Control Panel Layout/Art for your review.

[ginkgoblue]

Hello again guys, now I (think) I have finished the design of my control panel. Have a look and tell me what you think. I love the feed back you guys give on this forum, truly helps people build something they can be happy with for a long time.

The goal, a simple to use panel that is "cool" looking but not too "noisy". The buttons will be RGB lit, so there will be plenty of "noise" when the cabinet is on, when it's off, I hope it's subtly "cool", but quiet.

Once I complete the panel and see it finished in person, I plan to designed the rest of the cabinet art around it.


What do you guys think? The more feedback the merrier.....





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[ginkgoblue]

Forgot to add the "theme" (if it's not obvious)

Imperial/Empire/Darkside themed.


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[ginkgoblue]

No feedback? Cmon guys!!


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[opt2not]

Not a fan of that CP shape. It's an ergonomic nightmare.

[ginkgoblue]

Really? Why? Care to enlighten me? I would love to hear opinions....


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[yotsuya]

[Emperor]Witness the awesome power of this fully functional Imperial aircraft carrier.... [/Emperor]

The art is subtle, so I like that. But the shape just leaves me blah. So yeah, I think you're going in the right direction with the art at least.

[opt2not]

Where the players will be standing will get in the way of each other.
P3 and P4 elbows will collide with P1's joystick arm, and P2's button arm.  This is the reason why the old 4p panels didn't have any funky shapes in them. they were no frills for a reason. Also a reason why P3 and P4 are at a more rotated angle on the CP.

Look at all the old midway style cabinets: TMNT, The Simpsons, Golden Axe II...even the smaller Gauntlet cabinets have them all evenly positioned around the CP rather than offsetting the edges, having people positioned in-front of each other...

Sure the shape is more interesting to look at, so if you're going purely for looks then do what you wanna. I'm just saying for actual functionality it's a PITA to play on.

[Malenko]

Look at all the old midway style cabinets: NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, NHL Open Ice, Hit the Ice, etc

FTFY

TMNT and the Simpsons were Konami and they also did Xmen and Bucky O'Hare
Golden Axe II was Sega , and it had a very similar cab shape to Spiderman (also a SEGA game) and The Avengers (Data East)

All the CPs for all those games were basically rectangles. When I had a 4 player cab, my CP was a rectangle. It was pretty much a clone of NBA Jam but I lined up the sticks to make 2 player smash TV , Total Carnage, and Karate Champ possible (in addition to extra buttons for the center 2 players)

[yotsuya]

Look at all the old midway style cabinets: NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, NHL Open Ice, Hit the Ice, etc

FTFY

TMNT and the Simpsons were Konami and they also did Xmen and Bucky O'Hare
Golden Axe II was Sega , and it had a very similar cab shape to Spiderman (also a SEGA game) and The Avengers (Data East)

All the CPs for all those games were basically rectangles. When I had a 4 player cab, my CP was a rectangle. It was pretty much a clone of NBA Jam but I lined up the sticks to make 2 player smash TV , Total Carnage, and Karate Champ possible (in addition to extra buttons for the center 2 players)

Losing the ability to play the Dual joystick games alone is enough reason as to why I would never go with that shape.

But again, see my signature file for my philosophy. And getting back to your artwork question, I do like it being subtle like that.

[opt2not]

Look at all the old midway style cabinets: NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, NHL Open Ice, Hit the Ice, etc

FTFY

TMNT and the Simpsons were Konami and they also did Xmen and Bucky O'Hare
Golden Axe II was Sega , and it had a very similar cab shape to Spiderman (also a SEGA game) and The Avengers (Data East)

All the CPs for all those games were basically rectangles. When I had a 4 player cab, my CP was a rectangle. It was pretty much a clone of NBA Jam but I lined up the sticks to make 2 player smash TV , Total Carnage, and Karate Champ possible (in addition to extra buttons for the center 2 players)

Well, I did say Midway Style... those cabinets were converted many times for multiple 4 player games.
Even my El Mechanio cabinet was once a converted TMNT and Golden Axe II:


Later on I went with a more spacious shape:


But in any case, giving feedback on the artwork is tough when the base shape could use tweaking first.

[ginkgoblue]

Question then, if I were to rotate the P3/P4 sets out a little more, wouldn't that in effect do the same thing? Is this "anti-aircraft" or poor stick slant/angles? Or are those two one in the same?

Sorry for the simple questions, just doing my best to understand what I can improve on....


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[Mike A]

If you move all 4 joysticks into a line you increase the number of games you can play, and you make 4 player games easier to play. There is no advantage I can see to the aircraft carrier design. I guess it looks prettier. I like the subdued artwork.

