The BOX

I started out by literally absorbing every project listed at The Build Your Own Arcade Controls website. I wanted as much info and opinion as possible from which to make my decisions. I read some of these pages 5 or 6 times to be sure that I understood the intentions and direction of the builder. I also sifted through as many of the games that MacMAME supported as possible (being especially attentive to my favorites), looking for the button requirements of each game. I also consulted all of my other Mac games to see if they have remapping option for controls and if not, which keyboard keys they needed to make them work. I wanted to build all of the possible options into this unit. If I was going to spend the time to do this, I wanted it done right. Some games will only need a joystick and one button, or perhaps even no buttons and some games will require as many as six buttons for each player. Then there was the question of how to get the information into the computer. You can't just shove the wires from the joystick into the computer serial port and expect it to work. There has to be some kind of interface between the joysticks, buttons and the computer. As I see it, there three possible options for this interface.

Since you can play a game on the computer keyboard, it just makes sense to consider (carefully) hacking a computer keyboard apart and using it's interface as your connection to the computer. A keyboard hack is probably the cheapest option of the three being that you can usually find a keyboard cheap at a garage sale or in a used computer or surplus store or even brand new if you have a PC (I have replaced PC keyboards on machines in the workplace for as little as $4, brand new). You seldom find Mac keyboards this cheap. The only reason that I can really think of is that the Mac has a lower market share. This means that there are not that many third party companies that make products for the Mac. Less competition means higher prices. Sometimes means better quality, though. A genuine Apple keyboard may be more expensive than a PC aftermarket keyboard but it is much better quality and will last much longer (this is of course assuming that you do not spill your coke or coffee into it at regular intervals). For this use, quality is a moot point. We are planing on hacking this thing open so who cares if the keys still feel good in five years? Get the cheapest keyboard you can.

The second option is to hack apart a joystick or gamepad. They are already designed to interface to the computer and they usually have software to support and map inputs. This option is a little more expensive than a keyboard hack and you would probably want to get used equipment in working order to do this. Hacking apart brand new joysticks and game pads is okay if you have money to burn but most do not. And besides, if you have money to burn, you could have someone else do this whole project for you (see the links page for details). I consulted ebay.com and Amazon.com auctions for listings for game pads and joysticks. This can be an excellent source for this kind of thing. You can get these things at half what you pay for them normally, sometimes less. And remember, a Mac ADB bus will allow 3 devices to be chained on it and the Gravis software that comes with both the MousestickII and the gamepad supports two units plugged in at the same time. This can effectively double the number of buttons and combinations you can use and still have a keyboard plugged in as well. Doing it with USB parts would also allow this on either a Mac or a PC.

And finally, the last way to do the interface is to buy a USB interface specifically designed for this exact purpose. This is by far, the most expensive option. Happ Controls and another company that I cannot seem to remember the name of both offer a USB interface that allows for several different configurations. Happ's unit offers a driving module, a flying module, and a fighting module. Each offers a different range of options and custom tailored inputs for the type of simulation/emulation you wish to do. These units are over $100 each but if you want the greatest flexibility, PC and Mac compatibility for your arcade controller, this option may be for you. There is one other advantage to this unit over a keyboard hack. No ghosting. Ghosting is a word used to describe what happens when certain keyboard key combinations when used together yield unpredictable results. If you have never looked inside a computer keyboard, it is a maze of printed circuits and cross over connections. In other words, some keys will share a common lead and therefore may not work reliably when pressed at the same time. Try pressing down two keys on your keyboard at once. What happened? Nothing? Something? Was it what you expected? Every keyboard is designed differently. Two keys pressed at the same time may interact well or may not interact well. All depends on the what keys and which manufacturer. This will usually only make a difference if you build a two player controller and then challenge your friend to Mortal Kombat or something like that. There is the possibility that your friend pushing up on his joystick could cause your button x or y not to work. I built a two player unit which I have never actually had two players on. But I have experienced no instances where I lost control and I suspected ghosting. However, if Mortal Kombat is your favorite game and you take your games very seriously, you may want to consider a USB interface.

