Very Standard/Basic Cabinet

[coolbrickmovies]

I've looked around this website for quite some time and have seen some very inspiring advanced cabinets.  But what I decided to do is to focus my first cabinet completely on making a 4-player, joystick-and-button cabinet without any rollers, etc.

Basically, I'm trying to build a cabinet like Gauntlet, but with more buttons.

Does anyone have a good suggestion for recommended numbers of buttons per player? I want to make sure that I have enough for games like D&D Tower of Doom.

Also, can anyone offer a good idea for a layout that would allow all these player?  Namely, a good pattern for setup of buttons.

Thanks very much!

[TalkingOctopus]

Use 6 buttons for players 1 and 2 and 4 buttons for players 3 and 4.  

I made a 4 player cabinet that was based off of the very standard Lusid Designs.

Check it out: http://webpages.charter.net/rbecker5/

Note: There are control panel and cab plans (Lusids) in the download section.

Good luck!

[coolbrickmovies]

Thanks!  That looks great, and I found the controller template at Lusid's site.

As far as each set of six buttons... how did you configure them?  Specifically, I mean which button is Button 1, which in Button 2, etc.

May I ask what the six black buttons at the top do?  I assume that four are for coin drop... but I could easily be wrong.

[screaming]

Use 6 buttons for players 1 and 2 and 4 buttons for players 3 and 4.  

  Would this layout still work for running console emulators like PSX, N64, etc that have 4+ buttons on the joysticks?

/S

[eightbit]

Use 6 buttons for players 1 and 2 and 4 buttons for players 3 and 4.  

  Would this layout still work for running console emulators like PSX, N64, etc that have 4+ buttons on the joysticks?

/S

If your hacking for 4 player console games then you probably want to add more buttons to p3 and p4. Most console games are not good for a cabinet. They are meant to be played for hours at a time, not standing in front of a crowded control panel. So you need to decide what you want to play and how often your going to play with more players.

[TalkingOctopus]

Thanks!  That looks great, and I found the controller template at Lusid's site.
May I ask what the six black buttons at the top do?  I assume that four are for coin drop... but I could easily be wrong.

They are not for coin drops.  I have a Happ over under coindoor.  I decided to put 6 admin buttons.  Here is the layout and their functions in MAME:

Button 1: Enter
Button 2: tab (Pause)
Button 3: left mouse (Main Menu - default is tab in MAME)
Button 4: right mouse (Dipswitches/Gamesettings - default F2 in main)
Button 5: ` (Brings up volume control ect... in MAME)
Button 6: Escape (Exit)

I think this is probably more admin buttons than people normally use.  Only a pause and exit button are recommended, but even those are unecessary.  However, I do use all of my admin buttons.  I like the ablity to turn down the volume through software, raise the difficulty of the game, and remap keys if needed.