Admin buttons and non-MAME emulators/PC games?

[shponglefan]

Disclaimer:  I know that any time an admin button thread comes up, invariably some people like to talk about how they hate having admin buttons on their cabs, kids us them to mess things up, shifted functions are so much better, etc, etc.  I am not one of those people; rather, I like things as simple as possible and I have no kids.

For people who use other emulators or PC games, are there any keys people have found the need/want for a dedicated admin button?  I plan to have at least Esc, Tab and Enter for MAME, and figure that would be a safe bet for other games/emulators.  In another thread, Visual Pinball and Future Pinball were listed as having dedicated keyboard key functions.  Any others that people have run into?

[PL1]

Nothing that special for the VP/FP keys.

If you have an AVR encoder, you can hot-swap modes between MAME and pinball with one quick press of the Hardware Button. (HWB)

If you have an I-Pac or Keywiz, program spare/unused inputs to cover the  flipper buttons that aren't already covered.  Worst case scenario - reprogram the default for buttons like P2B5 + P2B6 in MAME to match the desired flipper functions.


Scott

[angryred]

I made a row of 12 Atari-Volcano style buttons across the top edge of my panel, right where the panel meets the bezel, for admin functions.
 
3 groups of 4 buttons:
1) Esc, Enter, Tab and ~.
2) Pause, F2 (operator settings for many games), 9 (service coin) and a blank in case I missed something (still blank after 4 years).
3) Another blank, F1 (crosshair toggle for gun games), F3 (game reset), and F10 (I forget what it is in MAME, but I know it comes in handy on Stella, the Atari 2600 emu; it's also important in Ur-Quan Masters[Star Control 2]).

I use all of those fairly regularly (you'll REALLY wish you put Pause on there if you don't).  I do have to go to the keyboard now and then, but mainly for save states.