CP advice please... number of buttons etc.

[LeedsFan]

I'm just planning my next project which will be a 3/4 mini cabinet. The CP will be 19.5" inches wide as that is the width of my CRT monitor. (IIyama Vision Master Pro 514). I definitely want to play Robotron and Smash TV on this machine so it will need 2x joysticks. And with that I may as well make it a two player cab. However I don't play fighters. I'm more of a classics gamer.

So my main question is how many buttons should I use for each player? At the moment I'm leaning with three on each side. But I've seen those Neo-Geo cabs with four for each player. How many games in Mame use 3 or 4 buttons per player? I remember a utility that filtered out lists like vertical, horizontal, 4-way, 8-way etc.etc. and for the life of me I can't remember what it was. 

I'm thinking of putting the joysticks centrally on the CP (in other words the sticks will be placed just like a Robotron/Smash TV panel) so that the players hands are central to the screen, just as they would be on the original cabs.  But that means that Player 2 buttons may look a bit too far to the right side. I suppose I need to make a mock up first and see how it looks. I might even place a spinner in there if there's comfortable room. Certainly no trackball though.

I also intend to use a beefier PC for this project as I want to use Hyperspin as the FE. However I have come to love the UltraMap plugin that is availble with Mala. Can Hyperspin swap control maps on the fly for the U360? Or is this a Mala only thing? If so then I will stick with Mala as that brilliant functionality is much more important to me than the improved graphics of Hyperspin.

[nitz]

So my main question is how many buttons should I use for each player? At the moment I'm leaning with three on each side. But I've seen those Neo-Geo cabs with four for each player. How many games in Mame use 3 or 4 buttons per player? I remember a utility that filtered out lists like vertical, horizontal, 4-way, 8-way etc.etc. and for the life of me I can't remember what it was. 

If you don't care about fighters, 4 buttons should be enough for each player. There might be a few 5 buttons games worth playing (Defender comes to mind) but if you really wanted those games, you could probably make the start button double as a game button for those. Games that use 6 buttons or more are going to be either fighters or mahjong/trivia/gambling/miscellaneous type games you would likely never want to play.

The utility you're thinking of is RomLister.

Hope this helps!

[SammyWI]

I also intend to use a beefier PC for this project as I want to use Hyperspin as the FE. However I have come to love the UltraMap plugin that is availble with Mala. Can Hyperspin swap control maps on the fly for the U360? Or is this a Mala only thing? If so then I will stick with Mala as that brilliant functionality is much more important to me than the improved graphics of Hyperspin.

I know that Mala and GameEx have Ultramap swap functions, not sure about Hspin.  5 buttons are needed for Defender but 6 are needed for Stargate if you like those.  I'd put in 6 unless you don't have the room or don't like the looks.

[nitz]

Forgot that Stargate is 6 buttons - been ages since I played it. But that got me thinking - that game is 2 player alternating as is Defender. So you could have some of player 2's buttons double as player 1 buttons for those games.

Just out of interest, I went to MAWS and looked at the list of 5 and 6 button games that are 2 player simulataneous, ie the games you would not be able to play on your cab (not with 2 players anyway) if it only had 4 buttons per player. Since you're more of a classics gamer who doesn't care about fighters, I can't imagine there is much if anything on these lists that you would actually want to play.

Also, considering your CP is only 19.5 inches wide, I would think 5 or 6 buttons per player would make it mighty crowded. I say look over the 5 and 6 button gamelists either on MAWS or with RomLister and unless you see something you feel you must have as a 2 player game on your cab, go with 4 buttons per player.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck!