Hello I have a PC with mame fully working, now I will be starting with my cab I'm thinking about a 2 player 8 way joysticks 6 buttons, trackball, spinner, and a 4 way joystick for my control panel. I have the 8way joysticks and the buttons, But I'm kind of lost when it comes to the I-pac2 and the Mini-pac encoders. Do I need both or will the mini-pac work for all my controllers? Thanks for any advice I can get. I'm new when it comes to the cab CP setup.
8 inputs - 4 inputs x 2 8-way-joysticks -- 4-way in parallel with P1 stick
12 inputs - 6 buttons x 2 players
4 inputs - Start and Coin for P1 and P2
3? inputs - Exit, Pause, Menu?
2-4? inputs - Plunger, pinball flippers, upper flippers? (If you want to play Pinball.)

The Mini-Pac will connect all that, plus the trackball and spinner.
The optional harness makes it very easy to wire.
To wire the 4-way and 8-way in parallel, connect them like this.
When lines cross, a dot = connected and no dot = not connected.

Scott