Left/Right-handed control panel?

[GameBase]

Hi all,

I'm left handed, and on a normal game I hold the joystick in my left hand and press the buttons with my right hand.  I've seen many (probably most) arcade cabinets that have this same setup, so I assume most right-handed players also play this way, or am I wrong?

In a similar way, what happens to spinners and trackballs?  Do you "righties" use your right hand for controlling them, or do you use it like the joystick scenario where you save your right-hand for the buttons?  Personally, I would use my left hand for the spinner and trackball, and right for the buttons.

I'm just interested and curious because I'm designing my control panel primarily for ME, but would like it to be usable by right-handed players too...  so I need to know any design considerations first!  

[Carsten Carlos]

On arcade-games, left hand for joystick is the normal-way, maybe the designers considered that pressing different buttons (if there are more then one) be more difficult, don't know.
All my friends asked me if I'm lefthanded 'cause they so my panel-layout, but it just feels right that way.
However, many classic-games with 2 fire buttons like Xevious have the choise of pressing fire either left or right from the joystick - I'll make one panel at least which leaves the choice.

Trackball was always with the right hand - take a look at the panels of Centipede or Missile Command for example. Maybe that was 'cause a trackball is somehow "harder" work to deal with then just simply holding a stick.

[x-wing]

"Handedness" depends entirely on the specific game you are talking about.  An excellent resource for help in designing controls panels is KLOV.  There are closeups of many classic cab control panels, so you see how each game was supposed be controlled.

In general, though, joystick on the left and buttons on the right.  Trackball is typically in the middle (Golden Tee '98) or on the right (Centipede, Missile Command).  And spinners can be anywhere... It's on the left in Tron, and on the right in Tempest.

[Howard_Casto]

Hi all,

I'm just interested and curious because I'm designing my control panel primarily for ME, but would like it to be usable by right-handed players too...

[Bob Sanders]

have you been to the metreon?

its  the sony mall in sf, ca

they have mvc2 machines with joystick on the wrong side

but it look like they built the machines themselves

[fjl]

Even though I am righthanded my left hand has better dexterity when it comes to controlling a joystick. For some reason my timing can be off if I play Ms. Pac-Man with my right hand. My right hand is better suited for button pressing.

I don't know if this developed over time or my left hand is just simply better at controls. But this is just the way things work. I once tried an arcade with the button and joystick layout reversed. Suffice to say, it was a waste of my then hard earned cash being a little kid. 

[Xam]

Depends on the game...back in the day, I usually played cross handed...controling the stick with my right and the buttons with my left.

Xam

[Thenasty]

my CP is designed to handle LEFTIES or RIGHTIES. 

I'm a righty, but control the joy w/left. Since I built my CP w/Joystick on right side of buttons (2nd Player), I had problems w/Mortal Kombat games a t first, but not anymore. I guess I told my little brain that using right hand for controls is OK
Now I have become, (now what the heck is that word), dextrousity. Its like WAX on (Left hand) Wax off (Right hand). Now you see, no matter what hand I use, I get the job done