4-player layouts with Trackball. Positioning info?

[tagbone]

Hi all, I just finished building my pedestal 4 player and I am working on the layout on the control panel. Some quick questions maybe someone can answer some or all.

1. Are their spacing positioning recommendations / standards for the distance from the front edge to the 3" Trackball?
     1a. Are there recommendations for a trackball? I was looking at the Ice on Groovygear?
2. With my build having a trackball and 4 joysticks. Is there a recommended distance between Player 1 and Player 2? And the distance recommended from the front of the panel to those positions?
3. With player 3 and 4, I know I've seen a post regarding orientation anyone have that info?
4. Lastly, I printed out a few different 7 button layouts for player 1 and 2. And they all feel pretty comfortable (maybe I've just played too many arcade machines   ) What has been the going consensus of the layout? I'm kind of being impartial to this layout just with only using 7 and removing that 4th button on the top?
http://slagcoin.com/joystick/layout/sega2365_s.png

[KenToad]

I have a 4 player pedestal panel. I'd say somewhere around 20 inches from joystick to joystick for the center two players should be good. As for distance from the front of the panel, probably 5-7 inches minimum for your lowest row of buttons. For buttons, I prefer standard rectangular 6 button SFII layout. The big red Neo Geo in my old arcade had a square group of 4 buttons and I still prefer that layout.

Generally, it's a good idea to print out the control layout templates like the one you posted at full size, tape them to your control panel and test out the layout before drilling.

[vertexguy]

I did a bunch of tests in my build thread on this (link in my signature).  I believe it depends on your play style and the type of games you want to play.  For maximum flexibility I would keep at least a 5 inch radius from the outer edge of the ball (based on a full size ball) to anything that sticks up much.  That gives reasonable distance for bigger motions for games like golden tee.  It also gives you wrist wrest area so you can play with your fingers.  If you only want to play games requiring smaller motion then you could probably get away with a 1-2 inch gap around the ball.

[tagbone]

@KenToad Thanks for the measurements and advice.

@Vertexguy Thanks for sharing your build you are working on, looks great!. You have a lot of pictures on your thread of all the steps you have taken, do you happen to have one that has the measurements of the CP?