Player order on a four player system

[jpdanger]

Bare with me please. I'm trying to gather as much information as I can before I leap into building my own Retropie arcade.

I have a question regarding player order. I'd like to build a four player arcade system to play games like TMNT, Gauntlet, NBA Jam, etc, but I'm wondering about playing two player games. How does player order work when playing two player games on a system that is set up with four players? Can it be set up so that positions two and three are for two player games and all four are used for four player games? I hope this isn't confusing. I don't want to have to stand off the side just to play a two player game.

BTW, the letter verification and "apple sentence" test is a PITA!

[PL1]

Welcome aboard, jpdanger.   

Most 4-player MAME control panels have the controls in this default player order -- 3  1  2  4

The two most commonly used positions (Players 1 and 2) are on the center-left and center-right -- they have the best viewing angle and puts those players closest to the center of the screen.

For some games like TMNT, the players appear on the screen in 1  2  3  4 order.

For games like that, you can remap the buttons so the default Player 3 stick/buttons (far left on panel) control Player 1 (far left on screen), P1 stick/buttons control P2, and P2 stick/buttons control P3.

A friend likes playing The Simpsons as Bart (default P3) so I remapped P3 controls to P1 stick/buttons and set Marge (default P1) controls to "none".

Alternate method: Use a 2-player version ROM (tmnt2po, gauntlet2p, simpsons2p, etc.) that allows each player to choose their character.

BTW, the letter verification and "apple sentence" test is a PITA!

Gotta keep the spammers out somehow. 

Now that you are a "Jr. Member", you don't have to deal with that any more.   


Scott
EDIT: Updated the joystick orientation text and image in the FAQ to clarify player order on a typical 4-player MAME panel.