How close buttons to joystick?

[dphirschler]

I am building a two-player cabinet that will (among other things) be able to play two-player Space Duel.  That means I need an Asteroids configuration on each side of the cpanel.  I have 24" horizontally to work with.  Here is what I want:

B B   J   B B   B B   J   B B

B= Button, J= Joystick

Below each joystick will be a "hyperspace" button.

The above configuration is tight, but not too bad.  I can free up some space by spacing the buttons 1/8" further apart.  I can free up some additional space by doing away with the extra space between player-1's controls and player-2.

My main question is just how close to the joystick can you put a button and it not be too close?  I am also concerned with how close the buttons can be to the edge of the cabinet before it gets too uncomfortable.


Darryl

[Apollo]

Buy your buttons and joysticks and mock up a cardboard control panel. Play around with the cardboard CP until you have everything right and then make your CP. CP layout is all subjective, what worked for someone else might not work for you.

[_Iz-]

Excellent advice!  

[dphirschler]

I actually made one mock cpanel already.  I spaced the buttons out quite comfortably.  However, I was unable to fit two more buttons.  So I took digital photos of the buttons and joysticks and printed them out to scale.  Then I cut them out and I am able to move them around wherever I want. This helps me get a general idea about placement as I can pretend I am playing a game.

However, looking at the panel, I have this fear that the buttons will be too close to each other.  So the likely solution is to move them a little closer to the joystick and space them out some more.  

Perhaps I should rephrase the question:

For those of you with finished cabs/cpanels:  How close have you put the buttons to the joysticks.  Have any of you put them too close before?


Darryl