First Build - 4-player control panel

[nolatron]

Hi Folks,

Newish lurker here and thought I start up a project thread for my 4-player control panel build.

A few weeks back I got an idea to build a Commodore 64 emulator, which then eventually morphed into a Bartop build. But due to current lack of tabletop space to actually put it, it then turned into a control panel build that would be placed on the coffee table to play on the living room TV, and then stored away when not.  It's mainly going to be something for me and/or the kids to play so I wanted it to be 4-player so we could all play TMNT, X-Men, Simpsons, etc.. together. 

Arcade games, some Atari and C64 games will be the primary focus. NES, SNES and Genesis might be the only other addition for a few games (I know my sister would die to play Toe Jam & Earl on it). RetroPie or Launchbox are my top choices for the UI.

After googling around for ideas I came across this design for a panel:


I loved it. It was Tron themed, 4 players and had what I kinda thought I wanted.  But then as I kept reading the internet I eventually stumbled into these forums and got a lot of insight into building a control panel such as the downsides to the shape of this panel, placement of the spinner, etc...

Luckily, I managed to locate on the internet the original photoshop files for the design to modify it up. I could recreate the border for the chopped up bottom so I just got them out all together. I eventually ditched the wing shape of the panel, the flightstick, the spinner, dedicated 4-way joystick. The trackball I'm still on the fence but more than likely it'll be left off too.  And yes, my P3 and P4 joysticks will not angled but aligned with the screen  

Here's the design I'm currently at:



I'm still debating on the admin buttons and how to best utilize them.  Right now I have a pause and exit button, plus 2 blanks in the middle.  Thought maybe of making the button next to the exit button a Hotkey so you have to press that one and Exit to actually exit.  Even thought about not using any labels at all and just use decals so they can be changed if needed.

I plan to print out a mockup tonight and get all 4 of us on it to see how the control spacing is and see if things need to be wider or not.  It's about 46" wide right now, hopefully can keep it under 48".  Once I get my button order in from Groovy Game Gear I'll also mockup the button layouts on some scrap cardboard just to make sure it's comfortable and all before committing.

Phase 2 if all goes well and we like playing it enough I might build a pedestal or full size cab and put it in the "playroom".  Baby steps though, heh.

[pbj]

Swing players 3 and 4 off to the sides.  You're gonna be checking each other's oil with that current arrangement.

[wp34]

Swing players 3 and 4 off to the sides.  You're gonna be checking each other's oil with that current arrangement.

We need the ability to like posts.

[nolatron]

Thanks.  Testing out with Player 4 angled more to the side.  Something like this? 



Is there any sort of recommend angle for P3/P4 or is gonna vary depending on panel/game setup?

[pbj]

Your second version is going to be way more comfortable. 

 

[opt2not]

The distance between the buttons and the joysticks looks pretty close to comfortably fit adult size hands.

Also, what's your reasoning for the 7th button at the bottom of the P1 and P2 controls? Neo-geo games?  If that's the case, why not just use the 1st button on the bottom row as "A", then top-3 buttons for "B - C"?

[nolatron]

The distance between the buttons and the joysticks looks pretty close to comfortably fit adult size hands.

Also, what's your reasoning for the 7th button at the bottom of the P1 and P2 controls? Neo-geo games?  If that's the case, why not just use the 1st button on the bottom row as "A", then top-3 buttons for "B - C"?

Yes, I'm wondering about the spacing too since it's a little tighter than slagcoin's "Capcom USA Street Fighter layout". I wanted to mock up a joystick and buttons to see how it feels, but I've also been trying to recreate that box around the buttons to see if I can get something close without it looking too butchered so I can use one of the slagcoin templates.

The 7th button is there mostly cause it was part of the original graphic, but I'm not attached to having it if I can adjust the design for a 6-button layout.

[nolatron]

Well, that first part on the box easier than I thought.



I'm gonna keep working on this and see if I can fit in a proper Slagcoin template.

[nolatron]

Here's what I came up with as my 3 possible button layouts.  These are based 3 templates from SlagCoin:

The " Capcom USA Street Fighter layout"



The "Clustered grid layout forming squares" layout, with the 4th buttons chopped off. It brings the buttons a little closer together.


And I thought I'd try the Japanese arcade "Clustered arcade layout" with the 4th buttons chopped off to see how it looks.

[PL1]

If you haven't already done so, it's a good idea to make cardboard/hardboard mockups of the button layouts using the buttons and leaf-switches/microswitches you plan to use in your build.

Your fingers will know which layout is best for you.   


Scott

[opt2not]

I like the 3rd, the Japanese one because it’s just a comfortable layout. It’s not authentic to North American control panels, if that’s what you’re going for. But it will be ergonomically better for prolonged play.

[Laythe]

Hang on.  Somebody didn't build an aircraft carrier?



Like, they started to, and then they did something good.  And it keeps getting better with design iterations...

