Would it be possible to make something to use as a test bench arcade controller with a 555, some latches/shift registers, some AND gates, and a video game controller?
The way an arcade controller works is when a button is pushed it connects that input to ground. I have a Sega Genesis controller which has a bunch of buttons and uses the standard Atari 2600 joystick DB9 connector. Almost. They multiplexed some of the lines and when a select line is driven high, it chooses different banks of buttons.
There's a good description of the Genesis controller at
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and Atari controllers at
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