Thoughts suggestions on my first control panel

[zybeon]

Been lurking for the past 6 months on here. I got serious about building a control panel when I bought a 2 player howler kit from paradisearcadeshop.com. I found the plans to a bartop I want to try and make from https://bartoparcade.katorlegaz.com/. The 5th plan stretched to 24" wide for a 24" inch monitor(22" width). Setting up HyperSpin on an old quad-core AMD I have lying around with an ATI 6570.




Anyway, I am looking at doing a 7 button layout and want to get peoples feed back on what they think. Mainly if it will function properly(players to close to far, buttons to awkward or other things I don't have the experience to spot). I whipped up a scale image (96px per in.) draft of what I am looking to do. Before this I printed the standard layouts out and placed it on a cardboard cut out and invited my broadest shouldered friend over and it seemed to be a good layout.

Sadly the Howler board is just so huge it just can't fit in on the backside of the CP without interfering with something with me wanting to keep the navigation buttons centered at the top. 8"x3.5" the P1 and P2 are on opposite sides of the long section(pretty much forcing a vertical positioning) and there is a USB B port and power port on separate parts of the short sections.

I also plan on having coin buttons on the front and pinball buttons on the sides.

[EMDB]

For ENTER you usually use P1 / P2 Button 1. You could change it to MUTE as I use that one quite a lot (it triggers toggle sound mute via the iPAC2).

[zybeon]

I also posted this on reddit and got a good suggestion. Remove the 7th button and use the top row and bottom left button as the 4 neogeo buttons. I like it, the spacing is almost the same as the 7 button layout.

Something like this.



I plan on having a volume knob just under the marquee and don't feel much of a need to have a dedicated mute button. Having the enter doesn't add any deal of complexity and provides specific buttons for any guest to be able to easily understand. I can set it up for "P1 start" and enter to act the same in the top menu if I wanted.

Revised CP.

[lamprey]

I also posted this on reddit and got a good suggestion. Remove the 7th button and use the top row and bottom left button as the 4 neogeo buttons. I like it, the spacing is almost the same as the 7 button layout.

There is no "need" for a seventh button. But, the point, for most people, to have a lower 7th is the Mortal Kombat Run Button. Again no need, just closer to the original if you play that sort of game. Also, if you tuck the lower-7th closer to the bottom row, you can use the entire bottom row and 7th button as the 4 neo-geo buttons, again closer to the original.

Good luck with the build!

[shponglefan]

Make sure to test out your button/joystick layout first using either a cardboard or MDF mockup.  What seems ergonomic on paper could turn out to be uncomfortable to use in practice.

[AzureKnight]

Also make sure the underside of your layout works.  The P1 joystick in particular can hit the side of the CP if you move it over too far to the left, you also need some extra clearance for the wiring of the micro switch pointing in that direction.

As shponglefan pointed out, build it fully in cardboard first.

[Malenko]

Make sure to test out your button/joystick layout first using either a cardboard or MDF mockup.  What seems ergonomic on paper could turn out to be uncomfortable to use in practice.

Not only do I find the curved layout visually displeasing, its mega uncomfortable.   Make a cardboard mock up  of your mcdonalds arches, then make one of a SF+1 (aka hybrid SF NeoGeo) and see which one feels better.

[zybeon]

I'm pretty sure I said in the original post that I already mocked it up on a cardboard cut out. I like the arched layouts better. It might be strange to you if you are only familiar with straight layouts. It's a personal preference.

I also mocked up a single player a while ago.




Also mocked up the full 2 player one.
This was all on scrap shelving with water damage I had lying around. Plus I can plan running all the wiring and test clearances much better than with cardboard.

[shponglefan]

Skipped over the bit about your cardboard mockup in the OP.  My bad.

Kudos on the prototyping!  It's something not everyone does, so it's a good way to sort everything out beforehand.  Good luck with the continuing build.