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| AzureKnight:
I am building my first arcade machine. I plan on doing an all in one kind of mame machine and I know I am building a Frankenpanel. I'm OK with that, my goal here is to try and make it as "nice" as possible. Here is the layout, currently based on the mameroom.com cp (undecided if I am going with their plans or not but it is a good starting point). Everything in the picture is NOT perfectly lined up, this is more of a rough draft phase. The color coding is really to tell things apart and is not reflective of the finished product. First up there will be a fair amount of 4 player action (Simpsons, TMNT, Gauntlet, etc). Also, I love Karate Champ and Assault so support of those two games is a must. All that being said.... The Yellow Joysticks for player 3 and 4 are rotary joysticks. The Blue Joysticks are Happ competitions for fighting games and general use. The Black Joystick will be a U360 for analog games and 4 way play (not super important to me) The Red Joystick is a Happ compact top fire (this is really just for Assault, a game I love) Trackball and Spinner, I don't see the spinner receiving much use and is real close to being dropped for now to save some money. I plan on wiring up a coin door for the coins, that leaves the 4 player buttons and 2 function buttons. So....how ugly is this beast? Please be honest, I'm think skinned and looking for feedback good or bad. Should I angle the two outer players buttons or keep them in line with the joystick? Is there a better way I can lay all this out? Should I drop the extra player 1 and 2 joysticks and play the dual joystick games at a really odd angle using the other player joysticks? Has anyone tried this? How well does it work? If I do this the rotary joysticks would have to become the core player joysticks, how do people find these work with fighting games like SF2? Should I offset the trackball to one side for ease of use? I'll be honest I have a fair amount of uncertainty on this build and would welcome any and all input. |
| AzureKnight:
It would help if I include the image I think..... ??? |
| AzureKnight:
This would be a more common layout it seems, but it would force the dual joystick games to play at a really odd angle and the rotary sticks would become my primary two joysticks. I'm not sure how I would feel about this one... |
| drventure:
I think the outside players aren't going to be comfortable with the buttons placed where they are. For the right side player, the buttons will be almost directly UNDER the stick. Opposite for left side. I'd shift the buttons up for the right, down for the left. The thing to remember is that P3 and P4 won't be standing in front, they'll be off to the sides. Whether you want to rotate the sticks is personal pref. I rotated mine, and they work just fine for me and everyone that's played it, but I know many people don't like em rotated. |
| deepblue:
Here's my 4 player Panel. At 48 inches across I think it is "borderline" Frankenpanel...but not like some of the beasts I've seen in here. Might give you some food for thought. Here was my mockup: and here's what I ended up with: The question of whether or not to angle P3 and P4 has been endlessly debated - you'll find fairly polarized opinion on the matter. I "personally" think that it is too awkward having them straight as everyone will be shoulder-to-shoulder. That said, if you angle them make sure you don't have sharp corners (for obvious reasons!) and make sure the viewing angle is ok. Lastly - I'd suggest doing something similar to what I did and put "markers" on your CP artwork to show the player what way is up. Best advice I can give you is to read as many 4 player project threads as you can and draw your own conclusions based on other people's successes and mistakes. Welcome to the forum/hobby! |
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