Control Panel Mock Up

[Jehde]

I've been thinking about either building my own control panel or purchasing a kit to use with a computer hooked up to a TV, and maybe one day building a cabinet around it. I made a mock up of what I think I want the layout and the design in general to look like:



In the centre is a 2.25" trackball and to the left and right of the buttons at the top is a push/pull spinner and a topfire 8-way stick respectively.

As for buttons on the sides, there would be primary and secondary flipper buttons for pinball, and on the left side of the panel would also be escape, reset, save, load, and options buttons. On the right side of the panel would be volume up and down buttons, and the front of the panel would have coin buttons for each of the 4 players.

The main games I'm planning on playing with it are fighters (MK1-MK3, KoF94-2002), brawlers (Sunset Riders, Simpsons, TMNT), Neo Geo games, NBA Jam, Smash TV, virtual pinball, Asteroids, Battlezone, Centipede, Missile Command,  Tron, and Tempest.

Anything I'm overlooking? Any suggestions in general? Too much skittles?

[DGP]

Just an honest observation...

Button layout in relation to stick is not very functional (or comfortable), but this is just in the planning phase so I like the look of it (has sort of an Xbox360 controller feel to it).

Best of luck,
Jason

[keilmillerjr]

What is going on with players 3 and 4?! Your control panel is shaped for 2 people. That is an awkward location. You also have every admin button imaginable. There is no need. The curve for ABCD doesn't seem right. Place your hand on a table. C and D should be at more of an even height.

Just my opinion.

[Afterburner]

Yeah, if you are a big MK fan, its hard to not end up with a Frankenpanel with a ton of buttons.

Add the trackball, topfire, and spinner and you definitely end up with a big panel.

Looks like you should pretty much have controls for most everything except driving games.  And you can manage those with the spinner if you ever wanted to play one.

Maybe make your primary joys rotary for some additional controls without adding more hardware to the panel.

Any desire for lightgun games?  Maybe build a couple of slots to store Aimtraks?

I definitely recommend you mock it up with cardboard to make sure you are happy with button placement and layout.  its cheap and will tell you a lot about your design.

[Jehde]

Thank you for the quick replies and honesty!

Button layout in relation to stick is not very functional (or comfortable)

What is going on with players 3 and 4?! Your control panel is shaped for 2 people. That is an awkward location. You also have every admin button imaginable. There is no need. The curve for ABCD doesn't seem right. Place your hand on a table. C and D should be at more of an even height.

My initial thought for the button layout was to emulate the MK3 layout and add a couple more buttons to make it more versatile. The layout is mainly designed for 2 player fighters and Neo Geo, but I still wanted to support 4 player brawlers, the best party games. I don't really have the room for a massive control panel, so I just fit the extra players onto a normal sized panel, resulting in player 3 and 4 controls being a bit cramped. I'm also kind of approaching this with a kitchen sink mentality, and I won't necessarily have every single feature on the first build, but I want to plan around expansion and eventually adding it to a cabinet. The recommendation to feel the controls out with your hand on the table is helpful though, and on revision I straightened things out a bit. Still not sure how to place the buttons for player 3 and 4 though...

Yeah, if you are a big MK fan, its hard to not end up with a Frankenpanel with a ton of buttons.

Looks like you should pretty much have controls for most everything except driving games.  And you can manage those with the spinner if you ever wanted to play one.

Maybe make your primary joys rotary for some additional controls without adding more hardware to the panel.

Any desire for lightgun games?  Maybe build a couple of slots to store Aimtraks?

I definitely recommend you mock it up with cardboard to make sure you are happy with button placement and layout.  its cheap and will tell you a lot about your design.

I think it's my love of MK and Asteroids that contribute the most to the frankenpanelness. For driving games I think I would just temporarily attach a PC wheel set to it. I enjoy Ikari Warriors, so a rotary joystick is tempting, but would the rotary function be problematic in games that use standard joysticks? I love Time Crisis, so I might add a lightgun or two down the line, but they need to work on Time Crisis 2 emulation more first.

[PL1]

Trying to design a panel that plays every game in MAME is a guaranteed loser.

Start with a list of the games that you can't live without and work your way through the process in this post.

Slagcoin is your friend for button layouts.

+1 on the P3/P4 being at a bad angle.

In place of P3 and P4 dedicated controls, consider using Neutrik USB feedthrus so you can plug in gamepads or other external controllers -- many people build a 4P panel and later realize that P3 and P4 hardly ever get used.

