Ergonomics of Arcade cabinets

[Serpent]

First of all, sorry for my English. It's not easy to explain things in a foreign language.

Here you can see 3 drawings made with FreeHand at real size. I've used photos of my body which I've scaled in order to make some desings of my future cabinet.

On the right you can see a project for a upright cabinet. I used a photo of a real generic cabinet for the shape, but I had to modify it a little so that a bigger monitor could fit it, so it's taller and bigger. As you can see, my arms are in a confortable position, with the right angle. The inclination of the panel is just enough and is adecuate for my height. The tendency in this position of my body is to look forward and a little down, so you can see that the monitor is inclined, not as much as a cokctail cabinet or a mortal kombat or teenage mutant ht cabinet, and not so vertical as a neogeo cabinet or a normal PC monitor. Actually, I think this also depends on how you prefer it. Also, the size of the screen matters. This project is just a study, and I don't think I will never build a real-looking cabinet like this.

On the center, you can see a japanese sit-down cabinet. I think it's a SEGA Blast City. The dimensions are aproximate, and I think the shapes are very close to the original (I drew it from a flyer). As you can see, the excesive inclination of that big screen force the player to a strange position of his body. Actually I've seen some photos of japanese people using this kind of cabinets and they're always like that. If you like to play in a more relaxed position, with your back resting on the chair, that screen is definitelly too inclined. Maybe this has to do with the fact that the seats in Arcades don't have backs where you can rest.

My project (on the left) is based on japanese sit-down cabinets, but trying to make them more confortable and adapted to my body and the position I take when I'm sat on a chair. It's an opened and modular cabinet, where I'll put my TV and my desktop control panel, the CPU tower on the left, the speakers on the sides, and the subwoofer inside the box. I've lowered the base for the CP as much as I could (60cm), so as to compensate the height of the panel. I've tested and it's very confortable and the inclination of my panel is correct. This base is also longer so that I can have my panel much closer to my body. Since the box is opened in front, I can extend my legs. The monitor (a 25'' or 28'') is inclined, but not much. I would even reduce its inclination a little more and make the screen a little more parallel to my glance. As you can see, I can look at the screen naturally from that position, noticing a little extra inclination in order to add authenticity, but not making it unconfortable.

I've also considered the possibility of not lowering the monitor below the level of the panel. I could then use a normal table and add a little inclination with a piece of wood or something. It would be nice for a very big screen, which you have to put further away. The closer the screen is to the player, the more inclined it has to be. And the smaller the screen is, the closer it has to be to the player.

I've attached some photos where you can see these problems. First with upright cabinets.

1: too inclined, even cocktail (maybe good for small screens or not very high cabinets).
2: too inclined and too high, like Mortal Kombat, The Simpsons, NBA showtime, Teenage Mutant NT... (maybe good for people with long neck...)
3: a little more inclination would be better. If you're a kid it may be good, but for my height I would see the screen too vertical.

(the photos on the right how japanese cabinets and the problem described before).

4: a large screen, distant from the player and without any inclination at all.

5: no jokes here :D Testing with a 19'' TV on my desktop. The test are not very trustworkthy because the height of the base of my desktop is not adecuate. If the screen is close to the player and it's not lowered below the level of the panel, it results to be too high. The larger the screen is and the further away you place it, the less inclination is required and so this problem begins to dissapear.

[Serpent]

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[Serpent]

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[grafixmonkey]

That's some interesting stuff.  Any opinions about control panel angle?  My panel is at a pretty steep angle, and I find that my wrists hurt if I do any serious button smacking.  (like in Beatmania)

EDIT:   Here, this is my project announcement so you can look at it.  I haven't posted exact dimensions, but the tops of the front two joysticks are exactly belly-button height on me.
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=11196
(scroll down, the only pics you might find useful are at the bottom)

[Serpent]

The convenience of angling more or less a panel depends on the position of the player and it's also a matter of personal preference. In fact I think you should add more or less inclination to your panel thinking about how are you going to play with it: on an upright cabinet, a sitdown cabinet, on a desktop. It also depends on your height. For instance, for upright cabinets with a standard height, a kid would like more inclination than an adult. For adults you can either add no angle or very few angle, or place the panel higher, adapting the cabinet to you height. For sitdown cabinets, I find confortable to have some angle. It's the same case with desktop CPs. You have to consider that the height of the CP would require to raise your hands a little over the level of your elbows. This applies to a higher extend if you're using your CP on a normal table (72-75cm high). In this case, more angle is required. Just try it yourlself and desing it as you find it more confortable.

[Radical]

Sometimes I wonder if it was just about game feel.   For example, "vertical" games had monitors that were not inclined very much (eg. Centipede, Dig Dug) because the game plays like you are looking sideways at it.    "Top down" games (Xevious, Gauntlet) had very inclined monitors to enhance the feeling that you're looking down on the game since that's the way the game played.

But maybe that was just Atari.

[mnapuran]

Well, I've decided to angle my monitor at 10 degrees, the my control panel has a 8.5 degree angle.

Mike N

[Serpent]

The meaurements of the angles I've used are not so subtle: 14 degrees for the control panel and 24 for the screen.  That's for a sitdown cabinet, with the surface of the panel at 75-80 cm from the ground (the table is at 65 cm). The angle for the screen would be for a 21-25'' TV. For a larger size I would reduce the angle and place the screen a little more distant from the player. For an upright cabinet, the inclination of the screen is 40 degrees. It's not very extreme considering old upright cabinets had monitors almost parallel to the ground.

[RedSquirrel]

my CP is completly flat. And infact, i have had no probs at all.