What's too narrow for 2p?

[morton]

Hope everyone is keeping alright.

I have a cabinet that started as a single player design and am tempted to install a 2P 3button Jamma PCB instead and wondered what is considered by folk here too narrow for 2 players. Thanks in advance.

[lilshawn]

very subjective

18 inch control panel area per player seems pretty comfortable (36ish wide). 14 is getting squishy i think. (28ish inches wide cabinet)

a 24" wide panel is doable for 2 players if you don't mind being a little off to the side and touching shoulders... of course the bigger the better as all things are.

[Phreakwars]

I tried a 2 player setup on an Arcade1Up. IMHO, my son and I did not like it one bit. I know it seems to be the popular thing to do, but man, just not enough room for decent play. Even after a 20" monitor it was still meh... I'd recommend a setup with a 27" and span the control panel to fit that type of cab.

[leapinlew]

22.5" is my minimum. That's a nintendo narrow body cabinet. Those had 2 player setups.

[Howard_Casto]

Don't go by cabs that officially had a 2 player setup because that can be misleading.  The first dynamo cabs that housed the original sfII were way too cramped..... later revisions of the game were put in wider showcase dynamos with a much wider control panel.

[bobbyb13]

LilShawn's 36" suggestion is quite reasonable (and realistic.)

What would I say is actually comfortable for 2 adults?
44" wide

But this all begs a critical question...

What size monitor are we talking about?

Only so wide will work if it is a 19" CRT

I imagine my 44" dream will only NOT look stupid with a minimum 27" CRT

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah the thing is width is usually dictated by monitor size.... the exceptions would be pedestal designs.

[Vocalitus]

I always thought that a small 2P CP was great way to hinder and annoy your opponent when playing Street Fighter.   

The 1UP 2 player is pretty narrow but it depends on the size of the players. 

2.5 feet wide is pretty normal.  But 6 feet apart is now the new normal.

[Arroyo]

My favorite fighting games (MK, MK2, MK3, & MK4) all used the same cabinet (well the base on MK was slightly different) and the width of that panel is 28.5”.  So if it was good enough for 10 years in arcades with people playing heavy head to head completion I think you are fine with that width. It’s only when you throw a bunch of additional controls that it may be an issue.

[KenToad]

For me, 22 inches would be the smallest for 2-player. My old bartop had a two player setup that was roughly that size. It was doable, but not comfortable. Larger people definitely rubbed shoulders. I would have preferred a few more inches, but, yeah, I was designing around a 17 inch monitor back in the day and I didn't want a huge bezel.

[Howard_Casto]

My favorite fighting games (MK, MK2, MK3, & MK4) all used the same cabinet (well the base on MK was slightly different) and the width of that panel is 28.5”.  So if it was good enough for 10 years in arcades with people playing heavy head to head completion I think you are fine with that width. It’s only when you throw a bunch of additional controls that it may be an issue.

Heh... the problem with that argument is we were all a lot narrower back then.    I think that would be about the maximum you'd want to do on a traditional cabinet though.

[morton]

Thanks for the replies folks.

As said, I set out to have a single player and went with a 22" wide panel on an Aussie style lowboy. Being off to the side isn't necessarily a deal breaker but probably not ideal.

It was gonna be a MAME cab but got infected with the itis and came into some common sense, a CGA monitor and CPS2 game I really enjoy. I figured I would install that into this cab. It's a Shoot 'Em Up and co-op would be great. That said, I suppose one could always defer this PCB to a more appropriate cab (it came in a showcase I shoulda kept).

Nowadays I suppose with how things are, a 2player panel is going to get little use and nobody here plays bullet hell shooters or arcades (other than step dad liking DK for Colecovision).

At this point I am not sure what to do. Take my time deciding I suppose.