[ginkgoblue]

If you move all 4 joysticks into a line you increase the number of games you can play, and you make 4 player games easier to play. There is no advantage I can see to the aircraft carrier design. I guess it looks prettier. I like the subdued artwork.

Ah, now I can see what you guys are saying. I'll make up a quick prototype to see how it works for me.

Any body who has this design care to chime in? Would you change if you did it again?


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[Mike A]

Somebody really needs to paint a Death Star trackball for one of these Star Wars builds. Maybe a 3d printed ball, or a cnc'd ball if someone has a four axis cnc machine.

[dgame]

The arrows around the joysticks don't point in eight directions.

Maybe try a round TIE Fighter cockpit shape with the arrows on the eight outer panels?

[PL1]

I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned earlier since no discussion of a 4-player panel is complete without the obligatory "angled-sticks" warning.   

Green = good.  Red = bad.



https://web.archive.org/web/20160809113045/http://newwiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?title=FAQ#Orientation


Scott

[ginkgoblue]

The arrows around the joysticks don't point in eight directions.

Yes, I'm going to be using 6 way sticks on this build, since those are my favorite games!

I kid. Actually, I went with 6 ways because it was an average of 4 way and 8 way and I plan on using servo sticks.

I kid again. Those "six ways" are Sith Empire emblems and I just thought that they would work there. I don't think anyone is going to really care how many arrows are on the artwork.


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[Le Chuck]

Stick surrounds are nice, lose the Aurebesh and put the english in the button surrounds, if you're going to use that graphic as a trackball surround either shrink it so you don't cut part of it off, or move your trackball up a bit.  I wouldn't go with just flat black over the majority of it, I think there is a lot you can do with patterns and deep grays to give it depth.  For the love of god don't put all kinds of whizbang glowy led ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- all over it.  It'll be a gaudy mess and you'll lose the theme completely.  You want empire, you want dark side your color are black, white, red, and grays.  Smidgens of other colors are okay, but those four need to be your lodestone.  Don't make the trackball a deathstar, somebody always suggests it and it'll always look naff. 

[ginkgoblue]

Stick surrounds are nice, lose the Aurebesh and put the english in the button surrounds, if you're going to use that graphic as a trackball surround either shrink it so you don't cut part of it off, or move your trackball up a bit.  I wouldn't go with just flat black over the majority of it, I think there is a lot you can do with patterns and deep grays to give it depth.  For the love of god don't put all kinds of whizbang glowy led ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- all over it.  It'll be a gaudy mess and you'll lose the theme completely.  You want empire, you want dark side your color are black, white, red, and grays.  Smidgens of other colors are okay, but those four need to be your lodestone.  Don't make the trackball a deathstar, somebody always suggests it and it'll always look naff.

Thanks for the input! Personally, I like the logo being cut off at the bottom, I toyed with it different ways and to me it adds a layer of interest combined with the tattered look. Preference, I suppose.

As far as LEDs I will use ring lit, black plunger RGB LEDs mainly because I love the "only use the buttons that light up" simplicity it brings, as well as the ability to utilize different colors with instruction cards to answer the "what button does what?" crowd.

Admittedly, I'm new to the scene and I don't know everything about this stuff, but I'm hopping to be able to use mostly red lights until in game....


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[Le Chuck]

as well as the ability to utilize different colors with instruction cards to answer the "what button does what?" crowd.

That crowd you mentioned...that's you lol.  Guests will want to play Galaga and hit a button till they find one that fires.  They will want to play TMNT and mash buttons until they find hit and jump.  They will want to play SFII/MK and hit all the buttons, repeatedly, without thought of special moves or anything, they will want to play Pac-man and mash some buttons just for good measure.  They will want to play TRON because they heard about a movie and vaguely remember a game - don't explain you don't have the right controls, or that your screen isn't oriented right, or anything because their eyes will glaze over.  Just smile, shrug your shoulders, and say, "oh, it isn't on the list?  Weird." 

If you're investing in colors and cards and stuff make sure it's because you want colors and cards and explanations and guides, because literally no one else will care.  You gotta build for you man. 

[ugleymatt]

This quote needs to go on the front page, in big bold letters.

That crowd you mentioned...that's you lol.  Guests will want to play Galaga and hit a button till they find one that fires.  They will want to play TMNT and mash buttons until they find hit and jump.  They will want to play SFII/MK and hit all the buttons, repeatedly, without thought of special moves or anything, they will want to play Pac-man and mash some buttons just for good measure.  They will want to play TRON because they heard about a movie and vaguely remember a game - don't explain you don't have the right controls, or that your screen isn't oriented right, or anything because their eyes will glaze over.  Just smile, shrug your shoulders, and say, "oh, it isn't on the list?  Weird." 

If you're investing in colors and cards and stuff make sure it's because you want colors and cards and explanations and guides, because literally no one else will care.  You gotta build for you man.