process.
Each time, just as it appeared all was going our way, we'd see the
first of the production parts, only to reject them almost
immediately. After trial and error, over and over again, we
finally realized that it was the alloy we were using (which, by the
way was an upgrade to the original material used by Atari).
The material we used was "out-gassing" during the powder coat
process which caused the finish to bubble up and get an orange-peel
appearance. In fact, it was so bad that the powder coat
wouldn't stick in some places, completely flaking away from the
metal. After testing alloys, we picked one which didn't cause
this issue. Two complete runs of casting, too many test alloys
and a few years later, we finally have the perfect version of the
handles. We DUMPED having the parts cast and went with our
original plan to machine the handles from solid billet aluminum!!
They're stronger and much tighter in tolerance (0.001" in fact!). Using
these fully machined handles, brand new powder coating technology
and a sharp eye for detail, we finally have the handles completed.
This project is
classified as "complete" at this point in
time. Complete reproduction controllers and every component of the yoke
is available for
immediate purchase. Every reproduction part is 100% interchangeable with existing controllers made by Atari
and our reproduction controllers.
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