Getting ready to start a control panel

[shauny]

First off, great site! Tons of great info!

So, I'm starting my plans for a CP and am having a hard time deciding on a button color. So I'm sure this will be a hard question to answer since I don't know what the artwork will be (thinking simple at this point) but I can say it's going to be a coffee table top CP, not going with full cab due to space restrictions and it's going to be a 2 person fighter layout SF2 style with the extra thumb button. This will be to start but will add "stuff" as I go.

So 2 questions,

How do you go about deciding your button colors where the design is a work in progress? So I guess safe color choices would be the way to go.

Besides the main control buttons; Joystick, buttons 1 -7, p1, p2, coin1, coin2, esc. What other buttons do you guys put on for games and to make navigation easier? I see alot of CP's with 2 buttons on each side of the cp which I assume is for pinball. But wouldn't you just need 1 per side?

Looking to build a cp for all consoles + mame.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll post some pics as I go.

[DirtyDachshunds]

I have buttons for pause, exit, quick save, and quick load.  I also have an additional 3 buttons for the trackball and spinner (as well as mouse). 

I don't know what to tell you about button color.  I went the standard red and blue for player buttons.  I would say finish your design first, then choose the button colors.

I am also building a cab for a bunch of consoles + mame, and it is a lot of work.  If you don't already have all your emulators and roms configured with your FE, be prepared for many hours of work.  It takes longer than you think.  And you need a decent machine for dreamcast and above emulation and hyperspin.

[shauny]

I have buttons for pause, exit, quick save, and quick load.  I also have an additional 3 buttons for the trackball and spinner (as well as mouse). 

I don't know what to tell you about button color.  I went the standard red and blue for player buttons.  I would say finish your design first, then choose the button colors.

I am also building a cab for a bunch of consoles + mame, and it is a lot of work.  If you don't already have all your emulators and roms configured with your FE, be prepared for many hours of work.  It takes longer than you think.  And you need a decent machine for dreamcast and above emulation and hyperspin.

I probably have 20hrs into the FE setup already. I am using hyperspin, and it is by far the nicest fe that I demoed.

I'm taking it one emulator at a time. So far I have completed NES, SNES, GENESIS, and Daphne (sort of) this one is tough without a controller. Next will be MAME. Yea I am in no way kidding myself that this is will be plug and play. MY PC should be ok. Hardest part so far is getting the rom sets to play nice.

quick specs
4gig ram
3.2 Intel Dual Core overclocked to 4
1 gig vid card

I think I'm leaning to a single color(maybe led) layout for buttons and stick, I think it will look less busy.
The hidden buttons (start, esc, save/load state (I like that idea) will be black)

[orchidius]

I guess it all comes down to the space you have and what you're looking for... Say you wanted a very clean look with just your 6 buttons per person and a joystick. This is perfectly possible since most encoders have a "shift" key that allows a second command to be assigned to every button. On the other end you could get an extra button for every single command if you have room for it and don't mind a crowded CP.

For the pinball buttons: most people use two per side because one is used to "nudge" and one is used to use the flipper itself. I personally don't really use the "nudge" thingy, so I don't have a second button planned for my CP. Again, personal preference is key here...

Same goes for button color really, but I totally understand the situation you're in. I'm a total disaster when it comes to designing artwork, so I just keep postponing the design phase. What I did for button color/cab color/t-molding color is the following: I went with very neutral "colors". My cab itself is black, my t-molding is chrome (silver) and my buttons are translucent LED buttons. The buttons will be fitted with RGB leds, so that leaves me with an infinite number of color options once the design is done! My admin buttons are plain black, but you can get button decals in various colors too, so you can get those to fit your CP design.

Hope this was any useful :p

[shauny]

That was helpful So I decided on a color (i think).  And since this is my real first photoshop attempt, I decided to not reinvent the wheel and practice on a known AWSOME design. So like many others I started with the kneivels cosmic frostbite background. I'll move on to something more original in the future but I really want to get this made so I can do what this is all for...   Plus it looks so damn purty. 

This is what I have so far. Literally first photoshop project ever so everything to way longer than it should have. Probably 6hrs on this so far.

Opinions welcomed

[shauny]

welp.
i didn't feel right copying so I spent most of the night building another from scratch. Partly because I don't think I could get the resolution needed for a printout but mainly because I wanted to do something on my own. So here it is.

I found the vector background on the web and then did "borrow" the halos.

Vector stuff is hard to find.

Is there a way to convert raster to vector easily?

[DirtyDachshunds]

I like your second attempt better.  A lot of people here like the space theme and some of the space cabs blend to me.  And you should personalize your cab as much as possible.

Vector stuff is hard to find.  With my cab, I wanted a very arcade-y style so I used a lot of vector art found here:
http://vectorlib.free.fr/

I used some vector art here, but made my own theme to make it mine.  But this probably won't work with your theme. 

With little photoshop experience (like me), either you have to take the time to learn and make something you like, or hire someone to do it for you.

There is no way to convert raster to vector easily as far as I know.

[Harakiri]

What about a minimalistic approach to a cabinet? Here are some examples:



http://lifehacker.com/398343/turn-your-broken-laptop-into-an-arcade-cocktail-cabinet



http://sparkbugg.wordpress.com/category/furniture/



http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html



http://www.uphaa.com/blog/index.php/geeky-furniture/


 

[shauny]

Here is the third one im working on. This one I like the best I think.
Still need to add labels (or not) player 1 / 2  etc etc.

Think I should continue across with the characters or keep them bunched at 1 and 2 players. Kinda like teams.  

This one took about 8 to 10 hrs so far. Cutting out backgrounds suuuuuuuuuucks.

Dirty, Thanks for that link... really got me thinking and though I could not use much vector from there, I was able to get high enough res images to start this one

[DirtyDachshunds]

Lookin good!  I personally like the last one the best as well.  I like what your doing with the two sides of characters, looking like they're ready to battle.  My CP is similar with the separation of the red vs blue.

As for the labels, thats a personal preference thing.  I don't use any.

[shauny]

As I kept going, it kind of took on the feel of a where's waldo kinda thing. Thought it would be fun to put as many characters as possible in there so every time you look at it you see something else

I like how your characters all match in style. Did you draw any of them yourself?

I cannot figure out for the life of me how to get that nice curve in at the bottom of the cp. Is that with the pen tool or rounded edge square tool then manipulate. It seems simple enough but has stumped me through three attempts.

Do you know the diamater of the dust jacket for a happs competition stick?

[DirtyDachshunds]

I like a bunch of characters on the CP, but most on this site don't.

I didn't draw any of the characters.  I have little art ability.

As for the rounded curve just use the bottom of a HUGE ellipse.  I'm my case I used two ellipses for my edges, since mine doesn't continually curve.  But for you just make one really big ellipse and use the bottom curve of it.

[shauny]

so kind of like 2 circles since the top is more right angle than the bottom.

rounded rectangle for top and
ellipse for bottom.

genius... thank you.

[shauny]

thanks for the help!

I officially started a project announcement thread 

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=106762.0