4 Player MAME cabinets

[matsadona]

Since almost 50% of all newbies insist building 4 player cabinets (or even worse, a 2 player cabinet with an over sized 4p CP with the double width of the cabinet), I'm curious about how many that actually manages to gather 3 friends on a regular basis?
I would love to have a dedicated Gauntlet since I regard that as the best 4p game ever, and I have very fond memories of playing that with three of my best friends back in the days. But my experience is that it is even hard to get that many people gathered now a days to play the same game.
But I envy all that do.

So the question is really if it is generally a waste building those monsters, or is it actually justified?

[stavros693000]

I think even if you only ever use just 1 player its still cool to have a 4 player cab.
Most peeps have 2 player CP's but I guarantee most of the time only 1 player at a time plays (usually the owner) but its not a waste.
I think most of us tinker with our builds more than we play them, its just cool the idea of having our own arcade and reliving our childhood. IMO

[Sjaak]

So the question is really if it is generally a waste building those monsters, or is it actually justified?

If you build a 4 player gauntlet it's never a waste. But if you build one of those cabs with a humongous, four player, eight stick, two trackball, two spinner, 90 button franckenpanels I think it's a waste (in my opinion).

[stavros693000]

So the question is really if it is generally a waste building those monsters, or is it actually justified?

If you build a 4 player gauntlet it's never a waste. But if you build one of those cabs with a humongous, four player, eight stick, two trackball, two spinner, 90 button franckenpanels I think it's a waste (in my opinion).

gotta love the franken panel
yeah ive seen some ridiculously big panels like u said with way to much going on. I did 3 buttons for player 3 and 4 but a lot of peeps have 6-8 buttons for 3 and 4 player
maybe im wrong but Ive never seen a  3-4 player game uses more than 3 buttons? or is the 8 buttons for 3-4p for next gen systems or something?

[Dawgz Rule]

If you build a 4 player gauntlet it's never a waste.

Funny, this is exactly what was leading me down the four player path.  Ultimately didn't do it though because I couldn't bring myself to doing it for just one game.

[Paul Olson]

I have had 4-player games out in the garage, and never once have I had more than 2 players at a time. The only game I have ever had that got play by 3 players at the same time was Super Sprint. When I redesigned my modular cab, I added the capacity for 3 wheels and 3 pedals just for this game.

[NickG]

When the kids come over they all want to play, but having two 2-player cabinets so they can play different games if they like, with the possibility of running four player games across two cabs proves versatile, with more elbow room.   I have mulled the idea of building a few alternative fight-sticks" and brackets to attach them to the sides of my main cab, but then I would be almost at the point of going fully modular  (the temptation is great).  The idea some utilize - keeping a few handheld controllers at the cab for players +3 - seems impure, and by that point perhaps everyone may as well be kicked back on the couch, facing the bigger screen.

[matsadona]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
It is the same situation for the NES FOUR SCORE - I have one (since years back) and would love to play a true double pair game of tennis, but that has never happened so far 
Maybe my problem is that I have to many games to chose from... If you only have one 4 player cabinet/game in you mancave, and 5 friends coming over a saturday night - then of course it would be easier to gather a 4 player game
The only games I have now that see regular multiplayer sessions are SEGA Rally and Karate Champ. Even with up to 10 guests, everybody seems to run around trying different games with no coordination what so ever.

[paigeoliver]

I have owned multiple 4 player machines over the years. Own 2 at the moment (Gauntlet and a 4 player Pong clone) and 4 player action just never happens, people just play the other games instead.

[Nephasth]

Never say never.



Rarely, yes. The Beast has seen full on 4 player action only once, and that was during a rather large Halloween party last year (this pic shows the 4 player game in action, I had to step away for a few seconds to snap the pic). I don't regret making the Beast a 4 player cab, but that's thanks in part to it's dual screens and allowing P1 and P2 to have their own screens during 2 player games. There have been numerous 3 player simultaneous games on this machine, though. And what a sight it is to see when there are 3+ players on the machine.

[Dawgz Rule]

Have to say that "the beast" is one of my favorite builds.     

[Fursphere]

I built a two player cab.  I wanted a four player cab, but didn't have the room at the time.  Now I do have the room - and I'm considering either build a 2nd slave cab (mirror'd screens), or just a monster four player cab.

Having a 2nd slave cab makes a lot more sense, since you can play two separate games, or one big four player game (a lot of three player games too).

Only one or two times did I wish I had room for a third player.  Never need for a forth.

But as my two sons get older, and my two nephews...  well, its only a matter of time before they're fighting over the two player cabinet.  lol

[paigeoliver]

Note that the Beast there is not a normal 4 player cabinet, it is a pair of linked cabs which is infinitely more playable by adults than 4 250 lb sweaty 35 year old men huddling up to a Gauntlet panel.