I chose to do the keyboard hack. It seemed the easiest on the pocketbook especially since I already had the extra keyboard. I had a friend that had a Mac she had lost the keyboard for. She didn't know much about computers or the internet and didn't have a lot of money. She needed a keyboard so I offered to use ebay.com to try and get her one. I got her one and then she disappeared off the face of the earth. I have not heard from her since so I assumed that she did not really need the keyboard anymore (it had been sitting in my closet for the better part of two years). She donated it to the cause. Actually, I paid for it so I donated it to the cause. It cost me about $8 with the shipping from where ever it is it was.

Now with keyboard in hand, I began disassembling it while watching TV over the course of the next few nights. Once I had the basic case apart, I needed to get the guts out without damaging anything. There wasn't much too it. A small circuit board with a plastic membrane plugged into it. The membrane was a maze in the shape of a keyboard, each key having a "pad" that it shorts out. This short is then interpreted by the interface and the appropriate data is sent to the computer. I carefully unsoldered the connectors from the circuit board where the membrane plugged into it. It was very important that I be careful as the solder points are very small and I intend to use them again. Too much heat and the copper strips and pads that are "stuck" to the fiberglass circuit board will lift and the interface will be ruined. Not enough heat and the solder will not melt so I can get the connector out. I even bought a special soldering iron for the job. I already own a sixty watt iron and a butane iron but this is very delicate small work so I needed a small iron. I bought a 15-watt iron. This is the perfect iron for this type of work. Makes it more difficult to over heat the joint and ruin the circuit board. I also bought a new solder removal tool (aka The Solder Sucker!). This is a simple tool that operates on the principal of vacuum. It literally sucks the hot solder off the board. There is an element of timing involved to get this right. You have the heat the joint , pull the iron away, get the sucker in there and release the spring, all in one motion or the solder will cool and it will not work. This is difficult if the circuit board is not clamped down in a vise some other suitable holding device. I also used a solder wick. This nothing more than a braid of clean copper that is placed across the solder joint to be removed and heated from the other side with the iron. The solder gets hot and is "soaked up" but the copper braid. An invaluable tool for this work. For those of you who do not know how to solder, I have put together a little seminar on the subject if you wish to learn.

Once the membrane connectors were out, I carefully stripped back the same number of conductors on a piece of ribbon cable. This is the kind of cable you would see on your hard drive in your computer. In fact, what I used was 50 conductor (with a few conductors stripped off) which is what a SCSI drive uses. After stripping and tinning the ends of the ribbon cable, I soldered them into the interface circuit board. Then I soldered the other end of the ribbon into the experimenters board I bought. This would be the basis for the interface. I then soldered some 3 inch pieces of solid 20 gauge conductors into the experimenters board. This would connect the interface to the "bread board" to make key remapping an easy thing if I ever needed to do it. If the only game you ever play with this unit is MacMAME or MAME32, there really is no need to do all of this ribbon cable and bread board stuff. You could just put wires on your joysticks and buttons and connect them where ever they need to go on the interface. Be sure to map your keyboard and figure out where everything needs to go first if you choose to do it this way. It may be necessary to "break out" the interface to a terminal strip as some of the keys may have common connections. In that case, several wires may need to go to the same terminal.

With the interface done, it was time to make some decisions on what I was going to order from Happ Controls. This meant I needed to know if it was going to be a single player or a two player. I needed to make a decision on how many buttons per player and what colors. Do I want to include some "administration" type buttons (new game, pause, settings, etc...)? How many? Do I want to do pinball buttons on the sides of the box (I do have some pretty cool pinball games for my Mac)? Should I get 4 or 8 way joysticks? I labored on these items for a while. I finally decided on the Super Joystick from Happ Controls and that I wanted to get two for a two player console (and so that I could play Robotron from Williams). I decided on this stick for two reasons: one was that it was an adjustable stick that could change shaft length for either metal or wood mounting. The other was that it was both a 4 and an 8 way stick. All you have to do is turn a plastic sleeve upside down and it goes from 4 to 8 way. This was important since I had no idea which of the two types I wanted. There are people who have said that 4-way is the way to go and there are people who say that you need an 8-way. I didn't know what to think except that I wanted flexibility. A 4-way might be better for this while an 8-way might be better for that. With this stick, I can change if I need to. I went with the Ultimate Pushbuttons at 4 per player. I got the pinball side buttons, five administration buttons and a couple of extra ones just in case (I still have not used these). I also got the player one and two start buttons, a few cents more but they look cool. Follow this link for a list of the parts I ordered, the part numbers and total cost. I placed the order on the internet at the Happ website. It was secure and fast. And within 3 hours of sending the order, I received an email saying the order had been received, was being processed, and would ship within the next 48 hours. Pretty good customer service. I never had to call and get status because the stuff arrived right on time, about 4 days after I ordered it. It was great.

