Six, Seven or Eight Buttons

[clickaus]

Hey Guys

I am just about to start work on my first arcade but I need some advice on the amount of buttons I should have for each player.
I am building a 2 player cab and looking at running multiple emulators with MA or Hyperspin.
My question is will having only six buttons for each player limit the amount of games I can play.
I see alot of machines with seven and a few with eight is this because of a certain emulator needs the extra buttons.

Thx in advance

[Donkbaca]

I'll let you know what I am doing and my thought pattern and you can decide for yourself:

My main concern is making the CP intuitive and user friendly since I want to be able to play with the wife and friends and I am worried about them being overwhelmed, so I think a minimalist approach is best. I decided on 7 buttons per player, arranged like this:

 xxx
xxxx

The rationale is I love street fighter and neo-geo games, so I have the sic button config, and the extra 7th button is so that when I play neo geo games, you have the 4 buttons in a row.  The 7th button is also good for using the "run" button on MK3.  The way I see it, for MAME, there is no need to have 8 buttons, nothing that I can think of uses more than 6, and if you aren't into fighters, you can get away with 4.

As for emu's, which ones are you going to run?  If you think about it, NES, SNES, Genesis and PS1 use 6 buttons or less for just about every game.  Same goes for N64.  That being said, personally, I think its best to play console emus with a control pad.  So for my emu's I am using 2 wireless xbox360 controllers. 

My advice is think about who you are designing the CP for, and what games will be mostly played on it.  To me, its not worth it to stick extra buttons and controls on a CP if you are rarely going to use them.  And personally, I think console games are more fun with controllers than with joysticks and wireless 360 controllers are an easy, simple, clean way to add controllers to your cabinet, and they have enough buttons and joysticks to play every console emu.

[clickaus]

Thanks for the great advice Donkbaca, I did not know you could have xbox 360 controllers hook to the cab.
With all that info I might stick with my six button layout (as I already have the cp artwork done for six buttons) and buy two xbox controllers just incase.

This is my first cab so I was just making sure I didn't miss out on anything by going with six
Thx again 

[BonzNumber1]

I did not know you could have xbox 360 controllers hook to the cab.

you could do what i'm doing i'm wireing 4 usb ports and 2 of each game controller port (xbox and ps2) under the CP so there hidden but still there for when i feel like playing console games =)

[Donkbaca]

No problem!  Glad I could help.  Two ways you can go about it, get wired XB360 controllers and plug them into a USB.  You can get these:
http://www.lizardlick.com/Neutrik-NAUSB-W-B-AB-USB-Feed-Through-Black_p_222.html

to have some nice USB ports on the outside of your cab to hook up wired sb360 controllers, or you can use wireless xb360 controllers and get this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Wireless-PC-USB-Controller-Receiver-Adapter-xbox360-/250718978843?pt=Video_Games_Accessories&hash=item3a6004031b

that will allow you to use your XB360 controllers.

If you look here:

www.retrousb.com  they have adapters that let you use old console controllers with your usb ports, I read one post where some guy was going to have ports for every controller so that the emu's were more "authentic"  but that's overkill in my opinion.  Like I said, personally, I like to keep things simple, so I use XB360's.  Easy to set up, enough buttons for every console, and no wires to clutter things up with.

[Donkbaca]

Oh yeah, one more thing.  In case you haven't checked it out, go to www.slagcoin.com.  Find the layout you like, then print it out lifesize, then all you need to do is tape it to your CP and drill.  It's a great resource

[clickaus]

The arcade I have decided to build is this one http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=78494.0
I actually pm the maker Karlpenney, he was kind enough to send me all the art work and a drill plan for the cp.
My only worry was if I was going to have seven or eight buttons, I would have had to change the artwork and I have no idea how to use photoshop.
This is why I am wrapped that I can stick with the six button layout and if I need extra buttons for a game I will just use the xbox controllers.

Can you use PS3 controllers instead of Xbox 360 ones ?

Thx for all the links and info Donkbaca 

[clickaus]

I did not know you could have xbox 360 controllers hook to the cab.

you could do what i'm doing i'm wireing 4 usb ports and 2 of each game controller port (xbox and ps2) under the CP so there hidden but still there for when i feel like playing console games =)

I hopefully will be trying to do something similar

[BonzNumber1]

I did not know you could have xbox 360 controllers hook to the cab.

you could do what i'm doing i'm wireing 4 usb ports and 2 of each game controller port (xbox and ps2) under the CP so there hidden but still there for when i feel like playing console games =)

I hopefully will be trying to do something similar

for me the best part of that is i can use the usb to load games onto it from my external hard drive without having to open the back. It is much faster than over then network

[Donkbaca]

Not sure about ps3 controllers, but I know there are USB adapters fit wired ps1 and ps2 controllers. I used to use one before I went the wireless 360 route.

[BonzNumber1]

Not sure about ps3 controllers, but I know there are USB adapters fit wired ps1 and ps2 controllers. I used to use one before I went the wireless 360 route.

ps3 cable is usb but it can also connect to a computers blue tooth with the right software in place.  the ps1/2 port usb thingy your talking about is exactly what i'm using im my CP i'm gonna add it to my CP so the port sticks out but i don't end up with an adapter hanging off my CP

[justinjstark]

Hey Guys

I am just about to start work on my first arcade but I need some advice on the amount of buttons I should have for each player.
I am building a 2 player cab and looking at running multiple emulators with MA or Hyperspin.
My question is will having only six buttons for each player limit the amount of games I can play.
I see alot of machines with seven and a few with eight is this because of a certain emulator needs the extra buttons.

Thx in advance

The most buttons I have ever used is six and that is for super nintendo emulation.  Don't overdo it.  I am putting 4 buttons each on my bartop and it will be enough for any game I want to play.  I have 6 buttons each on my upright but I wish I had only put in 4.  The extra 2 buttons just get in the way of where I want to rest the side of my hand.

I find 4 buttons arranged exactly like the 4 left-most buttons in the following diagram to be the most most comfortable.  I use my pointer finger, middle finger, and thumb on the top two and bottom left button and I don't have any fatigue.