Advice on four player layout

[ThePauly]

Hi everyone. I've been lurking and looking at other builds for the last few months. I plan on building an entertainment center/cabinet to hold my surround sound, blu-ray player, blu-ray and dvd discs, etc., and I'm going to build a 4-player CP on the top. It will sit directly beneath my wall-mounted TV.

I notice the vast majority of 4-player CPs have players 3 & 4 slanted to face toward the middle, but I've also seen a lot of comments saying not to do this. Is there some ergonomic reason not to make a straight line of four identical sets of controls? I realize most people have space constraints with their builds that aren't an issue for mine, but is there any other reason for the asymmetric layouts I've seen? I have to admit a mild slope for the outer players looks more like an arcade to me.

FYI, I'm planning on 6-button controls, like this one (deleting the two buttons at far right): http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout/hybrid36_m.png
I'll have a trackball in the middle

[jeremymtc]

http://newwiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?title=FAQ#Orientation

The recommendation is to make sure that your 3p and 4p joysticks themselves are not angled, even though those portions of the control panel may be. More info at link above

[BadMouth]

I notice the vast majority of 4-player CPs have players 3 & 4 slanted to face toward the middle, but I've also seen a lot of comments saying not to do this. Is there some ergonomic reason not to make a straight line of four identical sets of controls? I realize most people have space constraints with their builds that aren't an issue for mine, but is there any other reason for the asymmetric layouts I've seen? I have to admit a mild slope for the outer players looks more like an arcade to me.

Player 3 and 4 joysticks should be mounted square and not angled.  You can angle the buttons so the player stands at an angle, but keep the joystick oriented the same way as player 1 and 2.


Look at the original 4 player arcade machines and look at where the UP arrows are pointing for players 3 and 4.  If there aren't any up arrows, look at the mounting bolts.
The reason for not angling this sticks is that people instinctively move the stick the direction they want the character to go even if they're standing at an angle.
People can adjust to playing on angled sticks, but it's not as intuitive.  It sucks for guests who haven't used the cab before.
If you still want to angle the joysticks so be it, but don't say you weren't warned.

People on here rail on it because it's a mistake that gets made so often to the point that there are more bad examples than good ones to be found online.
It's not like other things that are a personal preference or aesthetics.  It really is a mistake.

It's counterintuitive, but the truth.

FYI, I'm planning on 6-button controls, like this one (deleting the two buttons at far right): http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout/hybrid36_m.png
I'll have a trackball in the middle

That will work.  There are no 4 player games in MAME that use more than 4 buttons.  There are only two that use 4 buttons.  Those are Dungeons and Dragons games.
The rest only use 3.  4 is a good number to go with.

[ThePauly]

That will work.  There are no 4 player games in MAME that use more than 4 buttons.  There are only two that use 4 buttons.  Those are Dungeons and Dragons games.
The rest only use 3.  4 is a good number to go with.

Aha, good info. I have loads of small people running around my house at various times, so I was intending to use the four player controls for SNES and Genesis, as well.

Thanks for the responses.

[paigeoliver]

There aren't any 4 player 6 buttons Genesis games either, and any Snes games will use 2 of the buttons directionally in a way that doesn't translate to a panel.

[yotsuya]

There aren't any 4 player 6 buttons Genesis games either, and any Snes games will use 2 of the buttons directionally in a way that doesn't translate to a panel.

I agree with Paige on the SNES not translating well to arcade controls.*


*cue someone disagreeing.

[ThePauly]

There aren't any 4 player 6 buttons Genesis games either, and any Snes games will use 2 of the buttons directionally in a way that doesn't translate to a panel.

Good points. I was thinking about putting the shoulder buttons as the top right and top left buttons, but that would throw off the whole layout of y-x, b-a.

I agree with Paige on the SNES not translating well to arcade controls.*


*cue someone disagreeing.

Haha, naturally.

So what i'm thinking now is the 6-button ergonomic layout for p1 & p2, with square 4-button layout for 3 & 4.