Raptor Gaming chair mod Is here and updated w/ pics

I'm looking for a decent seat that I can modify to mount my G25 to. I'd buy a Playseat Evo if my Wife would allow it but due to space issues I need something that can be put away easily.

I've decided to buy a game seat and modify it with wood or metal to mount my wheel and shifter.

I've found this raptor for a cheap price used and I am wondering if anyone has experience with it. I'd hate to make the drive to buy it (1.5 hour drive) just to realise it sucks and is too small for my 5'9" frame.

DAY 1

I've decided to buy a game seat and modify it with wood or metal to mount my G25 wheel and shifter. I'm so tired of playing at my desk. The Wife said I could buy a cockpit if I had somewhere to store it...I don't and she knows damn well I don't so in the end I don't get a full cockpit. (I'm telling you guys right now...when we buy our next house it will be bigger and have a dedicated gaming room for ME.) anyways...lol

I've found this Raptor ultimate gaming chair used. It retailed back in 2007 for $299 (which was a complete waste of money) and didn't get the best reviews. This guy bought it for $230 he said (which turned out to be not exactly true as you'll read later). He wanted $160 for the chair but half a day later I managed to talk him into $95 (still too much but I wanted this chair and its 12 rumble motors.)

The person selling it claimed via email that it was brand new and only tested and that he was not even a gamer and used it for listening to music but only slightly as it was brand new. Funny thing is this non-gamer had an email address that started with UTplaya! yeah he doesn't play games. :roll:

I then catch him in another lie when he admits his brother bought it and gave it to him and his brother is a big gamer. So now it seems that the chair was used for god only knows how long and not exactly 'brand new'. By the time I find this out though money has already changed hands. He tells me everything works and I'm left having to take his word for it because he has nothing to let me test it with. (he's moving and packed...Am I being scammed I thought?)

Its obvious that this chair has been used though because the built in speakers sound like crap (possibly blown) and the electronics need to be cleaned or maybe rewired because there is some line noise coming through the speakers and or headphones when hooked up. The chair itself though is in very good condition and fairly comfy.

The Good news is the 12 rumble motors all seem to be working and doing a quick test with GT5P they work awesome!! This chair has potential after all. When setup right you can feel the engine running when driving and other force feed back type effects. Pair this with my G25 and it should be a fun ride.

I'll be swinging by Home Depot today after work to pick up some MDF so I can start work ASAP. I plan to remove both arms from the chair and build new ones that will actually wrap around the front of the chair and the front will be about 24" off the ground. This will allow mounting of the G25. Also the arms will be much wider allowing the shifter a solid place to be mounted. I want the shifter about 10" lower than the wheel for a more realistic feel when driving. In the end I will be wrapping the MDF with foam and fake leather to blend it into the rest of the chair.

basic specs of the chair:

12 Game-Sync'd Vibration Motors
Headrest Mounted 3D Stereo Speakers
Game-Triggered Lighting Effects
PS2, PS3, Xbox, Wii, Game Cube
Maximum Gaming Comfort
Stylish Racing Seat Design
Variable Massage Mode
MP3, Headphone Jacks

Cant wait to see the results, I am especially interested in the rumble of any seats. I have an evo and iI am waiting to see something that catches my eye in the engine rumble area...

No one seemed interested so I didn't post the build here. I did post in the g25 cockpit thread a picture of it nearly complete.

I modified a gaming chair I bought from Costco several years ago (see signature for pics). Whatever you do to the chair make sure the mount for the wheel is Rigid and you provide enough clearance for your knees to clear while using the pedals. I have been wanting to try the Heel/Toe method but I don't have clearance on my chair to do so. I just have to raise the mount a few inches and I will be in business. I use a Buttkicker attached to my chair which really adds a whole new "Feel" to racing sims and first person shooters.

Sorry I posted during your last post, Did you used to build speaker boxes? Nice setup I like it and the cup holder! I am about to install a cup holder on my chair since I don't have any place to put my Beer while I am racing :Cheers:

Yeah I have built sub boxes before. This chair fits me perfect. I love it! Oh and its solid as a rock. Very rigid. Thanks!

We are very interested in anyones work here on gtplanet get those pictures up on here. Im very impressed with it cant wait to see it painted and somebody in it on Suzuka.

I'll post the build here for those that are interested to see. I'm going to copy paste it from the other site where I originally posted the build. I'll edit a lil here and there. Hope you guys like it!


DAY 1 END

Ok so I got one side semi done. I left the upper part all BIG like where the wheel will go because I'm going to wait to get both sides mounted and then mount the shelf for the wheel. Once that is done i will trim off the extra wood that isn't needed and make it more stream lined. I still have to smooth out the edges and of course when everything is done it will be wrapped with foam and then with faux leather.

