I built a TGC Arcade Cabinet. Learn from my mistake.

[Greg]

*** I built and tested this on TGC2, but wanted to post here as well since I see this question asked for both games and it applies to both. ***

I have wanted a Golden Tee cabinet for probably 15 years now. After building an arcade cabinet I thought, I should build one. Buying them is outrageously expensive so I started looking for a golf game I could turn into a cabinet. After looking at quite a few, I settled on TGC2. It seemed a few people have contemplate it, so I decided to go for it.

I bought it and tried to use it with a mouse and it worked well enough that I ordered a trackball. I chose the X-Arcade trackball because at ~$90 it was a good price and it is wired with the 3 mouse buttons and a vertical hold button which I liked. It arrived, I tested it a little and thought that with a little practice we could get the hang of it enough for it to be enjoyable.

After that, I set out to build the pedestal which I based on the one for Golden Tee. I designed it in CAD, printed out the templates, and went to work on the cabinet. It took quite a bit of work, but in the end I really liked what I came up with.

After figuring out which buttons I needed on the console I mapped it out, designed a faceplate and had it printed on laminated polycarbonate sticker. I used an arcade joystick encoder and arcade buttons for input and JoyToKey to map everything how I need it.

Here is the final product:
* https://i.imgur.com/DW5f8Td.jpg
* https://i.imgur.com/qIdP6e8.jpg

I am absolutely thrilled how it came out and was SUPER excited to play it, which I have been doing since yesterday.

And so here's the reality of it: It's a non-starter. The controls for mouse are simply too touchy and inconsistent. You can hit 100 balls in a row and feel like you're getting the hang of it, and then hit a dozen drives in a row that don't exceed 150 yards. I have played with the sensitivity and messed with my swing in every way possible, but it's just not there.

It's worth it to note that it's not the trackball or me, Golden Tee Fore 2006 and Tiger Woods 2008 play just fine.

---

So to all those who come here looking for how it would play as an arcade cabinet with a trackball, the answer is terribly. I'm now going to play with all the golf games I can get my hands and remake the control panel and the sticker.

The frustrating part is this game is SO CLOSE to being an amazing contender for a DIY arcade cabinet. If they added an arcade mode that ignored speed and tempo, it would be amazing.

[Mondyrocks]

You've certainly made a lovely job of it.
Might have been better to replace the track ball with an analog stick based on an xbox one controller??

[ian.hopwood]

yep two thumbs up from me - labour of love

[Wirenut48]

JNPG would be a better choice for working the ball with the swing path and doesn't have the arcade forgiveness zone making it more linear. Also has a similar tempo element when using the mouse, but again without the forgiveness zones. Also can get heel toe misses if you waver in swing path at strike point. Not to mention over swing possibilities.

Bottom line JNPG's swing is 100% real time user input to make a shot or any variation of. TGC is not designed for that.

[Wirenut48]

Actually the JNPG controller mechanics would be perfect for this kind of setup. It has no tempo or heel/toe miss hits to deal with but has an over swing making distance control a challenge. Simply length of backswing for distance and swing path for deviation. Just would need to figure a way to convert the stick to a trackball.

[Greg]

Wirenut48, I appreciate the tip. I hate to give up on TGC, but at this point I'm willing to give anything a shot. JNPG here I come!

[Wirenut48]

Nice job by the way on the cabinet. Was looking at your ball flight diagrams and knew they were doable in JNPG. 2019 took away the ability to draw/fade the ball with the sing path. Plus the forgiveness zone really makes it difficult to manually work the ball in previous versions. Even if you try using tempo with the tempo forgiveness zones you get perfect or 20 yards offline and nothing in between.

So a game like JNPG is a much better fit for controlling distance and direction with the swing.

[SpiritFire]

tiger woods with wii and a chicken stick and an actual club handle.. closest thing to get to a simulator without paying thru the nose... and actually get to swing a club.
ten years later and they went back into the stone age instead with controllers.
this guy made his own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NM1pu3wpfw

[Greg]

After looking at the reviews for JNPG, there's no way I'm going to waste the money on it. People seem to hate it even more than TGC.

I ended up spending quite a bit of time dialing in the controls for Tiger Woods 2008 and, sadly, that is by far the funnest game to play on it.

I wanted TGC to happen (obviously), but I just don't see it.

[The Brain]

Sorry to bump this thread but I want to ask.

Greg how did you get Autohotkey and JoytoKey to work? I got a golden tee cab that is pretty much mame now. Just put tiger woods in.

[Greg]

Autohotkey ended up being unnecessary. Just use JoyToKey and map the inputs to the keyboard keys that TW uses for the stuff you want it used for. Club up/down, Esc, flyby, etc.

[The Brain]

hmm Joytokey works when not in tiger woods, but when i load it up. nadda for the mouse left and right buttons.

[Greg]

My trackball came with arcade buttons for LMB/CMB/RMB, so I don't use joytokey for that. I'm certain there's info out there for it though.