Control Panel Buttons How many? 2 8-way, 1 4 way, trackball, spinner, flight

[MamedInCanada]

I wanna build a control panel that player one and two can use buttons on both sides of the joystick. However, I am also adding trackball, spinner(with race wheel), 4-way joystick, and flight stick. I think I'm going button crazy. Let me know if too much.

8-Way Main Joysticks for Player One and Two
Is one joystick with eight buttons mostly for console games, I read that 99% of MAME games can be played with 6 buttons?
What percentage can be played with four buttons?

-> Should I just put 6 on each side? Instead of 4 and 8? I thought 4 on the left would cover a lot of

4-Way Player One Joystick
Are there four way MAME joystick games that use more than one button?

Spinner with Racewheel?
Spinner MAME games, is one button enough?
For MAME race games what about gas and brake? What about shifting? I can see this being a problem or is this just solved in the Frontend. Just use 4 buttons for player one?

Thanks

[shponglefan]

I wanna build a control panel that player one and two can use buttons on both sides of the joystick.

Why?

[Malenko]

you need more, at least a 2nd wheel if not a 3rd for some badlands. Dont forget a push pull spinner for discs of tron and better find a place for the tron stick too. You're also 2 trackballs short of 3 player rampart.

/kidding


Take a look at the control panel picture thread, mock stuff up on cardboard, and you dont need duplicate buttons on each side of both joy sticks.

[eds1275]

I also wantto know why you want buttons on both sides. 

[Typefighter01]

I hope the 8 buttons on the right side of each joystick are placed in that arrangement just to show the amount and type you are using, cause if you are going to play with an inverted curved layout, your gonna hate it.

Should look something like this:

[mgb]

 That's gonna be a crowded control panel.
Ambidextrous buttons are great on simple layouts like Burgertime where there's one joystick and one action button.
It's even ok on two player layouts with two action buttons like heavy barrel.
You'll notice, you don't see it on 6 button fighters because it just doesn't make sense.
Especially if you add that with a 3" trackball, spinner and 4 way.
I understand you want to be able to play every single game but what you will do instead, is create an overcrowded and confusing control panel.

Also, think about why you want 8 buttons per players and don't angle them down like you show. It will suck and you will not want to play on that setup.

[yotsuya]

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamnn....

[Unstupid]

And you thought ramming your fingers into a joystick was bad... Bradda put a steering wheel north of the trackball... 😝

[PL1]

And you thought ramming your fingers into a joystick was bad... Bradda put a steering wheel north of the trackball... 😝

To be fair, it is one of the slip-on-the-spinner wheels.

spinner(with race wheel)

Scott

[MamedInCanada]

The control panel is for a machine with two main users, one who wants buttons on the left of the joystick and one that wants buttons on the right. So I was trying to establish what kinda of setup would make them both happy. They have agreed to have 8 buttons on the right of joystick each joystick. I told them it looks to crowded and to use buttons for near the eight way for the 4 way joystick and spinnner.

Does anyone think I should put a button or two near or in between the 4-way and spinner for ease of play?

Thanks for all the replies

[eds1275]

stop adding, start subtracting!

Or if it isn't for you, let whoever it is for design the layout and then let them live with their monstrosity.

[shponglefan]

Or if it isn't for you, let whoever it is for design the layout and then let them live with their monstrosity.

+1.  Give the customer what they want and take their money.

[mgb]

Or if it isn't for you, let whoever it is for design the layout and then let them live with their monstrosity.

+1.  Give the customer what they want and take their money.

+2
I would let them know the pros and cons of the different layouts so your not blamed for a clumsy crowded layout.
Sounds like the customers may not have much real arcade game experience yet they wanna have controls for every possible game.
I think that will likely lead them to disappointment.
Just make sure they can't point the blame to you.

Where do these people get the notion that arcade machines must have 8 buttons per player?

[DeLuSioNal29]

If I had to do it over again I would not have installed a Flight stick on my panel.  I only use it for Tron and Mad Planets.

Simpler is better.  Although I love my Frankenpanel, I only build simpler designs nowadays.

D

[Wilimnot]

IMO, if you're building it for fighting games, go with 8 buttons and arrange them like the x arcade sticks.

[DeLuSioNal29]

As far as Ambidextrous buttons go, I originally designed my 4-way to have 2 buttons on either side.  Sounded great at the time, but to be honest, I NEVER use the buttons on the left.  I ended up converting them to mouse buttons instead.  Upon refection, I could have eliminated the ones on the left and used the buttons on the right as mouse buttons instead.  Then I could have simply re-mapped them in MAME for buttons 1 and 2.  Then they would have served 2 purposes.



D

[Malenko]

so, here is my panel:



I saw your question about spinners and racing and everything, and it sounds like you're falling into the "one cab to do everything" routine. Don't design your panel around playing everything, design it around playing everything you like.

My design is based on NBA Jam/NFL Blitz/ NHL Open Ice, and in fact uses the CP box from an NBA Jam. I adjusted the vertical placement of the sticks to put them all on the same horizontal line.  This allows me to play 2 player smash TV , Total Carnage, and Karate Champ. While not great by todays standards, I have fond memories of those games, and making them playable was literally no sacrifice, so I adjusted my design to allow those games to be played.

I also considered the 4th player buttons for the outside 2 players, but the only 2 games I can think of that use 4 buttons for those players are the 2 D&D games and then there is the 5 button Guilty Gear Isuka  but I considered how rarely those would be played and how much trouble it would be to exceed 40 inputs/duplicate inputs and in the end , I thought 3 was perfect. Its all about balancing what you know you'll use and what you think you'll use.