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What's up with the angling?

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DogFish:

haha, you answered my question before i even asked it!

you are truely fantastic, Mr. Khalid.

paigeoliver:

I apologize. Sometimes I feel like I am just beating my head against a wall with some of this stuff. It can get frustrating.

I have never played on an exact precise clone of the control panel layout you have come up with. I have played on maybe a half dozen machines that had angled sticks (several pretty similar to your layout but not exact). There was always some level of strangeness to it that ranged from mildly weird to totally unplayable. The larger the angle and the closer you were to the screen the worse it got. I have played on countless machines that didn't angle the sticks and the only thing that was ever weird about it was the less than ideal screen viewing angle that most 4 player machines gave the 3rd and 4th players.

The alignment of the buttons in relation to the alignment of the stick isn't a real issue. If you look at enough original machines you can see that they swung those all over the place on multiplayer machines. The reason it isn't an issue is because your joystick hand isn't doing the same thing as your button hands, at all. It is up in the air holding a stick controlling the action that happens on the monitor and that is why aligning the stick with the monitor works most naturally. That is why when you drive your car you can operate it just fine with your steering wheel at one level and your shifter down much lower. However if you tried to ergonomically angle that shifter gate pattern to fit the angle of your arm you would find it would be harder to control.

It might also help if you could imagine piloting a plane with that stick, and the monitor is the front window of the plane. The plane will always be easiest to fly if the controls face the same was as the window, even if you approach the stick from an angle.




--- Quote from: DogFish on March 06, 2012, 01:15:56 pm ---nicely done ^_^

you were doing so well til you said

"But hey, you win. Your layout solves the problem perfectly. It will never be awkward or troublesome for anyone. You should build it."

apparently, 10+ years in the industry has not taught you common human decency.

also, i take it you don't see how a straight layout or an octagon layout with northward sticks is troublesome?

--- End quote ---


Vigo:

You can consider just not putting major angles into your CP design at all. Here is the one that Haruman just acquired from Timeo.



I think this looks like a fine 4p panel.

paigeoliver:

Peja. When I owned my 4 player TMNT cabinet people usually just waited to play it two at a time rather than all cramming in, however I also had multiple machines to choose from. Building a second (vertical) cabinet if you have room for it might be the better choice.

How old you and your friends are plays a big part too, once you get past your early 20s your machine isn't really going to see much 4 player action until you are much older and then it will be the kids, not the adults. You might get all your buddies over to go through TMNT once, maybe even twice, but the novelty will wear off quickly.


--- Quote from: Peja on March 06, 2012, 01:32:35 pm ---Kahlid,

I noticed you said P3 and P4 were barely played while 1 and 2 were into the wee hours of the morning.  Is this because of just hardly any 4 player games to play or because the controls were angled wrong?  

I'm in the process of cutting my CP this weekend and have yet to decide on all 4 players with trackball or just 2 players with trackball.  I have all the controls for 4 players, just not sure if it will be too cramped and not used.  However, I do want to play Dreamcast on my machine so I am leaning towards 4 players.

Thanks,

--- End quote ---


kahlid74:


--- Quote from: Peja on March 06, 2012, 01:32:35 pm ---Kahlid,

I noticed you said P3 and P4 were barely played while 1 and 2 were into the wee hours of the morning.  Is this because of just hardly any 4 player games to play or because the controls were angled wrong? 

I'm in the process of cutting my CP this weekend and have yet to decide on all 4 players with trackball or just 2 players with trackball.  I have all the controls for 4 players, just not sure if it will be too cramped and not used.  However, I do want to play Dreamcast on my machine so I am leaning towards 4 players.

Thanks,

--- End quote ---

Honestly, I'm super happy I built it four player.  There's still plenty of cases where all four players were being used and we had parties of 30-50 people just about every weekend for a year straight there.  I think the majority of people were there to drink/hang out/hook up so after the initial hour the novelty wore off and only the hardcore arcadists were still rocking it (1 and 2 player).  I can however tell you we had numerous instances where my close group of friends would rock all the way through four players of Sunset riders or captain American and the avengers or X-Men, so I'm very happy I built it four players.  So IMO you can't go wrong with a four player unless you want to build something specific instead of a full size cab.

From a design perspective I'm super happy I angled the positions of player 3/4 to the side on the CP.  The spacing physically is just enough where people can stand somewhat comfortably and the viewing perspective is still workable.  I've only every built cabs with 27" screens or larger (TV {CRT and LCD}) so I've lucked out in the skewed viewing angle by angling the CP.  I'm building another CP right now and I plan to have it drilled by this weekend.  I'll upload photos for you guys so you can see how it looks and whether you like the look/feel of it.

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