how many admin buttons

[Jack Burton]

Wire a "shift" button to a switch next to the test and service buttons in your cabinet.  Map all your admin functions to each your controls plus the shift button.

When you want to do admin stuff on your cab unlock the coin door, flip the switch and all your controls become shifted to admin functions.  When you're done exit your menus, unflip the switch and lock the door up.

[JustMichael]

One last thing to keep in mind with "admin" buttons, keep them out of sight or make sure their layout makes sense on the cabinet.  Simply put you don't want to accidentally hit them.

[Marsupial]

and a little while ago i built a token dispenser, press a button and it spits out 50 tokens.. just an old fruit machine coin hopper (bit that pays out) and a circuit to pulse the hoppers input 50 times, it then counts out 50 tokens.

please do post (or PM me) pictures and details.
I am looking at making one myself, would greatly use your idea.

what's a coin hopper??


for the spinner... I too am looking at that. Some people put them in the front of the machine, I want to try that out before drilling mine. 

[ranma]

and a little while ago i built a token dispenser, press a button and it spits out 50 tokens.. just an old fruit machine coin hopper (bit that pays out) and a circuit to pulse the hoppers input 50 times, it then counts out 50 tokens.

please do post (or PM me) pictures and details.
I am looking at making one myself, would greatly use your idea.

what's a coin hopper??


for the spinner... I too am looking at that. Some people put them in the front of the machine, I want to try that out before drilling mine. 

Sorry to continue the offtopic, but I was looking for the same as well, maybe create a thread with some detail? 

[gazz292]

a coin hopper is a hopper, (as in it holds a large ammount of things... coins in this case), and it spits them out via an electric motor and cointing system when instructed to do so,

they are found in almost all modern slot machines to pay out the winnings.

i have a rought write up of how i did my token dispenser at http://www.freewebs.com/ratsarsearcade/tokendispenser.htm

i have changed it a little since that write up, i no longer have the coin validator, and instead have a button and a simple circuit using a couple of 555 timers to generate 50 pulses, which feed the hoppers input wire, and makes it count out 50 tokens.

i am in the UK btw, so terminoligy may be strange, i imagine you can get universal hoppers in america, or something similar, i chose that as it's self contained electronics wise, it will spit out one coin for every pulse you send it on one of the wires,

a lot of hoppers only have a motor and opto's, the counting is done by the main processor in the host machine,

i guess if you dont want a specific ammount of tokens spat out, then get a pachislo token hopper (from a pachislo machine) and just run a button to powe the motor when pressed,

you just hold the button till you have enough tokens, pachislo hoppers are extremely fast at spitting tokens out,

[Erik]

How about those that installed admin buttons post some pics?

 

[severdhed]

ok, here are some pics of my two panels.

first one is from my vertical classics cabinet, there are two admin buttons, a red one on the left at the back of the panel, and a blue one on the right at the back of the panel.  both of these are translucent iL buttons that are illuminated and have novagem label inserts for exit (red) and pause(blue).  i plan on eventually replacing the yellow and blue buttons with red ones, but i just used what i had on hand at the time.


here is my 4player showcase panel, it is obviously not finished yet, but you can see the single admin button at the back in the center.  this button is pause with a quick press, and exit if you hold it for 2 seconds.

ignore the tiny monitor, this was an early pic


here you can see a closer pic of the button lit up.

[Vulgar Soul]

I'm also in the concept stage of my first cab. Jus curious, is there a way to quickly toggle video settings - specifically bezel/instruction card artwork - without having to go into the TAB menu? Because the artwork options are the only reason I'd consider a TAB button on my CP. Other than that I'd never need it, nor want it exposed to a bunch of eager players.

I'm personally sticking to a purist approach, and trying to keep as much flare, clutter, and too much intuitiveness from my CP/cabinet as possible. Maybe an Exit/Menu button, but no pause button, no open admin options, no fast forward, no save, and definitely no free credit button. I'd much prefer tokens/quarters.

Everyone gets a limited number of tokens, you get on, you play with real credit/currency on the line, try and complete the game or get a good score with what you have, and when you run out, that continue screen WILL be counting down to zero. Nothing more and nothing less than the real deal.

Of course everyone's welcome to get a new batch of tokens afterward, but distributed and moderated per play. If I did use a credit button, I'd have it locked, hidden, and moderated.

I don't know how anyone can take the time to passionately put a cabinet in their home and tolerate people playing through these games with free credits. Y'all must have a real cool circle of trusty friends, cus 90% of the fools I know will complain "wah wah these games are too hard!!" and than throw in as much free credits just to beat the whole game and never play it the way it was intended lol. It's all good though, but for the good of the games, I'm kind of against too much admin buttons myself.

[Erik]

When the admin buttons are near the edges it seems like kids would accidentally hit them while spectating.

