Expanding control panel with USB ports

[jlfreund]

Hi all,

I'm building a new 2P arcade that will have 2 external USB ports on either side for occasional AimTrak use.

I was wondering if anyone has tried or has a recommendation for how to use those ports to add other controls -- in particular player 3 and player 4 joystick ensembles for the occasional TMNT, Simpsons, 4p XMen, etc.  If you're standing to the left or right of the arcade control panel, without a tabletop to rest your external controller on, you'd probably want an 8way Dpad instead of a joystick, and ideally you'd want it to register as an HID and control the key mappings so they don't interfere with the existing PC keyboard or minipac.

Has anyone else tried this approach?

-Jason

[paigeoliver]

You have to make sure the two gamepads are different to avoid them randomly changing places every boot.

Also, you just don't want to do what you are talking about. I have been there. So not worth it. Just build the mame cabinet of your dreams and then prowl craigslist until you can buy another working game for $100-$200. Mame cabinet plus random game always ends up superior to 4-player mame cabinet.