Labelling push buttons.....dumb or smart?

[lisowskikevin]

Hey guys,

What is your opinion of labelling buttons like A B C  on your control panel? Would that be stupid? I'm talking about the playable buttons not admin or player start buttons.

[pbj]

Stupid

[keilmillerjr]

Depends on your application.

I'm making a Mame cabinet dedicated to neo geo mvs. The mvs was colored/labeled, and it will correspond to all the games.

[DeLuSioNal29]

It really depends on what you are planning to do.  If you are looking to make a Neo Geo CP, it's completely acceptable:


Or even an Xbox 360 stick layout:


D

[thomas_surles]

It could be a good move. Especially if you have a 6 button setup.
Like : 123
           456

Because every time someone goes to play a game on my cab they always go for the bottom row of buttons.

[BadMouth]

Depends on the input device and what you're using them to play.

If you're using a device that shows up as an xbox360 pad to play modern PC games, it's nice to have the onscreen pics correspond to your actual buttons.
I have kind of a hybrid setup that uses Neo Geo colors and letters on top, with xyz on the bottom.
Most Neo Geo games only use the first three buttons anyway and they're easily remembered.
If my cab weren't neo geo themed, I'd use all xbox labels.


On some PC games, this also works with direct input controllers which uses numbers for the buttons.

I also have a moves list holder where I can swap in pics of button layouts for various games.
I can never remember the controls for sports games.

[BadMouth]

Because every time someone goes to play a game on my cab they always go for the bottom row of buttons.

I've actually never seen anyone go for the bottom row, even on my old x-arcade setup that wasn't labeled.
I've always thought maybe it was an age thing, as I'm from a generation that only had one row of buttons on home console controllers.

[yotsuya]

It could be a good move. Especially if you have a 6 button setup.
Like : 123
           456

Because every time someone goes to play a game on my cab they always go for the bottom row of buttons.

Yep. Which is why mine is set up with 123 on the bottom, 456 on the top.

[zanna5910]

It could be a good move. Especially if you have a 6 button setup.
Like : 123
           456

Because every time someone goes to play a game on my cab they always go for the bottom row of buttons.

Yep. Which is why mine is set up with 123 on the bottom, 456 on the top.

+1.  All you have to do is switch inputs for 6 button games, and a few others.  I prefer it.

I think labeling can be a good thing for first time users, especially if you have an instruction card or dont use the ledblinky color light method.

[RandyT]

Because every time someone goes to play a game on my cab they always go for the bottom row of buttons.

One thing you can do to make a cabinet more user friendly to guests is to cross map multiple buttons to the same function.  I.e. if the game uses three buttons, mirror the top set to the bottom.  If there's only one button, map all of them to be the same (if MAME will allow that.)  It'll be a lot more intuitive, as well as allowing others to use whichever buttons they are most comfortable with while playing.

Just a thought....

[pbj]

Yep, that's the true solution.  You shouldn't have dead buttons on the panel.  But people never actually play the games, so what are you gonna do?

[lisowskikevin]

Because every time someone goes to play a game on my cab they always go for the bottom row of buttons.

One thing you can do to make a cabinet more user friendly to guests is to cross map multiple buttons to the same function.  I.e. if the game uses three buttons, mirror the top set to the bottom.  If there's only one button, map all of them to be the same (if MAME will allow that.)  It'll be a lot more intuitive, as well as allowing others to use whichever buttons they are most comfortable with while playing.

Just a thought....

I LOVE IT!

[Saneless]

I remap redundant buttons as well. Using 12 or 45 is the same function in most 2 button games I've ever started up.

[thomas_surles]

Because every time someone goes to play a game on my cab they always go for the bottom row of buttons.

One thing you can do to make a cabinet more user friendly to guests is to cross map multiple buttons to the same function.  I.e. if the game uses three buttons, mirror the top set to the bottom.  If there's only one button, map all of them to be the same (if MAME will allow that.)  It'll be a lot more intuitive, as well as allowing others to use whichever buttons they are most comfortable with while playing.

Just a thought....

I LOVE IT!

That's actually a great idea. I have never thought of this. It will take a while But will be worth it.