Cup holder?  Nice!      Great idea for a CPO btw

[severdhed]

my panel is relatively high off the ground, and my kids are young (both under 4) so they can't actually see the buttons unless they are standing on something.   my little one (will be 2 in december) sometimes will stand on the stairs next to the cabinet and reach over and hit the exit button, which is why i have it set up so that you have to hold it for about 3 seconds before it will exit.

the cupholders are going to go away i think.  i dont like the way they look and i hardly ever use them.  i need to repaint the sides of my cabinet at some point, so when i do, i will remove the cup holders.

the control panel overlay was done because I am cheap.  i want to eventually do a custom designed one.  that was a poster i picked up at WalMart for $5.  it isnt' exactly what i wanted, but it is Mario, so it will do until i can make my own.  i wasnt sure if i was going to like having control panel artwork, this is the first time i have used any kind of artwork on my panels.

[gazz292]

it really seems that the people who dont have admin buttons on the cp either want to emulate a real arcade machine totaly, or know people who like pressing random buttons to see what they do, even if they've been told not to press it as it'll screw everything up.

we dont have kids, or any plans to have any, and our friends are pretty good at not doing things we tell them not to (if they didnt they'd prolly be dead by now considering all the dangerous tools in the shed, places they could electrocute them selfs if they poked about whre they shouldent and so on)

but i'm still going to have my TAB button inside the coin door, and an exit, pause and coin button on the cp, when i am setting the cab up first time, i'll re-map TAB to the pause button.

[Vulgar Soul]

it really seems that the people who dont have admin buttons on the cp either want to emulate a real arcade machine totaly, or know people who like pressing random buttons to see what they do, even if they've been told not to press it as it'll screw everything up.

we dont have kids, or any plans to have any, and our friends are pretty good at not doing things we tell them not to (if they didnt they'd prolly be dead by now considering all the dangerous tools in the shed, places they could electrocute them selfs if they poked about whre they shouldent and so on)

but i'm still going to have my TAB button inside the coin door, and an exit, pause and coin button on the cp, when i am setting the cab up first time, i'll re-map TAB to the pause button.

It's a matter of preference. Most people like having a versatile MAME or even console emulators cabinet. On the other hand I've seen plenty of talented builders here who regret adding too much. Personally, I just don't think too much options are practical or even useful for straight Arcade gaming.

I plan to have my cabinet set up in sort of a family/guest basement game room and I'd rather save myself the time and hassle of moderating a cabinet with all those options and stick to a pure cabinet. But that's just me. If your arcade is gonna be amongst cool, trusting, mature friends than I think havin free credits, pause, and TAB options would be cool. Maybe hide the TAB as a switch for administrative use at best and you be straight.

For a while I was really debating if my cabinet would even be better running only one game that I would switch up from time to time rather than have a menu with hundreds or thousands. For my game room plans I'm really not down with the whole ALL-IN-ONE ULTIMATE HOME ARCADE cabs that will just confuse and probably alienate people lol, but in your case I think it'll be fun.

[gazz292]

yup, i totally agree, we build these cabs because we want something custom, personalized, something for us to enjoy, so we should make it the way we want.

i'm personaly building my cab for me and my GF, were the ones who will be using it 99% of the time, hence why i put a joystick 'on the wrong side' my GF just can't get on with joysticks in her left hand, i also find it much easier using left for joystick, and right for buttons, so origionaly i had both sticks as right hand drive.

but i then found out that the joints in my hands are worse than i realised, so i put one stick 'normal' one 'ass backwards'
this has the advantage of allowing someone who comes round to play if they are used to normal arcade games and find the stick in the left hand too weird to cope,

but i'm not building my cab for them, like i went for 6 fire buttons per player, back when i decided on that, people said 'but what about when someone comes round and wants to play the fighting games that need 8 buttons'

i said, tuff, i dont like the fighting games, and if they go away thinking my cab is crap cos of that, then it's only them who will be bothered, i'll tell them to build their own cab with 8 buttons if it's that big a deal.

[LeedsFan]

but i'm not building my cab for them, like i went for 6 fire buttons per player, back when i decided on that, people said 'but what about when someone comes round and wants to play the fighting games that need 8 buttons'

Are there any arcade games that used 8 buttons? Not counting console fighters.....

[Vulgar Soul]

but i'm not building my cab for them, like i went for 6 fire buttons per player, back when i decided on that, people said 'but what about when someone comes round and wants to play the fighting games that need 8 buttons'

Are there any arcade games that used 8 buttons? Not counting console fighters.....

LOL thats what I'm wondering. Console gaming on an arcade cabinet just doesn't seem right to me anyway.

You must have some real tough friends if they'll get at you for not havin 8 buttons and every game ever made lol. I feel you though, I already have my Hyperspin FE set up and a crappy mock joystick I wired together (With a Reebok shoe box lol) and everytime I show it to some friends there's always one jackass that asks "Are there like, any games from today on this!?" Makes me wanna bang my head against the wall lol. Can't satisfy everyone. If people love it than great, but built it for you first. Got a wifey or a circle of friends that loved the arcades? They're second priority. The rest of the haters are welcome to go play Call of Duty or something lol.