Cocktail Wiring Questions

[GoldenRod]

My Situation:

I have a 3 sided (ms pacman) cocktail cabinet with Mame and
all the old console games installed.

I want to make sure I wire it up correctly.

Player 1 cocktail Vertical (left of coin door).

Player 2 opposite Vertical (right of coin door).

Player 3 and 4 Horizontal on the third control panel (for
fighting games, Robotron etc.).

I thought this was the best setup, except I would have to
remap Player 3/4 for a lot of games. But since the console
games are all horizontal and need to be mapped for the
controls anyway, this might be the best way.

*The cabinet could now play four-player games.

Problem 1;

4-player games might be awkward (if not impossible)
on a cocktail where two players were sideways to the screen.

Problem 2;

I thought about wiring Player 1 (vertical) with Player 3
(horizontal), and 2-with-4. Basically there would be two
player one joysticks and two player two joysticks. Unless
your kid runs over and starts pushing buttons on the second
control panel I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Can anyone see problems with this and what would you prefer?

Problem 3;

All push buttons will have RGB LED's.
Can I do the same and send one signal from the LED Controller
(PacLED64) to both player 1 (double controls, formerly player 3) fire buttons etc, to save time
and trouble mapping out the button lights? or will the power
to the LED's be cut in half?

Thanks for any info.

[wivelden]

I currently have the same problem and wondered on the solution to this.
I really dont want to wire up Player 1 vertical to player 3 horizontal.
Have you found a solution to this yet?

[GoldenRod]

I haven't received any responses.

If I finally go with the third control panel I'm going to wire it as 3 and 4 joysticks. Unless someone here gives me better advice from experience. Because so much has to be remapped anyway, and a four player cab might work for Gauntlet, then map the 1 and 2 joys at a 90 degree angle (Up = Right etc).

The reason I say If is because if I can get a small trackball on one vertical end I might not add the third control panel since Mame can split-screen co-op games in vertical mode. I would be giving up Robotron, Battlezone and a wider screen for horizontals but gaining less work, money and cabinet footprint.

As for the RGB buttons; I'm assuming all four sets of player control buttons are the same when it comes to fire, thrust etc. (the main reason I want them lit up, so new players know what button does what) so all those buttons should be the same, unless you want a spectacular unique attract mode. But I'm also assuming that if I run one lead from the LED controller to four #1 fire buttons for example the power would be 25% for each.