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Astounding, the fervor for an Asteroids button layout
NoBullMAME:
When I was in college we had one in our rental house; I had a roommate who could turn the machine over at will (I don't recall how long it took, over an hour I think).
Anyway, I've had some hardcore Asteroids customers demand authentic layouts. Nave made sense to me, but to each his own!
D_Harris:
To each their own.
I just made two uncluttered control panels and made sure the button format allows for Asteroids. (And Gunsmoke).
The only difference between the two is that one has a joystick and the other has a spinner.
Me and those I made the control panels for are into the classic games, so there is nothing wrong with the that button format, which allows for most any button game from that era.
The image below shows the basic layout.
Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.
HanoiBoi:
The only thing I don't like is the spacing. The 'paired' buttons are too far apart and the hyperspace even worse. I'm all for the 5 button layout. Once you're that far apart, you might as well map other buttons to work.
I have the Asteroids layout for both player 1 & 2. They each have 4-8 way joys too. I'm not too into the games that require 6 buttons, so nothing lost for me.
Also, I'm in a Space Duel cab so that makes a little more sense anyway. Kinda like you can't mame a Tempest and omit a spinner.
isucamper:
Seems like a clean layout to me, other than the spacing as was mentioned. There's definitely worse out there.
If I had to guess I'd say one of those spinners is a smooth turbo twist style spinner, and the other is an Arkanoid like dial.
D_Harris:
?!?
I don't understand what the problem is with his spacing. It seems good enough for Asteroids. My full sized arcade Asteroids game is but five feet away from me as I type this and the format is, for all intents and purposes, the same.
I estimate that the center of his his "Rotate Left" button is about 10 inches from the center of his "Fire" button, which is three inches more real estate than on an actual machine. That is really the only glaring difference. In fact, I consider it an improvement because the original Asteroids button format had them too close anyway.
And besides, he might just have the "Thrust" and "Fire" buttons for Asteroids set up to also be used with the right joystick, which would make sense because there are no other options for a right handed player on that CP.
Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.