How would YOU do it?? A laptop 4-way/spinner CP

[sunspot]

So I'm going to make a couple of custom in-lap joysticks for myself and my wife with a 4-way joystick on left side and spinner on right side, so we can sit on the couch and play 4-way games like Pac Man and Wizard of Wor without the miserable suck resulting with 8-ways that makes you give up and choose to play another game from your Playstation 3/4 controller.

I haven't quite figured out what I should do with the button layout in between the joy and spinner.  This isn't a problem that can be solved with a Slagcoin layout.  We use a MiSTer FPGA so due to the unfortunate limitations of that platform, I need to dedicate AT LEAST one button to the spinner full-time.  What if Star Trek ever got added to the platform and I needed 4 buttons for the spinner side?

Not sure how many buttons I should install and dedicate to the 4-way joy side, and the spinner side.  What would you do??  All opinions appreciated.

EDIT:  I should clarify that I will be building these CPs from some scrap pieces of 1/8" thick aluminum and 1/16" steel panels.  1/8" aluminum will be on the CP top side.