Okay, now the order is placed. Where to next? I need to decide what size I am going to make this thing and out of what. I wanted it to be solid and HEAVY. I didn't want the thing roaming around the desk on me when I was trying to play. You know how it can get with the excitement of game play. I didn't want to be shoving the thing off the desk every five minutes. I decided to make it out of 3/4 inch particle board. I knew that would make it pretty heavy all by itself but for a short time, I actually considered screwing a couple of the biggest lead fishing weights I could find to the inside of the box. After I picked up the 2'x 4' piece of particle board, I decided that the weight of the wood would be sufficient to keep it in place.

I also stopped at a local plastic supply house and rummaged through their scrap bin, looking for a logical sized piece of acrylic to use as an overlay to put graphics under the face of the box. Just to make it look cool. They had a 1/4" thick piece of Lexan (yes the expensive stuff that is bulletproof at 2 inches thick) that was the perfect size for three dollars (no cuts necessary so no extra charge). This piece pretty much dictated the size of the box. It measured exactly 24 inches wide and about 8-3/4 inches tall, which ended up working out perfectly.

I also need to choose how much of a slant to put on the box. I didn't have a protractor and didn't really want to just choose and arbitrary angle like that so I just went for it with a piece of paper and a ruler. I drew all of the cuts I was going to do, wanting be sure that I got everything I needed out of the one sheet of particle board (trying to keep costs down). This is the drawing that I transferred to my computer prior to starting. You will notice that there are several "sides" of differing angles. This is because I did not know exactly how deep the joystick bodies were going to be and I wanted to be prepared for anything. I have no idea what the angles are. I am sure that there is some mathematical calculation that I learned in school that could tell me what they are but it's not that important. Once I had a diagram, it was simple to run all of the cuts. I used a Craftsman Radial Arm Saw for all of the cuts. This is the saw I would prefer to use. Some would rather have a table saw. That would work, too, I just prefer a radial arm. What I would definitely advise against is a power handsaw. These units can be dangerous but the reason I advise against it is the accuracy you get with those things. It is usually not very good. For a box like we are building here, squareness and straightness of cuts are key. I was able to get all of my pieces out of a single 2'x4' piece of particle board.

After all the cuts were made, it was time to start assembling all the pieces that make up the box bottom. After the parts from Happ arrived, I was able to decide which set of angles to use based on the depth of the joystick housings. I leaned towards too big rather than too small. I ended up going with the last set on the end. In retrospect, I wish I had tried to go with the middle set. It would have been a more pleasant angle and more comfortable to use. I pre drilled all of the holes into the edges to be sure that there would not be any "splitting on the edges of the particle board pieces. I used Elmers wood glue on all the joints and 2 inch Grabber trumpet head drywall type screws driven into all the pre drilled holes on the edges, countersinking the head slightly. I then used Bondo plastic auto body filler to fill in the counter sunk screw heads, hiding them completely. I then did a little sanding to make it all smooth. I used several different grades of sand paper to get the box ready for paint. I started with a fairly coarse grit, rounding off all of the sharp edge corners of the particle board edges. This will give the box a kind of molded plastic look once the paint is done. As the box became smoother, I went to smaller and smaller grit sandpaper. A little trick I used to be sure that the screw heads filled in with Bondo would not show through the paint: after sanding to what you think is a smooth finish, close your eyes and run your fingers slowly along the edge where the screw heads are. You'd be surprised to see how much better you can feel it with your eyes closed. If you can't tell the difference between the wood and the bondoed screw heads, it's ready for paint. People who do auto body work have learned how to do it their eyes open. I haven't.

