building my 4 player showcase cab....do i need coin buttons???(read on)

[hulkster]

ive got the control panel part all built and as of right now, i dont have any coin buttons drilled....it would take me 2 seconds, but i was debating whether or not i would need them.  i plan on wiring my coin door to the ipac so you can put quarters in to play.  so im trying to figure out whether or not i should add coin buttons (cluttering up the cp more) or just get like a big bunch of quarters and require people to put in quarters when they want credits.  what do you guys think?

[patrickl]

I thought people rigged the coin return switch as a coin button on their coin doors. But maybe to have 4 players play you need 4 coin buttons too. Does your coin door have 4 slots?

[SkateDetroit]

Use quarters and map the coin buttons to something like first player start and joystick one down. That way you can free play quickly and not mess with quarters, but people will still pump quarters in when they come over

[hulkster]

Use quarters and map the coin buttons to something like first player start and joystick one down. That way you can free play quickly and not mess with quarters, but people will still pump quarters in when they come over

hmmm, very good idea.  so i can map like the start buttons of each player 1-4 w/ a regular action button (as in fight/kick/jump...whatever) to make it give credits?  if so thats a great idea, cuz it looks like you have to put quarters in.  also, i only have a 2 slot coin door, so can i set it to when somebody puts a quarter in, regardless of what game they are playing (either 2 or 4 player game) it will allow them to hit any of the start buttons?  say, for ninja turtles, if they put a quarter in the first slot, it will allow them to push start on any of the turtles they want right?

[TalkingOctopus]

I did not put any coin buttons on my four player cab.  My coindoor has 2 slots.  I wired the first slot for p1.  The second is for p2, p3, p4.  This setup works well for most games.  The few ones wherre it doesn't I set to freeplay.

[SkateDetroit]

That's how she works. Currently on my setup you can access all MAME functions using my start buttons and pressing player ones different buttons. You could make one button coin up all four players if you wanted, or coin up two players. You can customize the buttons to work with every game, or just one particular game.

     Open up a game in MAME and hit 'Tab' and you will see 'Input (General)' and 'Input (This game). Press enter and you will see all of the inputs available for all games, or that specific game. Select which function you'd like to remap and press 'Enter'. Now press the button or set of buttons you'd like to press to cause that function. If you're using two buttons simultaneously to activate a function you must press them together simultaneously.

     Just make sure not to mess up 'cancel' 'escape' or 'show menu'. That is make sure you have seperate button or button presses to activate those functions.

[Aceldamor]

Another Solution is to put mini buttons on the underside of the CP...they are tiny red buttons that will go all but un-noticed. I'll see if I can find pics

[hulkster]

okay, that sounds pretty good.  i may wire the first slot to player 1 and player 3 (both on the left) and wire player 2 and 4 to the second slot (both on right)....that way if all 4 of us are playing then you wont have to reach as far.  then again, if its 4 players the shift function may be easier.  

talkingoctopus - how did you wire multiple players to one coin thing?  did you put like....2 or 3 wires into one quick disconnect and wire that to the ipac?  if you can, explain how you did that.

[TalkingOctopus]

talkingoctopus - how did you wire multiple players to one coin thing?  did you put like....2 or 3 wires into one quick disconnect and wire that to the ipac?  if you can, explain how you did that.

Wire was probably not the best word.  Just map coin2, coin3, and coin4 to the same key in MAME.

[hyiu]

if you have 4 player CP... then I would say you should not need 4 extra buttons for coins...

for most new games... you can map the same buttons (if wanted) as credit and player start on the same button...

- so... pressing player 1 start once (with no credit) will insert a credit into it... and pressing it again will insert another credit and start the game....

however, on some 2 player old games... somehow that didn't work... (well... maybe its just me... I'm using gamepad hack...) for that, you have to map a different button for coin and start....

but since those old games are mostly 1-2 players...
(and you got 4 player buttons...)
you can easily duplicate the usage without problems...

hope it helps...  

[microwrx]

Use quarters and map the coin buttons to something like first player start and joystick one down.

This works fine for initially starting the game but if you are in the middle of a multi-player game and player 2, 3 or 4 wants to continue after running out of men/credits you need to interfere with player 1's gameplay to get more credits.  Not an issue most of the time but very annoying on the odd occasion it happens.

[Tilzs]

I put buttons on my cp. You probably don't really need 1 button for each player but be aware that there are games that it depends on what slot you put the coin in to give that player credits. If you don't have a button for each player make sure 1: You have a 4 player coin door wired up  OR 2: have a shift key mapped to each coin button preferably so that each player can add their own coins OR 3: don't care to play any of these games ever then you don't have to worry about it.

[hulkster]

well i will be playing 4 player games a lot, but i dont have a 4 player coin door.  so what is my best option here?  i mean, as long as i assign two buttons to give credits, like player 1 start + button 1, i should be okay right?  and i do that for each player, and it should work right?

[Tilzs]

I thought about this when I made my cab. I ended up with coin buttons for each player. I don't have  a 4 player coin door either.

Here is the problem

Games such as TMNT depends on what coin slot you put coins in to give that player credit.

Solution 1:
You can use say player 1 to give credits (shift + down) lets say. You can also use player 1 to give credits for the other players say (shift + left, right ... etc). Problem with this solution is does player 1 want to take time out from their game, most likey lose a life and whatnot to give the other playes credits. Most likely it'll get annoying.

Solution 2:
Use shift and then have each player add their own credits via one of their buttons. Problem with this solution is (with the I-Pac4 at least) is that you need 2 shift buttons because players 3/4's shift won't activate the shift functions on their buttons by pressing player 1/2 shift. You could get around this by useing a combination of inputs I suppose, say some of player 3's wires go to player 1 inputs and some of player ones goes to player 3.