Stick around, nolatron!  You're all right!   

(I'm partly just yanking Chance's chain, but in all seriousness, I like your design and where you're going with it.)

[BadMouth]

I like the 3rd, the Japanese one because it’s just a comfortable layout. It’s not authentic to North American control panels, if that’s what you’re going for. But it will be ergonomically better for prolonged play.

I went with a curved layout and convex buttons because I wanted my cab to feel more modern.  I like it for 3 button games, but on the 5 or 6 button fighting games my fingers lose track of where they are and I find myself looking down more often to reset them.

It's not a huge deal.  I'm not rebuilding my control panel over it.
But if I ever build another cab, I going back to the straight 6 concave (or 8 if Steam compatibility is a concern).

I have two extra admin buttons that switch between gamelists while in the front-end.  Not a fan of admin buttons other than exit and pause.

[yotsuya]

Hang on.  Somebody didn't build an aircraft carrier?



Like, they started to, and then they did something good.  And it keeps getting better with design iterations...

Stick around, nolatron!  You're all right!   

(I'm partly just yanking Chance's chain, but in all seriousness, I like your design and where you're going with it.)

Agreed. It’s nice to see someone not fall for that well-intentioned but ill-planned design. Kudos to you, nolatron.

[Laythe]

Your four sticks are close enough to a line that I would bet Smash TV works on that layout as a 2 player game, with contestant 1 using P3/P1 sticks, and contestant 2 using P2/P4 sticks.

I like the condensed rectangular clustered grid over the curve, but I'd agree with PL1 that sticking controls in cardboard and seeing what feels right to you is smart.

Props for your image manipulation skills, too, juggling those layouts around - that doesn't look butchered at all.

[nolatron]

Hang on.  Somebody didn't build an aircraft carrier?



Like, they started to, and then they did something good.  And it keeps getting better with design iterations...

Stick around, nolatron!  You're all right!   

(I'm partly just yanking Chance's chain, but in all seriousness, I like your design and where you're going with it.)

lol, thanks!

Agreed. It’s nice to see someone not fall for that well-intentioned but ill-planned design. Kudos to you, nolatron.

Thanks. In a lot of my reading your comments regarding that particular layout helped convinced me to try and redesign it back to a more rectangular shape.  Everyone's past recommendations I've on other projects have been a big help as well.

Your four sticks are close enough to a line that I would bet Smash TV works on that layout as a 2 player game, with contestant 1 using P3/P1 sticks, and contestant 2 using P2/P4 sticks.

I like the condensed rectangular clustered grid over the curve, but I'd agree with PL1 that sticking controls in cardboard and seeing what feels right to you is smart.

Props for your image manipulation skills, too, juggling those layouts around - that doesn't look butchered at all.

Not a bad idea. I didn't play Smash TV much "back in the day", mostly cause it one of those arcade games I always saw at the Bowling Alley or the Skate Rink and my mom would never give me quarters to play, lol. I remember Elevator Action being another one like for some reason. I'll have to certainly try that out though.

I'm thinking my order of Pushbuttons and Joysticks is still about a week away from delivery so I'm just anxiously awaiting those to get here so I can do up some button layouts. I had some free time today so I went and updated the layout using the condensed 6-button grid for now to see how it looked.



The 6-button grid layout just seems to be the most familiar to me from my arcade days.  But we'll see how the mockups do.  I put the trackball back in just to see how it all looked and trying out a curved edge on this one. Not sure if I like a curved or angular side yet.  The curve gives P3 & P4 about 2" of wrist space while P1 and P2 have 3".

[Jefferson]

My first was a 4P and I went with a very similar layout... I'll say, in retrospect I wish I had only went with two admin buttons, exit and pause.  Player buttons or shifted functions can take care of everything else.

ALSO- I rigged microswitches to the 4 coin reject buttons on my cab... great way to hide that functionality in an intuitive way and get rid of coin buttons on the CP

[nolatron]

Yeah, I've trimmed the admin buttons down to 3 right now, Pause, Exit and a blank.  Though I've been thinking of just removing the blank and using the 2 like you said.  Another thought was to just remove them off the control panel and place on the cabinet/box the control panel would sit on.

I'm currently in a debate between building the 4 player panel or two smaller 2-player panel, since it would be easier to setup for a quick 1 or 2 player game (probably the majority of game play).

Here's the 2 designs I did based on the EVO XR control panel with the idea I could turn it into a bartop in the future.

Player 1 & 2 - Space Paranoids


Player 3 & 4 - Sonic


After mocking up the buttons, I decided to stick with the familiar grid layout too.

[larson.eric@gmail.com]

I unfortunately used that original graphic. Not that it's a bad graphic, it's just so many controls. I don't need a dedicated 4-way, joystick, spinner, trackball, etc.

Thinking about redoing it. Can you share what you created?