I considered covering the box with formica like a counter top but that probably would have been expensive plus I didn't really know where to get it so I settled on paint. I wanted a really durable surface that would last and that I didn't have to worry about "shine" or 'orange peel" with. I remembered somebody telling me that they got some pretty good results with a stone paint. I think he called it Fleckstone paint. As far as I can tell, Fleckstone is a brand name. I could not find anything by that name but I did find something that another company put out. They had a few colors: green, silver, gold. I settled on black with a white flake in it that was supposed to make the end result look like stone. I was skeptical. I was in line buying the stuff at my local home improvement center reading the instructions. The cap was a representation of what the result would be, rough stone feel and all. I was thinking to myself, how is this can of paint going to recreate this rough, cool looking, stone-like surface? Oh well, we'll see. If it screws up, I sand it off and do something else." The can recommended covering whatever you are painting with a coat of the same color base coat as you are applying. In other words, purple might show through the stone-like surface. So I bought some black paint and I also decided to prime with red first to be sure the Bondo would not show. The area where you paint should be as free as possible of dust. If you just sanded there, use a vacuum to get the dust up. Also, go over the surface of the box with a damp paper towel or a tack cloth. It will get the last remnants of sanding dust off before painting. I started with the red primer, giving it two coats with some dry time between. Primer dries quickly anyway. Then, one real thick coat of black. Let that dry thoroughly over night. Then, next afternoon was the moment of truth. Would this stone paint do the trick? Following the directions, I put the first coat on and waited 15 minutes. Then the second coat. It was coming out of the can awfully white to be a black paint but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and let it dry over night. The next morning I was amazed to see that it had in fact turned black with white specks and that it did have a feel of stone to it. What will they think of next? It really came out even better than I expected it to (and I was expecting a lot). The directions for the stone paint also said that if the item being painted is to be handled, it should be sealed with a poly urethane spray, presumably to protect the stone finish from scratches and oils and sweat from the hands. I was happy to comply as I wanted the box to look great. The polyurethane spray I used did leave a little more of a shine on the box than I wanted, but all in all, I was very happy with it.

So far, we have just been building the bottom box for the face plate to sit on. Now it was time to begin building the face plate and cutting holes. I had not even really laid out the way I wanted the buttons to be at this point so I had to stop and do that. I decided that I wanted a slight angle to the first three buttons rather than a straight across line. I figured it would make it so that it was more comfortable to play. It kinda fits with the way your right hand crosses the cabinet and it is comfortable. Then I included the 4th button as a thumb area addition. All in all, it felt pretty good on the actual size drawing I printed. I laid my right hand across it on the desktop and tried to imagine the joystick in my left hand. It felt good so I went with it. Of course, this would only give me an idea of what it would feel like to have my hand on the buttons. Once the buttons were in, it could have felt awkward but I was confident so I trudged on. I have converted the two drawings I did on the computer to GIF format. You can look at them here and here.

I chose to install the "administrative buttons" in a straight line across the top. I put these buttons on it in the event that this box ever replaced the keyboard completely. They included an equivalent of Coin Drop(the 3 key), New Game(command-O), Select(the return key), Controls(the tab key), and Pause(command period or esc key, either would do). The idea is that the joystick up and down moves the highlighted game. The return selects the game, the coin button simulates the coin drop, Controls allows me access to re-map a key in a particular game if needed, New Game allows me to change to a different game and Pause...well duh!! All one would need to do is place a MacMAME alias in the startup folder of the Macintosh and there should be no need for a keyboard.

One of the things I had to take into account when I was drawing out the angles for the cabinet slant was the depth of the joystick housings. The box had to be deep enough for the bottom part of the joystick to fit in the box. Same goes for the buttons. If I had been able to find shallower sticks and buttons, I might not have had to make it so deep. I am happy with the way it came out but I might try to make it "shorter" next time (if there is a next time, I'm sure that my wife thinks I have lost my mind on this one).

With the layout complete, I am ready to start drilling the holes for all the buttons and joysticks in the top panel and the Lexan cover. I chose to clamp them together and do both at the same time to avoid any problems with the holes in the wood not lining up with the holes in the Lexan. I was using a 1-1/8' holesaw in a drill to drill the holes in the top. One of the things that the girl at the plastic store told me about Lexan is that it likes to "grab" when being drilled. She advised me to be capful as the drill bit can take the sheet of plastic right out of your hands if it grabs the work. As you can imagine, this could be a dangerous situation. For this part, I would highly recommend a drill press if you have access to one. Not only will the holes come out straighter, it will be easier to work with than a hand drill. I also do not recommend the use of a battery powered drill such as a Makita. This is all I had to work with. Not only did it take forever to do with the Makita, I must have used and recharged about 12 batteries. Particle board is not very holesaw friendly, especially when you a drill with a low power output drill like a Makita. Even fresh batteries almost immediately started slowing down the drill because the material is so dense. It also produces a finer saw dust than normal woods which when combined with the glue (melting from the friction) that holds all the particles together, clogged the hole saw really good about every 30-45 seconds. After about 3 hours of drilling, off and on as charged batteries permitted, it's finally complete. I unclamp the Lexan, give it a good sand job and it's ready for the same painting process that I did on the box bottom. Primer, black paint, stone paint, poly urethane.

