four player joystick mounting question

[Shieldwolf]

I have players 3 and 4 at ab out a 35 to 45 degree angle so when I'm mounting my joystick I would want to mount the joystick at that same angle right? so that it lines up at 90 degrees with the buttons?

[TalkingOctopus]

That's what I did.

[jerryjanis]

Evert 4-player control panel from an actual arcade game that I've seen (tmnt, simpsons, gauntlet, d&d, etc. etc.) mount all 4 joysticks with the same orientation.  I've read people mention that it's ok to mount them at an angle, and some like it better, but I'm going to go with the decisions made by the makers of Gauntlet, personally.

Also, mounting your joysticks at an angle will mean that dual joystick games such as Karate Champ Vs, Total Carnage, (etc.) probably won't play very well at all.

[jerryjanis]

Evert 4-player control panel from an actual arcade game that I've seen (tmnt, simpsons, gauntlet, d&d, etc. etc.) mount all 4 joysticks with the same orientation.  I've read people mention that it's ok to mount them at an angle, and some like it better, but I'm going to go with the decisions made by the makers of Gauntlet, personally.

Also, mounting your joysticks at an angle will mean that dual joystick games such as Karate Champ Vs, Total Carnage, (etc.) probably won't play very well at all.

Here's a pic of the gauntlet CP - you can tell the joystick orientaion by looking at the screws:

[cdbrown]

I originally was going for a angled mount for P3 and P4 but after having the cardboard mock-up it didn't seem right.  when you push you joystick left (parallel to the screen) you want your character to go left on the screen.  If the joystick is angled and P3 pulled joystick left parallel with screen the character would go down-left.

I now have all the joysticks orientated the same, but have moved the positions of the buttons so that P3 buttons are slightly lower than the stick and P4 buttons are slightly higher than the stick.  A bit like the second pic above except the P1 and P2 has the buttons alligned with the sticks

[paigeoliver]

Yeah folks, when in doubt trust whatever Atari did. Atari was huge back in the day, and I will be they spent actual money researching the joystick angles on 4-player games.

[grafixmonkey]

Well, I mounted my 3 and 4 player joysticks at angles, and kinda wish I hadn't.  It's okay to play, the people at those stations get used to it, but I get the feeling that peoples' brains naturally orient "up" as perpendicular to the back of the panel, cuz that's the direction I keep wanting to press, even if the joystick's up direction does point right towards the TV screen.