I have deviated from my original plan as you can see around the floor area and this was to save weight. 3/4" MDF is heavy and I needed to lighten it up a bit.

keep in mind this is not the finished product but it's pretty much there...

The drawings:


I used cardboard to run my pattern to get the basic shape down:


The rough cut out:


Making sure the new side bolts in properly before trimming the bottom:


The bottom part of it is done..just needs to be finished with the sander. The upper 'large' section will be designed and trimmed tomorrow once I get the wheel mounted:

more coming soon

DAY 2

Well I worked on it for about 30 minutes this morning and a couple hours tonight. Its coming along nicely.

Both sides on now...


This side needs a bunch of trimming at this stage..


Shot of the cockpit:


Here is the left side after trimming. This will allow easy access to the chair kinda like a car door opening:


Here it is mounted:




Getting ready to cut the wheel shelf


Just installed the wheel shelf:




I tossed the G25 wheel on just to give you guys an idea of how it will look:






Now I still have a lot to do. The top area above the wheel needs to go to make it more appealing. Now that the wheel shelf is in I can design the top section.

I also need to make some bracing boards to run across the bottom and behind the wheel...and of course the shifter box which I'm going to start tonight maybe..

Its coming a long though!

DAY 3

I got a lot done today. Finished the shifter box and trimmed the top and put the front on...all I have left to do 'build' wise is do some finishing work and then wrap it all in faux leather.
I might even do some of that tonight.

Anyway lets toss some more pics up of my progress:

Just cut out the space for the shifter...


Putting in some bracing:


Nearly done with the shifter box:


tossed the shifter in to see how it looked:


Drilled out some holes to mount the shifter box to the side panel:


Mounted:




Just starting the front section here in this pic (removed the shifter box for now. I actually got the front doen but have not taken pics yet..

DAY 4


Its now a working unit and in need of some finishing work and paint.

some pics:

Mounting the wheel to the shelf..



In working order now...







I have some more trim work to do up above the wheel and of course I need to either paint it something...I'll decide that later. For now its 3:55am and I'm dead...I just got done taking a few laps in it playing GT5P. She drives nice!

Oh I wrapped the shifter box in fake leather which came out nice. I plan to wrap the wheel shelf but the sides I may paint.

Can't forget the cup holder...

Playing SHIFT on my HTPC, (C2D @ 3.2GHz, 4GB of DDR2, 8800GT 512) its not as nice or as powerful as my gaming rig but it will due till I have a long enough HDMI and Optical cable to run from it to my hometheater system..

I will do a video sometime soon. I'd like to do some more finishing work to it and paint it first though.

So now that I have this cockpit I decided to make it into a flight/mech warrior cockpit as well. It will be easily done by making a second thruster control box on the left side of the cockpit and by removing the wheel and sliding in the joystick control box that will bolt to the top shelf where the wheel bolts and run at an angle to the floor and between the legs. right around the lap area the joystick will be mounted. Rudder control will be handled by a rudder controller on the floor where the pedals used to be.

Should be a matter of 5 minutes to swap everything around. Would make mech warrior even more awesome if it ever comes out.

Here is a very VERY rough drawing of what I would want. It would be quite simple to make and there is plenty of room between the legs as this seat is fairly wide compared to most gaming chairs. (this picture is from an earier time during the build...)

Nice Chair/Cockpit. Can't wait to see it all wrapped in fake leather. Would you reccomend the chair to anyone else? I'm just googling it now to see what info I can get on it. Cougar23

Well the chair isn't made any longer and it infact got mixed reviews when it released. It was quickly taken off the market and a revised chair was released. A revised and way more expensive chair.

The built in speakers suck and i don't use them. Of course I have a full home theater system that this cockpit is hooked up to. The vibe motors rock though and that is the main reason i bought it. Plus for $95 it was a good deal too considering what I was going to make with it.

Also it comes with LED lights underneath for that street racer look lol. The LED lights bump with the music or vibe motors.

The seat reclines forward and back too which is nice. To answer your question: yes at the price I paid for it it is worth getting...but any more money would have been a waste. Its made my The Ultimate Game Chair Company and they make better chairs then this too.

Yeah I seen that they don't list it on their site any more. After seeing the price of the other Ultimate Game Chair's I'm not even going to bother looking at them anymore. Way too much money for what it is. Unless i find one on ebay that is. Thanks for your reply. Cougar23

I found mine on Craigslist for $95
One sheet of MDF 3/4" @ Home Depot for $32
Misc. bolts & screws @ Home Depot for $15

Total cost of build: $142 plus my personal time.