While the top is drying, I have time to mount the keyboard interface and bread boards into the box bottom. They are not held in by much. Just a couple of very small screws carefully driven in by the Makita.

When the top is dry, I start to do a dry fit of a few of the components to see how things are looking. I notice that the joystick handle though adjustable, was either not long enough or too long. I decided that the best way to remedy the situation would be to route out the back side of the top where the joysticks mount to allow them an extra 3/8" when set to the shorter length. This was not all that fun as I have what any self respecting wood worker would consider a joke of a router. Plus, particle board is very dense. This was a very noisy process that no doubt annoyed my neighbors for the duration of the process (and the process was undoubtedly extended due to my joke of a router). It's a little tiny under powered unit that was slowing down each time the bit plunged into the wood. Messy too. Saw dust went everywhere, all directions at once. Not the most pleasant part of this project. After completing this task, the joystick fit much better. Very happy with it now.

Now I secured the top with no buttons or joysticks in it to the box bottom with two small brass hinges. They were simple to attach to the unit with screws that were supplied with the hinges. I drilled very small pilot holes and then very gently used my Makita to drive the soft brass screws in. I didn't want to strip the brass screw heads or the wood holding the screw in. I surface mounted these hinges. In retrospect, I wish that I had routed the wood out a little to recess them. It would have looked a heck of a lot better. What's done is done. I could go back and do it now but it would leave visible holes that would look worse than the hinges do. I think I'll leave them be.

Once attached, there is nothing to keep the unit's door(top) from flopping all the way over. Although there is no reason to worry about that now, when the buttons and sticks are in the top and wired, I will need to have something to keep this from happening. I attached an eyelet screw to both the top and bottom on the left side. I then attached a short piece of the smallest chain I could find. This keeps the box open but does not allow it to flop all the way open and pull all the wires from their places in the bread board.

The next thing to do would be the graphics under the Lexan. I didn't really want to do anything flashy. It would have taken me too long to design something that looked good. I didn't want to give it some cheesy name like The Terminator or The Equalalizer. I considered calling it what I call it here on the web page: The BOX. Scrapped that one too. I just wanted some simple lines and color and maybe a little text to set it off. I used some photo quality inkjet paper with my old HP Deskwriter 560 color printer and did some simple boxed designs and text. Maybe if I do another one, I will get a little more creative. Or I could do a bunch of little purple bubbles like my page here. I don't know. That's not really the kind of creativity I have anyway. If it comes to me later, maybe I'll do it. If I do, I'll post some updated pictures of it. On to bigger and better things...

I am finally ready to start putting the buttons and stuff in the box. I started with the joystick bodies. They mount to the under side of the plate using flat head machine screws and nuts so that the screw heads are flush with the top and the graphic around the handle hides them. Next, all of the buttons go in one by one. I don't bother to use a wrench or anything to tighten the buttons. They are plastic and I didn't wish to damage them. How tight do they really need to be? I got them as tight as my fingers can do and that's all folks!!

We are now ready to wire this bad boy and see if it actually works. I use my soldering iron to solder individual single solid conductors onto the micro switches for all the controls. Since these are micro switches and micro switches have the appropriately sized tabs on them, I could have used crimp on disconnectable battery slide on terminals. I chose against using these solely based on cost. I had already really gone over board on what I needed to get this project going. The bread board and all the primers and paints. I needed to buy a couple of different router bits, too. I did not have a holesaw so I needed that as well. The slide terminals would have just been another expense that I didn't really need. It would have been nice to do that and it would have made removing a button very easy but I did not want to spend the extra cash. It would have been less than $10 for all the one's needed. Perhaps next time.