[Desdinova]

Especially between about now when school is out for summer break through xmas, my 4 player CP gets maxed out at least once a week, sometimes even 2x to 3x a week. That's kids of all ages, family and friends. Now I do like to entertain and welcome people over, but presentation definitely helped here. I loved the full cab look for the time when I built it, but it's charm wore off over the years, it was getting played less and less. I just decided one day that the cab was taking up too much real estate, that I could probably fit a couple of pinball tables in it's place. So I took the CP off the cab and decided to try it out on a ped situated between the couch and tv we use for console gaming, and it became an instant hit.

Now as far as a breakdown of what gets the most action? 4 player beat 'em ups are by far the favorite, multi gun games are also wildly popular, with the spinner and trackball games definitely being the niche gaming experience most appreciated by myself and my amigos who used to crawl the arcades with me back in the day. Does that make them a waste? Well, we were weened on things such as Warlords in our time. Also my 8 y.o is real big on playing Forgotten Worlds with me. And lest I forget, there is even a senior citizen in the family that gets a hoot out of playing Boot Hill every time she is over, because apparently they had kept one on location for years at some Casino in Reno that she used to frequent back in the '70's. So although not quite as often in play as some of the more common control schemes, the dual spinners are still appreciated enough to be well worth the cost, IMO.

[kahlid74]

I think it also depends on how your life flows.  My wife has a large family who enjoy playing so yeah, 3-4 player gets a good chunk of use about once every three weeks.

[severdhed]

i have a 4player showcase cabinet that gets fairly regular use. usually only 3 players, but we get the 4th in now and then.  I think it really depends on how often you have friends over, or  how many children you have. Personally, i have 3 children(2boys and 1 girl), with another on the way in september.    my two boys are the oldest at 6 and 4 years old, and they play it all the time...which is only 2 players, i know.  however i frequently join in for some 3 player action, and my daughter (will be 2 in october) is showing interest in wanting to hit buttons and such while we are playing....so it is only a matter of around 6 months or so until she will be able to kinda play some of the games with us.  (my boys both started actually playing games around 2 1/2 years old). I can count on one hand how many times i've played with 3 other adults, however our friends are frequenly visiting with their kids, so there are many times all 4 players are in use...  so a four player cabinet is a must-have for my family.

[Dagg]

I might be a different case but my quest down this road all started when I wanted to purchase a 4 player nba jams cabinet (and then stumbled on this forum).  My friends all worked at a burger joint with a foosball and nba jams games in the back they would shut it down about 10pm and we would spend the rest of the night in there playing cards, foosball and jam tournamnets until the sun came up.

Now we are all about 40 w/kids but in the summer I have pool parties and we can frequently be found on my porch going at it 4 player jams tournaments still talking trash after all these years (there are about 12 of us)

Just depends on your situation.  Now with my son turning 4 he brings they neighbor kids over...they mainly stick to fighting games but Im sure soon enough I will introduce gauntlet to them another of my all time favorites. 

[Le Chuck]

Ya know, it wouldn't be too hard to make MvsC or other team based fighters playable on a 4 player cab.

Attention all you guys that just had to have 6 buttons for P3 and P4!

Write an AHK script that remaps P1 controls to P3 when P1 hits the two buttons to trade out his player, vice versa, and ditto for P2&P4.  The tricky part would be isolating when P1 or P2 loses a character but you could get around that by having whoever dies hit the combo to switch control back to their partner.  If you use MALA it would be too easy to turn the script on/off at the start of the game.  You could even create two instances of it, one on a 4 player list that triggers the script, and one on a different that doesn't. 

Who wants to try it out?!

[hadees]

I was thinking of building a 2 player cabinet with a couple of wireless controllers so I can play gauntlet with friends.  However I'm not sure they would be able to see the monitor.

[Malenko]

Note that the Beast there is not a normal 4 player cabinet, it is a pair of linked cabs which is infinitely more playable by adults than 4 250 lb sweaty 35 year old men huddling up to a Gauntlet panel.

Not to argue semantics, but its a single cab with 2 monitors and 2 control panels.  Its not 2 cabs linked together.

[nakeworks]

I built my arcade to play 4-player games since those were generally some of my favorites.  Most popular one at my house is NBA Jam.  "Stupid game cheats" is heard quite a bit.

[Malenko]

I built my arcade to play 4-player games since those were generally some of my favorites.  Most popular one at my house is NBA Jam.  "Stupid game cheats" is heard quite a bit.

And it does, you can adjust the rubber band AI in the operator menu. I can see the appeal for a 4 player cab, TMNT, XMen, Simpsons, NBA Jam/Hangtime , Open Ice, etc but I dont ever think I'd have 2 other people over to play, let alone 3.

