The Defender/Q*Bert panel

This panel is really about playing Defender. I loved that game as a pre-teen and spent a lot of quarters on it. Having a panel that lets me recreate that experience is very cool. I found a website (maybe a posting on a news group) that had the dimensions of the original Defender panel. So I’ve reproduced those measurements on this panel. It definitely “feels right”.

So this panel works well for both Defender and Stargate. The joystick on the left is actually a 2-way joystick from an arcade cabinet (ebay!). The layout of the Defender/Stargate panel leaves a hollow gap above the main buttons. I decided that that was a good spot to put in a 4-way joystick that has been turned 45 degrees. Obviously that works for Q*Bert. But it also works for Congo Bongo.