The other problem with this solution is that if someone is adding coins and holding down shift it also screws up everyone elses buttons and causes them to shift as well as long as that person is putting in credits. Also is the shift in a place that everyone can reach it easy?

Solution 3:
I'm not sure if this works or not but I think it will. Have 2 coin buttons, 1 for player one and one for player 2, and anytime someone puts a coin in for player 1, map it to put a coin in for player 3 as well.

Solution 4: Just put a dedicated credit button for each player. You might want to look at the mini buttons. Thats what I used, they work great. If you are worried about clutter but the on the bottom or side of the cp.

[Lilwolf]

I removed mine a while ago...  Have coins and starts on the same buttons..

BUT..

I find a bunch of games don't work well like this...

I ended up changing it to 1/2 for start, 3/4 for coin for all 2 player games... and the 4 player games use combines... but I tore apart my 4 player cp (wasn't getting enought use... and needed the joysticks for another cp)... so I haven't tested which 4 player games need them seperate.

I would keep them seperate though... I'm a little annoyed that I did it... but not enought to fix it.

[hulkster]

I thought about this when I made my cab. I ended up with coin buttons for each player. I don't have  a 4 player coin door either.

Here is the problem

Games such as TMNT depends on what coin slot you put coins in to give that player credit.

Solution 1:
You can use say player 1 to give credits (shift + down) lets say. You can also use player 1 to give credits for the other players say (shift + left, right ... etc). Problem with this solution is does player 1 want to take time out from their game, most likey lose a life and whatnot to give the other playes credits. Most likely it'll get annoying.

Solution 2:
Use shift and then have each player add their own credits via one of their buttons. Problem with this solution is (with the I-Pac4 at least) is that you need 2 shift buttons because players 3/4's shift won't activate the shift functions on their buttons by pressing player 1/2 shift. You could get around this by useing a combination of inputs I suppose, say some of player 3's wires go to player 1 inputs and some of player ones goes to player 3.

The other problem with this solution is that if someone is adding coins and holding down shift it also screws up everyone elses buttons and causes them to shift as well as long as that person is putting in credits. Also is the shift in a place that everyone can reach it easy?

Solution 3:
I'm not sure if this works or not but I think it will. Have 2 coin buttons, 1 for player one and one for player 2, and anytime someone puts a coin in for player 1, map it to put a coin in for player 3 as well.

Solution 4: Just put a dedicated credit button for each player. You might want to look at the mini buttons. Thats what I used, they work great. If you are worried about clutter but the on the bottom or side of the cp.

well the whole reason i was steering away from the coin buttons for each player was clutter, and then i thought about putting the buttons on the box part of the cp, so it would be technically right in front of the player.  however, im going to be putting pinball flipper and plunger buttons on the box as well and didnt want the coin buttons to get in the way.  but those little buttons might be the solution.  you got a link?

[Tilzs]

http://www.arcadedepot.com/HTML/ControlHardware/BTN3.html

[kahlid74]

Here is what I did.

I took 4 three way switches I bought from sears hardware.
Position one : middle - Off
Position two : Pushed down - on, when you let up springs back to position one.
Position Three : Pull out - On continously.

Here is how I wired it:
Pin 1 - Main feed - Wired to coin 1 on I-Pac
Pin 2 - Pushed feed - Wired to ground on I-Pac
Pin 3 - Pulled out feed - Wired to coin wire on Coin drawer

So when you pull the button out, it completes the circuit to the coin drawer.  Then when you put a coin in, it completes the circuit and gives you a credit.

If you don't want to pay with coins, then just push the button and it gives you a credit.

This methodology works great.  I store the buttons on the bottom of the control panel towards the back angle, hidden underneath.  If you don't know where to look, you never will.  I leave them in the out position all the time.  The roomates still haven't figured it out yet.

[hulkster]

Here is what I did.

I took 4 three way switches I bought from sears hardware.
Position one : middle - Off
Position two : Pushed down - on, when you let up springs back to position one.
Position Three : Pull out - On continously.

Here is how I wired it:
Pin 1 - Main feed - Wired to coin 1 on I-Pac
Pin 2 - Pushed feed - Wired to ground on I-Pac
Pin 3 - Pulled out feed - Wired to coin wire on Coin drawer

So when you pull the button out, it completes the circuit to the coin drawer.  Then when you put a coin in, it completes the circuit and gives you a credit.

If you don't want to pay with coins, then just push the button and it gives you a credit.

This methodology works great.  I store the buttons on the bottom of the control panel towards the back angle, hidden underneath.  If you don't know where to look, you never will.  I leave them in the out position all the time.  The roomates still haven't figured it out yet.

well this idea, although sounds cool....is a little over my head.  i may just have to suck it up and put coin buttons on my cp.  hmmm....i just had a thought, since pinball games dont need 4 players worth of a coin buttons, i could just assign the third and fourth player coin buttons as flippers!  killing two birds with one stone.  

[hyiu]

if you don't want to cluster your CP... you DON'T need extra 4 coin buttons !!!!

you have a 4 player panel... right ??...

do the following....

in mame.... in the general (ALL GAMES) mapping...

map - coin 1 and start 1 to the same button...
map - coin 2 and start 2 to the same button...
...

so... for all 4 players.... the coin and start button ARE THE SAME !!!...

this will work for MOST GAMES !!!... (well... see here I said MOST...)

the games that will NOT work are OLD games...
(but old games are only 2 players only !!!!....)

so... for those few old games, you just have to remap
the coin 1 button to player 3 start, and coin 2 button to player 4 start....

that's it !!!...

you're all set, and no extra button on the CP...