1 vs 2 player arcade

[TheOnlyShad0w]

I've been contemplating whether to build my cabinet with just one joystick or two. One has the advantage of being directly facing the screen opposed to being off center with two joysticks. Is this a valid concern? I plan on getting a 32" LED TV and I doubt the viewing angles would be a concern since it shouldn't be a very extreme angle, I'm just concerned about how it will feel to play a single player game off center.

What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance!

[severdhed]

being slightly off center is  no issue at all, thats how it would be if you were playing with someone else on any arcade cabinet.  If being centered is more important than being able to have another player, then center the controls.  I guess it depends on what kind of games you wish to play.  Most of the real classics only have one set of controls and alternate turns.

[wp34]

Severhed is correct. Being slightly off center is not noticeable. One other advantage of having a setup for two players is that you can play double joystick games such as Robotron and Smash TV.

[TheOnlyShad0w]

I figured it wouldn't be a big deal, I just wanted to hear from those with experience. There are a bunch of two player simultaneous games I want to play, however I realized that many of them are single player or switch off two player style and I didn't want to ruin the single player experience.

[aldub516]

I certainly would not sacrifice a 2 player set up for being straight on center, especially with a 32 inch vizio..  just make it a nice simple clean layout. It would suck for a buddy to wanna jump in on a game, and instead have to just drink your beer as you blast away.

[TheOnlyShad0w]

Yeah I think you guys are right. I'll go for the two player set up.

[BadMouth]

Not the norm, but it is possible to have it both ways.  I built this cab solely for my own enjoyment and almost made it one player, but couldn't justify it with such a wide CP.  When I still had a basement bar, guests got the x-arcade tankstick downstairs.

[big10p]

I use the player 2 stick for playing games like Pac-Man, as it's more central than the P1 stick.

[wp34]

I use the player 2 stick for playing games like Pac-Man, as it's more central than the P1 stick.

That's an interesting idea. It would work well for most of the classics.

[TheOnlyShad0w]

Bigmouth, that's a really nice setup you have there. I'm tempted to do something like that, but I also want to keep it simple.

big10p, that's a good point. Definitely makes me want to lean towards the two stick design.

[DudeRegular]

Second stick can also be set for dual stick games like robotron and smash tv.

[TheOnlyShad0w]

Second stick can also be set for dual stick games like robotron and smash tv.

That's also a good point.

[artyfarty]

Hi

I built a MAME cab (unfinished, but I got a long way through) with a 2-player layout, plus a central trackball.

But I *really* didn't like how it felt to be standing in front of the left hand side of the cab to play the 1980s single player games of my youth (Mr Do, PacMan, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Galaxian), instead of central to the monitor. And one of the first things my wife said when she fired up Galaga was "Why aren't the controls in the middle like I remember?" (instead of "great job, love that I can play Galaga just like I used to in the arcades").

There were also some other things about the cab the left me dissatisfied - but the position of the controls for a one player game really irked me. So much so that I've scrapped that cabinet and started a new one that will have removable panels for 1 and 2 player.

I'm sure a lot of people would be fine with one player games on a two player panel (and I certainly thought I would be), and it would have been different if my panel didn't have the central trackball pushing the player one and player two controls even further away from centre.

Martin

[JDFan]

and it would have been different if my panel didn't have the central trackball pushing the player one and player two controls even further away from centre.

I think this is the main thing - trying to make a 2 player panel that can play everything by adding trackballs/spinners to the center of the panel moves you farther away from center so that playing a game you always feel off to the side. If the button sets are the only thing on the panel then it doesn't move you that far away and if left handed it is easy to stand in the center and play with your hand off to your left (can do the same using 2nd player joystick for right handed players) so that you are in the center but your hand is off to your side.

Would be interesting to see someone design a 2 player CP with switchable 4 - 8 way joysticks that had a slide for the 2nd player stick that could be moved from the Center of the panel to the 2nd player position depending on if you weere playing an old classic or fighting game (so just the 2nd player joystick could slide like Badmouths entire CP does for playing thos classic single player games with the joystick in 4 way mode in the center and then slid back to the right and set to 8 way for the fighting games  ) - maybe even have a filler board that sits in the slot for the slide that can be lifted up to slide it and then placed back in to cover the slot and if you want to get real tricky - automate it so it switched depending on the game selected !