[yotsuya]

If I ever had a 4 player cab, it would be a NBA Jam/Open Ice/TMNT/Simpsons, and it would stay that way.

[WindDrake]

My 4-Player cab actually gets some pretty solid use as an actual 4-Player machine. The only extras are the trackball in the middle, so no frankenpanel stuff here.

TMNT2, Open Ice, Simpsons, NBA Jam TE, Blitz, and a few other games usually fill it up quick during parties.

[nakeworks]

And it does, you can adjust the rubber band AI in the operator menu. I can see the appeal for a 4 player cab, TMNT, XMen, Simpsons, NBA Jam/Hangtime , Open Ice, etc but I dont ever think I'd have 2 other people over to play, let alone 3.

Where's the smiley face for "over my head?"

[RandyT]

I don't know if this has been done, but it wouldn't be terribly difficult to wire two side-by-side two-player cabinets together for 4-player games when desired.  An couple of accessible USB extension cables from each unit, an audio/video splitter and switcher, and about a minute to change it over.  Just leave it that way for parties and even two player games can each have their own machine to play on.

[Malenko]

And it does, you can adjust the rubber band AI in the operator menu. I can see the appeal for a 4 player cab, TMNT, XMen, Simpsons, NBA Jam/Hangtime , Open Ice, etc but I dont ever think I'd have 2 other people over to play, let alone 3.

Where's the smiley face for "over my head?"

Hit F2 on your keyboard, ta dah! Or if youre running the actual PCB, hit the test switch to access the menu. You can even set up custom operator messages in NBA Jam

[PL1]

I don't know if this has been done, but it wouldn't be terribly difficult to wire two side-by-side two-player cabinets together for 4-player games when desired.  An couple of accessible USB extension cables from each unit, an audio/video splitter and switcher, and about a minute to change it over.  Just leave it that way for parties and even two player games can each have their own machine to play on.

Thread with diagram and suggestion on how to do this with just a KVM switch here.


Scott

[RandyT]

I don't know if this has been done, but it wouldn't be terribly difficult to wire two side-by-side two-player cabinets together for 4-player games when desired.  An couple of accessible USB extension cables from each unit, an audio/video splitter and switcher, and about a minute to change it over.  Just leave it that way for parties and even two player games can each have their own machine to play on.

Thread with diagram and suggestion on how to do this with just a KVM switch here.

This would be a good approach, but you still need a means of splitting the audio and video.  For the video, a dual output VGA card in the "host" system, with the second output in "mirror" mode would work.  But the audio is still something which would need a switch somewhere.

[Malenko]

This would be a good approach, but you still need a means of splitting the audio and video.  For the video, a dual output VGA card in the "host" system, with the second output in "mirror" mode would work.  But the audio is still something which would need a switch somewhere.

Audio Y splitter in the host cab.
2 sets of speaker in the "slave" cab 1 to the PC in the slave, 1 to the Y splitter. Turn off the speakers not in use.

[RandyT]

This would be a good approach, but you still need a means of splitting the audio and video.  For the video, a dual output VGA card in the "host" system, with the second output in "mirror" mode would work.  But the audio is still something which would need a switch somewhere.

Audio Y splitter in the host cab.
2 sets of speaker in the "slave" cab 1 to the PC in the slave, 1 to the Y splitter. Turn off the speakers not in use.

I think a "Y" splitter going to a DPDT switch, with the out side going to the 2nd amp would probably require less speakers 

[Malenko]

agreed, but then you have people like me who would drop $8 on some cheapies instead of wiring anything 

[AGarv]

It all depends on how much you will enjoy the 4p panel.  I had a panel with two sets of dual sticks for Smash TV / Total Carnage (two of my fav childhood games) that could handle 4 players in a pinch (although the poor 4th guy is stuck off to the side using 3 admin buttons).

I have some really fond memories of showing the cab off to groups of friends where we got TMNT, Gauntlet, and Shadows over Mystara going with 3-4 players.  That said, 3-4 player time is less than 1% of the total playtime on the machine... BUT I have some fond memories and friends that also have fond memories of reliving their youth on the machine.

Again it all depends on what experiences you want out of your custom cab.  I have strong memories and emotional attachment to Assault and Total Carnage for example, so I made some compromises on my panel to play those more authentically. I never played Tron or Tempest much, so even though they are great games my spinner is just a mouse-hack afterthought and I could probably do without it entirely. If you have a 4P game in your top 10 of all time, might be worth it.

[paigeoliver]

I would just use one set of speakers and put one on each cabinet for a dualcab 4player setup.. Most real arcade games only had one speaker anyway, even if they LOOKED like they had multiples (and many of them that had two were still running mono audio).