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Number of CP Player Buttons (6 or 8)
StriderDSO:
I'm just wondering what consoles/games I would need more than six buttons on my CP for? Other than running MAME, I plan on playing other consoles/systems, such as Vice64, NES, SNES, SegaMS, Genesis, etc. However, if possible I'd like to keep the buttons to a minimum. I've seen some control panels with eight buttons, and I'm curious what these are used for?
Thanks a lot.
ragnar:
Mine had 9 to fully support the N64 controller. You can see my CP by clicking on my signature. The two right most buttons could have been convex instead of concave to make them feel different. It isn't bad having 9 in my configuration. It looks silly but is totally functional for what I wanted.
7 button layouts are fairly common. Logic to them is that you get a simple 6 button layout that handles fighters. And those 6 support pretty much everything. The 7th goes in the thumb position to support Neo Geo. The Neo Geo had 4 buttons in a single row. Mame supports Neo Geo natively since Neo Geo was both an arcade and home system. The 7 button layout is very popular.
Just my thoughts. To be honest, I don't know why some people do 8 buttons (2 rows of 4) granted that is pretty much what I did with the additional thumb button.
The best page ever on button layouts!
http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html
StriderDSO:
So the N64 requires 9 buttons to be considered complete, eh? What joystick did you use with N64 in mind (seeing as it's an analogue controller, right?)?
Oops, nvm, I just got to the point in your build thread where you mentioned using two U360s.
ragnar:
ya, two u360s. If I had to redo it, I'd do with two Mag-Stik Pluses and drop analog support altogether:
http://www.ultimarc.com/controls.html
Basically, once you add restrictor plates to the u360s, the analog control is not fine grained enough to play N64 games. It is doable and you do get used to it. It just is not worth it.
I'd love to do 3 more cabs over time. One of them would be for analog games only and utilize two flightsticks w/ 9 buttons. This would be my N64 specific cab. I'd probably make that my lightgun cab also.
Time will tell what the future brings though.
For what it is worth, people on these forums told me to ignore consoles altogether and make a good Mame cab. They were right. Simply said, you can not do a cab that does it all. All you can do is pick the games you want to support and design around that. If N64 is your target system and not Mame, consider some flightsticks.
StriderDSO:
Yeah I started out with the 'do-it-all' mentality, but have been changing my mind as of late. Went down from 4 player to 2 player, thinking of removing the spinner, etc. However, I do want to be able to play a few consoles, specifically NES, SNES, SegaMS, and Genesis, as well as some of my old favourite C64 games.
So I've noticed everyone is adding the restrictor plates to their u360s - is this really necessary? How do they play without them (keeping in mind fighting games are high on my list) - what is your opinion of them without them?