P1 and P2 buttons as coin buttons

[neo117]

It seems like everyone has player 1 and 2 start buttons, and player 1 and 2 coin buttons.
I made a cabinet a while back, and I joined the p1 start and coin buttons together and did the same for the p2 buttons.
doing that allowed me to use 1 button instead of two. granted you are hitting the player 1 button every time you want to add a coin, but i have yet to find a situation where this has created a problem.
is there any reason why everyone chooses to have seperate buttons? has anyone found any limitations to joining the buttons together? and if so, what are they?

[Smeghead]

What about games like Simpsons? Would adding P2 cause an extra character to be active

[neo117]

What about games like Simpsons? Would adding P2 cause an extra character to be active

i don't think so, i still have a separate p1 and p2 button so if you wanted to add a coin to p1, you would just hit the p1 button. I am not sure how the mame simpsons game works so i am not sure if i get your gist exactly

[abispac]

there are 2 versions of the simpsons, one needs a coin for each player, meaning the arcade had 4 coin slots, one for each player, and the 2 player version, that you can add coins to any of the 2 coin slots and chose your player on the screen, i remember i had the same setup on one of my projects, and never saw a problem with it.

[Turnarcades]

What he means is that some games use independant coin mechanisms for each player - this may not be apparent on two-player cabinets but can be a problem on 4-player cabs. It's also why setting up a coin mech can be problematic, unless a game that has this problem has a service menu or dip switch setting to change the number of coin mechs used, and not all do.

We've always used dedicated credit buttons for each player on all our cabinets as they make for handy extra buttons on other emulators (such as 'select' on SNES) or to help activate other features. I don't agree with ridiculously over-populated panels, but most of our customers have given feedback that it's nice to have a few available, as if they don't like our mappings for the credit or admin buttons, they find other uses for them that suit their needs and work better as an independant button.

[neo117]

i seem to recall some keyboard interfaces having player 3 and play 4 start buttons. i guess your keyboard matrix would be more of a factor than the buttons you use

[Turnarcades]

?

Not quite sure what you mean by that, but it's more a case of convenience. If 4 players each have to have their own credit function, it's far better to have one each where they can reach it rather than in the heat of the game having to press button combinations - a pain on a big 4 player panel. The interface isn't a problem as all good interfaces have plenty of available inputs and are fully programmable, and also don't use a matrix.

[mrtuesday42]

i see both reasons. i have mine setup with a coin mech. granted its only a 2 player so its less of an issue. i personally didnt want to clutter things up with a dedicated coin button for each player. that and you cant get people to give you quarters like a coin mech can!