Help with CP design....

[EricDeLee2004]

Hello everyone...

I'm new here, but I've been reading a lot of this board.  I posted once before but lost my password so I started all over again.

Well... about two years ago I got a really good (condition-wise) Tempest cabinet.  It was stripped of it's boards, and monitor.  The sideart is in near perfect condition.  I'd give it about a 9.5 out of ten (and only because the white is a slight off-white with age... I hope to find something to correct that though).

I tried numerous times to unload the cabinet to different people... for the simple reason that I did not want to MAME it.  It's a classic therefore I figured someone would have wanted a near mint cab.  But... after many failed atempts... I've decided to use it rather then let it sit in my garage for no reason.  

Anyway... no alteration will be done to the cab itself.  I was going to ebay the CP and make my own (not wanting to destroy a real CP)... but I've decided to use it.  It has all of it's original buttons (cone shaped w/ LEDs--which by the way work, and of course the spinner is still there).  

Here's what I want to do:
I want to keep the cone shaped start buttons in the same place (left hand side of CP)
I want to place 1 joystick on the CP--Left hand side.... next to start buttons. (I was thinking about the T-Stick Plus offered by Ultimarc... that way I can have 4 way ability for Pacman... and 8 way for other games.)
Then I was going to place 6 buttons at a diagonal (like most arcade CPs I've seen.  
Then leave the Spinner in the same place
And place the 2 1/4" trackball on the far right hand side. (I may exclude the Mounting plate for the trackball.  It just eats up a lot of room.)

Now... the problems I've seen thus far is that I may not have clearance with the spinner/trackball locations.  The other problem is smacking my hand into the side of the CP/cabinet when using the trackball.

All of the Admin buttons will be mapped of course (the less drilling I can do... the better.  Being that I won't be adding Player 2 Controls to this... the Player 2 start button can be my shift key (or pause button)

Can anyone take a look at the Tempest control panel and see if they can come up with a better plan?  Suggestions are very much welcomed and needed.  This is my first project... and being that I want to try to make it look professionally done I want as much advise as possible for this control panel.  

I will be adding graphics to it once the panel is completed... I am going to try to make it look like the original Tempest Graphics.  


Thanks in advance (also... thank you to all of the examples I've been searching through.  Lots of good stuff out there!)

Eric DeLee

[EricDeLee2004]

Note:  Dimensions for top of Control Panel:

6 1/2" X 23 1/2"

Not a whole lot of room... but I'm hoping to get everything on there without it looking to crowded.

(Noticed that some people use 7 buttons for each player.  What is that for?  I may not use 6 buttons... but I've got to try to figure out which games I would not be able to play if I do not use 6 buttons.  I'm not a big fan of fighting games... but I will be adding Console games as well... so that may factor in)

[Nailz]

Why not do a franken-panel so to speak like others have done?  Spare your poor original Tempest CP, carefully remove it, then lay in an alternate CP for whatever you may be wanting to play.

I'd hate to see you spare the cab and then hack the original CP.

Just my thoughts, people tend to get pretty religious around here about what is ok and what isn't, you'll find them far to the left and right on this debate.  =)

Anyways, welcome, and take my $.02 for what it is worth.

[flampoo]

I say rip the entire cabinet to pieces, sell it for parts and piss on the remaining pieces.  

[hulkster]

I say rip the entire cabinet to pieces, sell it for parts and piss on the remaining pieces.  

i second that, and then bury the cabinet upside down and then piss on it again.

[Nailz]

I say rip the entire cabinet to pieces, sell it for parts and piss on the remaining pieces.  

i second that, and then bury the cabinet upside down and then piss on it again.

I've just sensed a disturbance in the force.......   The pain!

[EricDeLee2004]

LOL...

Well... I've thought about trying to reproduce the exact thing... but the Tempest CP is a little different in shape compared to a lot of CPs.  

I'm still about a month away from buying my parts (joystick, buttons, trackball, IPAC, Optipac... etc etc....) but I think I'm still going to use the original CP.  I can't find anyone around here that can make an exact copy of it so it will fit my cab perfectly.  

Well... if you all have any ideas as to what kind of layout I should put my controls in... I'd be greatful to your suggestions.  I know you all have enough experience as to where to put the trackball to avoid running into stuff, the correct button configeration and things of that nature.  Any help would be great.  

[Tiger-Heli]

Note:  Dimensions for top of Control Panel:

6 1/2" X 23 1/2"

Not a whole lot of room... but I'm hoping to get everything on there without it looking to crowded.

(Noticed that some people use 7 buttons for each player.  What is that for?  I may not use 6 buttons... but I've got to try to figure out which games I would not be able to play if I do not use 6 buttons.  I'm not a big fan of fighting games... but I will be adding Console games as well... so that may factor in)

7 buttons are generally so you have a 4-button neo-geo layout combined with the Capcom SF 6-button layout.

If you're not into fighting games, you could probably get by with 5 (or even 4 buttons) but console emulation (except NES and SNES, or Atari 2600) often wants 8 or even 9 buttons, so you're kinda at crossed purposes.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I personally would sell/store the original CP, and do something like Justin did on his Centipede Cabinet.

I just can't see ruining something that others may need at some point, in hopes that you can "make it work".
I think the Dynamo style CP would give you more room for a trackball, etc..., and be much better suited to what you are trying to accomplish, than any conversion you could do to the original.
If you start from scratch, and design it to be what you WANT (not what you can make fit in the area you have), I think you'll be alot happier with it in the end.