IIRC, there are only 3 games that use the push/pull spinner. (Discs of Tron, Zwackery, Forgotten Worlds)

My workaround for not having a push/pull spinner is a rocker footswitch that also doubles as a microswitch gas/brake for driving games. YMMV.

For admin buttons:
- Each player should have a Coin (on panel, coin door, or both -- your call) and a Start
- Exit (Esc)
- Pause
- Add other admin buttons only if you're sure you'll need them *after* you finish configuring the software (front end, emulators, etc.)


Scott

[keilmillerjr]

If you don't have the room for 4 players to fit comfortably, why not just make a really well designed 2 player panel and add 2 bluetooth ps3 controllers so they can still join in on the fun?! 

Still crazy admin buttons. Select is not even needed due to a player button doing the same thing. Scripting or control interface built in shift functions can help you out. Be careful with buttons above the trackball. I can imagine some intense rolling hitting those buttons on accident.

[PL1]

Forgot to mention that for an Asteroids/Gravitar layout, you can re-map the controls in MAME to spread it across your P1 and P2 buttons like this:

  123       123
  456       456
7           7


Scott

[Afterburner]

I have old dual rotary 8ways in my CP.

The only games that give me trouble are 4way games.  Don't know if there are newer options for rotary that make them 4/8way switchable.

[Dawgz Rule]

If you don't have the room for 4 players to fit comfortably, why not just make a really well designed 2 player panel and add 2 bluetooth ps3 controllers so they can still join in on the fun?! 

This.  If space is a consideration, go two player.  Guaranteed that with the current config, player 3 and player 4 won't get used as it won't provide a good experience.

[Jehde]

Yeah you guys are right, I realistically wouldn't use player 3 and 4 as much as I'd want to, and I could just use gamepads to fill in anyways, so I'm gonna rethink things a bit around a 2 player setup instead. Thank you for the link to Slagcoin PL1, it looks to be a very valuable resource for this stuff. I'm also gonna rethink and tone down the admin buttons a bit, but I would prefer to avoid using weird button combos. Dunno if I want to give up the dedicated asteroids buttons either...

[Xiaou2]

Heres some ideas...

1)  By moving the sticks diagonal, with maybe just a hair more space than I added, you can operate both sticks equally well, without having to reach very deep into the panel.

2) To operate a trackball for gaming.. you want 8 to 12 inch diameter of freespace... else you will hit tall controllers or the monitor glass.  (buttons and spinner are short, so are fine there... as you tend to upswing after a roll)

3) Id keep the asteriods layout, and use real leaf buttons for them.

 4) Note the arm positions. You want to try to make sure that you will be comfortable when playing.  The only downside here... is when using the spinner, your arm will rest on some buttons.

 5) Lessen the overhang as much as possible, to give you more controller & hand space. (not shown)

 6) Place buttons as close together as possible, else fighting games will be too difficult and straining, for people with smaller hands.

 7) If you want more space, you might be able to mount spinners to the front of the cabinet, in a horizontal method, like stereo volume knobs.  Could be used for 2 to 4 player spinner / driving games.

[Xiaou2]

A few more things Ive came up with over the years...

 1)  Expandable panel

      By using slide rails, the panel, which has things too close together.. can expand to a larger and more spacious panel when needed.

 2)  Twirl Panel

     If your panel is on a pedestal, you could put a center pivot on it,  and spin or lift and rotate it to the other side.  Horizontal rotation, instead of vertical.   In this way, for example, you could have fighter sticks in front of you, and dual trackballs near the monitor...  and when you wanted to use them, just lift and spin the CP.  Basically, its like 2 control panels in one.   The main benefit is space savings.. but also, you gain comfort in that you dont have to reach deep, or rest your arms on top of use certain controllers.

3)  Folding out Panels

    If you wanted, you might be able to make a section under the control panel that folds upwards and locks in place.  For example, player 3 & 4s mini panels that flip out of each side.   Or a fold out dual trackball panel that flips to the front of the cab.

4)  Pull out control panels

   Similarly, you could make control panels hidden, and rolled out on slides

5)  Water Wheel rotating control panels

6)  Transformer Cabs

  You mentioned not having a lot of space for a large control panel...  but if you have 4 people standing in one place.. its going to take up the same amount of room.  The only consideration then is just finding ways to reduce that space when not in use.  That could be done in many ways.  A lot of furniture, and even bikes, are built like that. (Folds smaller when not in use)