admin panel / What are must-haves?

[ei8ht]

Hello,

I am planning an admin panel for my arcade and want to know what in your opinions are must-haves.

Thx in advance.

ei8ht

[javeryh]

Hi.  This has been discussed in these threads (among others):

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=102582.0
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=91973.0
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=93367.0

I use P1 start, P2 start, pause and exit on mine.  Hope this helps!

[Smeghead]

I use Atomic which needs F1 to bring up the filter/search menu

[Havok]

I use Atomic which needs F1 to bring up the filter/search menu

You can define whatever key you want - I have mine setup to use Player2 start to bring up the search menu.

[leapinlew]

I use P1 and P2 buttons only. I use a shift function to exit game, power down, and pause.

[sstralkowski]

I was going to reply in one of the other threads, but my experience with various community tells me that thread necromancy  (especially for a now redundant topic) is frowned upon. 

Anyway, I plan on using Exit/Back, Pause, and Save.  I'll have the enter key be player 1 button 1.  And I'll likely make the Save function as shift functions using the actual save button plus buttons 1-6 on  player 1 as different save slots.  My question is about the load key.  Could I potentiall have the save key also be the load key or would it save the title screen overtop my saved game? 

[Smeghead]

You could do a macro that when you press a button it effectly does - a save then a 1 in repsonse to the prompt
I was thinking of doing this too. I THINK you can right?

[leapinlew]

Save

Save State?

Thats a slipperly slope. I ruined one of my all time favorite games using save.

[Havok]

Save

Save State?

Thats a slipperly slope. I ruined one of my all time favorite games using save.

Yep - I just compile with hi-score support...

[Smeghead]

want to do mine?   

[sstralkowski]

You could do a macro that when you press a button it effectly does - a save then a 1 in repsonse to the prompt
I was thinking of doing this too. I THINK you can right?

Not quite sure what you mean here. 

Save

Save State?

Thats a slipperly slope. I ruined one of my all time favorite games using save.

It will mainly be used for games like scrolling brawlers where the games are long and not savable.  I see no point in using it for say Donkey Kong or Dig Dug.  I'm guessing that's how you ruined your game?

[Havok]

want to do mine?   

With Headkaze's program, it really is simple:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=71845.0

I still do it old school sometimes, just for fun, but his app makes it pretty easy.

[shfifty]

My old control panel had no admin panel, everything was done with shift type functions. (1P + 2P + UP = exit, 1P = load, etc). This method works fine and keeps your panel feeling 'authentic'. Except you will need some visible instructions on how to operate the functions. If your like me, you will have lots of friends using your machine and it gets kind of annoying explaining 10000000 times what the different functions are.

My new panel im making has 4 admin buttons, these are my decided functions:
1 = open game
2 = vol down
3 = vol up
2 + 3 = exit game
4 = pause

As for the pause button, i never had one previously so whenever i got a phone call etc i'd end up opening the drawer and hitting P on the keyboard to pause. Now I want to keep my keyboard locked and only opened when necessary, so i copped out and put the pause button on the panel.

As for save buttons, i say no, never. Not for MAME. Arcade games are meant to be played in one hard session from start to finish until your wrists hurt, eyes are straining and your mouth is soo dry that you can taste cheese in the back of your throat. Pause button is as far as i will go, save/load is ghey

[Malenko]

save/load is ghey

Unless you have kids, or a busy work schedule or not a lot of free time or TONS of other reasons. I've started games of Open Ice and had to save to resume later. I should give up a 5 goal lead with 3 minutes left to play and start over because my niece needs a ride to school? I should play 35 minutes of Ninja Turtles then just start over because I dont have time to finish it? I beat Street Fighter II:Championship edition without continuing, and I wanna show you the special credit scroll, but I should do it all over instead of loading a save state?

for shame.

[Havok]

As for save buttons, i say no, never. Not for MAME. Arcade games are meant to be played in one hard session from start to finish until your wrists hurt, eyes are straining and your mouth is soo dry that you can taste cheese in the back of your throat. Pause button is as far as i will go, save/load is ghey

Well said - save\load is for the console wimps. If you can't finish a game because you have to give a niece a ride to school, or can't finish some fighter game in a session then suck it up Sally and start over!

[Malenko]

I'm not advocating saving every 2 minutes and then reloading if you mess up, thats for saps.Those are the kind of kids that reset Grand Theft Auto and load their last save because they died.  But to halt play to continue later? thats fine by me.

[jfunk]

I put P1 & P2 start and coin, plus pause and escape on mine.  It's separate from my main control panel:



I also put a switch inside the cabinet to turn off the p1/p2 coin buttons to force people to use tokens 

[sstralkowski]

I'm not advocating saving every 2 minutes and then reloading if you mess up, thats for saps.Those are the kind of kids that reset Grand Theft Auto and load their last save because they died.  But to halt play to continue later? thats fine by me.

I'm with you, dude.  I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that sometimes life trumps gaming.  No reason for those guys to be so elitist towards you. 

[leapinlew]

I'm not advocating saving every 2 minutes and then reloading if you mess up, thats for saps.Those are the kind of kids that reset Grand Theft Auto and load their last save because they died.  But to halt play to continue later? thats fine by me.

I'm with you, dude.  I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that sometimes life trumps gaming.  No reason for those guys to be so elitist towards you. 

I have paused games before... and left the games paused till I come back from dinner or whatever. It's difficult to pick right back up where you left off though with many games. Robotron as an example, when I'm playing a good game of Robotron. It totally messes up my game if I take a break in the action.

[ivwshane]

I have two admin buttons, both also double as left/right mouse buttons.

Left admin is; left mouse button when not in a game, in game it is mapped to the tab key to allow for on the fly button configuration.

Right admin is: right mouse button when not in a game, in game it's mapped to pause.

Player 1 start + admin right equals game exit.

I haven't done it yet but I am thinking of mapping Player 1 + left for volume up and Player 2 + left for volume down.