Usually, for a project like this where the door opens and the wire needs to move for that to happen, I would want to use stranded wire due to it's better flexibility without breaking. Unfortunately, these need to be solid in order to slide into the bread board mapping locations. I then use my Makita to carefully twist each buttons pair of wires into nice tightly wound twisted pair. This will keep both conductors for each button or direction assignment together and make mapping and remapping easier. I also made little labels to match the labels on the graphics under the Lexan for each pair of wires. So if something gets unplugged by accident or on purpose for re-mapping, it will be easy enough to get it back where it goes based on it's label.

The very last touch is the layer of stuff (for lack of a better word) that I put on the bottom of the unit. This is a spongy fabric like layer that is sold in rolls as tool box tray liner. It is intended to protect tools and the inside of the tool box from damage, scratches and wear while in the drawer. It also serves to keep the tools at least marginally in the place you put them in the tray. The sponge is remarkably strong and almost sticky but not really. I don't really know a better way to describe it. What made me think of using it in this way was that I also saw it marketed (in an off white color) as a kind of vise-less vise for router and wood work. You lay it out on your work bench and lay your wood project on it. You can then use your router on the wood and the wood will not move or slide on the bench. I cut a piece from the roll the size of the bottom of the box and layed it out on the box. I pulled one side back as shown in the picture and sprayed both the box and the sponge fabric with a spray rubber cement adhesive. Letting the rubber cement set up for at least 1 minute (according to can directions), I carefully pressed the pad into place and pulled opposite side up and did the same procedure. Then I right sided the box and let it sit for a few minutes on the sponge. I them tried to slide it across the counter it was sitting on. I could not budge it!! Between the weight of the box and the grip of the sponge pad, I could not move the thing unless I lifted straight up. This is exactly what I wanted. As I mentioned above, I wanted it heavy so the box would not be pushed off the desk while in the excitement of game play.

Well, it's finally ready for the test drive. The story of how I got here from finding all this info on the internet may seem long winded but it's actually a fast read compared with the time it actually took to do the process. I'd say that I started finding all this stuff about late September to early October 1999 (that's where the story begins at the introduction to this page). The date when it was in a semi finished state complete enough to begin using it was about November 20th, the weekend before Thanksgiving 1999. I was on a time table to complete the project and have it working for the Thanksgiving holiday. I knew that I would have friends and family over for the holiday dinner and I wanted to be able to have an "unveiling" of sorts. I had kept work on the project a secret from pretty much everyone except my wife and daughter. Everyone was aware that I was working on something but I kept very hushed about it so that it would be a surprise. It worked out pretty well. They were surprised and it definetly was a hit. I could not keep my brothers away from it.

Towards the end I was definitely rushing it to be finished in time. So, all told, it was about two months from concept to completion, and it still isn't even really finished yet. I have not put the pinball buttons in yet. Player two is not even wired yet. I do still have problems with some of the administration buttons not working properly. The BOX is usable for it's intended purpose, playing the games. But it is far from complete. I am unable to use it without a keyboard completely due to command buttons not working. And some games do not respond to the coin drop button and some do. That one is a little weird. Why would some games respond to the number 3 and some not? I hit number 3 on the keyboard and it works fine. It's only some games. Others do not have this problem. It might be the cheap after market keyboard I used for an interface. I recently laid my hands on an Apple keyboard for nothing. As I get time to work on it, I will be hacking that and changing the interface to see if the problems dry up. As I make new discoveries or progress, I will post it here for all to see.

Some of you may be wondering how much all of this ended up costing. My TARGET for the whole project was originally intended to be a little over $30 for a Gravis Gamepad. After all that has transpired, it ended up being a little more than that. Have a look for yourself. This link not only covers the estimated costs (yes I did have to estimate in a few places) but also all the part names and numbers for the buttons and joysticks I obtained from Happ as well.

The First Play

The first play was definitely awesome. Even with all of the problems noted above with the Administration buttons, it still plays very well and I am very happy with the results of the unit. I was unable to push the unit off of the desk, even in the hardest clutches of the game. One of the things I did do was open the box when I pushed up a little too hard. The box never moved from it's location but it does open from time to time. I did install a couple of wood inserts so that I could screw some flat head machine screws through two holes in the top to keep the cover closed. I have never installed them. The box has really never been completed so I don't see any reason to screw the cover closed just yet. Sooner or later, I will get tired of pushing the top open about an inch and slamming it shut during play. Until then, it will probably remain unsecured.