Keep it up im waiting to this one finished.

heres an update to my DIY cockpit. I spent a little time on it this past weekend.

painted it, gave it some dedicated speakers and pretty much finished it. One last project is to create a working gauge cluster. Once that is completed I'll be stoked!

For now though this thing is a blast to jump into and take my favorite cars around the track.

I'd say this is 95% done but will most likely remain a work in progress for years to come.
The only way I'll stop working on this is if we eventually buy a bigger house and I can look into a full cockpit made by a good vendor.

The kit:

Ultimate Gaming Chair (w/ 12 vibration motors built into the seat and back)
G25 wheel, pedals, shifter
19" Dell LCD (After August I am buying a 28" LCD to replace the 19" Dell)
ZBoard FANG game-pad
Klipsch Pro Media 4.1 speakers/sub
Logitech MX518 mouse

4.1 Audio and signal for vibration motors in chair via Creative X-Fi 5.1 USB sound card
games via PC and PS3

Now for the pics:

This is what it looked like before this past Friday:




And here are some shots of yesterdays work up to just 1 hour ago:












The wiring needed to get all the speakers plus the vibe motors working...what a pain that was..






I realized that these Klipsch speakers are shaped kinda like automotive door mirrors...








FANG game-pad










Finished:

Have you thought of doing the base to something similar to this? So that it is easier to get in and out of the cockpit. But with your chair detachable from the wheel platform. Also the pedals would be attached to the wheel base so that it dosen't slide around. Just my 2 cents. Plus you would be able to just use the chair by itself if you don't feel like driving.

When I designed my partial cockpit the main goal was space saving. By keeping it shorter I was able to keep the foot print at a size my Wife would allow in our den. Plus this is not a cockpit that is ever moved. It has a corner of the room with its dedicated sound and video and best resembles an arcade racer tbh. When I want to play I just slide in and race. I don't play any other games with this cockpit. For non racing games I sit on my couch and play on a 61" screen. When I play pc games that are non racing I sit at my desk with a 24" screen. but I also have another pc hooked up to the 61" screen.

I wanted to build something different, and of my own design. I feel I reached that goal. Plus I wanted my design to built off my chair. You'll notice that my cockpit bolts to the chair. Quite different from the average cockpit for sure.

Getting in and out of this thing isn't bad at all. It's not as easy as the design you posted but we don't have any issues getting in or out.

My pedals don't slide at all. It grips the carpet quite well. The nice thing about not having the pedals mounted though is when I'm done racing I can tuck them away and this is the key feature that helps keep the cockpit so short.

To be honest; before I built this cockpit I wanted to buy a premade full cockpit but the Wife was not having it. In then end I was able to talk her into letting me build a partial cockpit and its worked out for us.

Your setup is amazing. How does the vibration motors, and the headrest speakers in your Renegade Game Chair (not the Raptor) enhance or detract from your game experience?

I have the Ultimate Game Chair v3 and have a similar setup and I love it!

Great job!

I guess better late than never.

To answer your question; I have the headrest speakers disabled and I have two Klipsch speakers behind the chair for rear sound. The 12 vibe motors in the chair are hooked up to my sub out of my sound card. They work awesome! I have it adjusted just right so I can feel the motors kick in for the following reasons: if my tires hit the red/white corner stripes, rough ground/dirt, big bumps, bumping cars, wrecks, and low idle engine noise. I'm telling you right now it really adds a whole new level to racing. Add a good FF wheel and ....awesome has been reached.

I then have a Klipsch sub directly behind the seat which houses two after-market 6.5" sub woofers. It's just fun to drive in and I recently added a working 5" Tach. I just ordered a back lit mini keyboard, a 7 port powered USB hub and a digital gear indicator today. I will be building a dashboard in the coming weeks and will have the tach and digital read out display installed in it. Can't wait!

great job, thanks for all the details , some great ideas

haha you got the same screwdriver as me.

Nice work BTW

good job on the rig. I really love the shift console. I might have to copy that for mine. I just got done building mine out of 1.5" PVC. I should post some pics.

Thanks guys!

Yes that FANG game pad was used for a 'sim racing button box' lol never heard it put that way before but the FANG is no longer a part of this rig. I decided it didn't have the full functionality that I needed and so I tossed that and bought a mini keyboard with backlight. I'm actually in the middle of building a dashboard to house my tachometer, shift light, and digital gear display. Once that is completed I will mount the mini kb somewhere or maybe on the wall next to the cockpit...

Once everything is done I will update with more pics.