My Control Panels - Opinions Please

[JAZ]

Any modifications anyone would recommend?

I have decided to go with 5 swappable setups:

Each panel will have:
1 player start, 1 player coin
2 player start, 2 player coin
6 buttons for MAME functions (TAB, ~,ESC, P, F3, F11)

These can be mapped to button / joystick combinations via the iPac but I would rather have the separate buttons.

The four player panel will obviously have 3 player start, 3 player coin and 4 player start, 4 player coin.


Street Fighter style:
2 x 8 way; 6 buttons each (in Neo Geo colour scheme + blk)

Pacman style:
1 x 4 way; 3 buttons

Ikari Warriors style:
2 x rotary, 3 buttons each
 
Smash TV style:
4 x 8 way, no buttons

Gauntlet style:
4 x 8 way; 3 buttons each

[Generic Eric]

Conceal your MAME functions if you must have them.  Put them on top of the cabinet above the Marquee or put them under the CP.  That should reduce clutter, the size of your cp(s) and allow you more space for your overlays.

[SkateDetroit]

I would just make one panel for gauntlet and smash tv if they both consist of the same basic thing. Throw your pacman setup on the street fighter setup and you only have 3 different panels. Definetely relocate the mame buttons and don't waste money on repeating those buttons. Remember you can use a sequence of buttons to perform commands in mame.

[mahuti]

Yeah, and the argument that guests will need them just doesn't work. Guests should have zero access to the mame features. All they need is game start, game quit, and scroll. Game start=button 1, Game quite=button 1 + 2, scroll = joystick action. You can map out the rest of the admin buttons to something like shift + up, shift + down, etc. Once you get the cab set up well, you'll find you don't need admin buttons very often.

[Minwah]

My advice is to ditch the admin buttons and get a wireless keyboard.  No matter how many admin buttons you have you will always need a key that you haven't thought of.  With a keyboard you can do everything, but once set up you can just put it away somewhere...

Having been using my cab for a few weeks now, my wireless keyboard is a godsend

[ani]

I plan on just having an out of sight shift button. I'm concerned that the shift combinations may be inadvertandtly hit otherwise.

[crashwg]

I'm planning on having 1 admin button... Pause.  I know it's not exactly arcade-acurate, but I'm pretty sure it will come in handy.  It will also be my shift button as I'm using a minipac.  I will then be able to program the shifted functions to just about anything on the CP as it wouldn't make sense for anyone to be pushing pause and buttons/joysticks at the same time and accidentally doing something they didn't want to.

[Stingray]

I plan on just having an out of sight shift button. I'm concerned that the shift combinations may be inadvertandtly hit otherwise.

The default iPac shift key is player one start. You aren't likely to accidently combine that with any other keys.

-S

[ani]

I'm planning on having 1 admin button... Pause.  I know it's not exactly arcade-acurate, but I'm pretty sure it will come in handy.  It will also be my shift button as I'm using a minipac.  I will then be able to program the shifted functions to just about anything on the CP as it wouldn't make sense for anyone to be pushing pause and buttons/joysticks at the same time and accidentally doing something they didn't want to.

Good idea. I've also got a pause button, but I hadn't thought of making it the shift key as well. I don't want to go with p1 start because it acts as taunt in the newer capcom fighting games, so it would be being pressed at the same time as other keys.

[Minwah]

I'm planning on having 1 admin button... Pause.  I know it's not exactly arcade-acurate, but I'm pretty sure it will come in handy.  It will also be my shift button as I'm using a minipac.  I will then be able to program the shifted functions to just about anything on the CP as it wouldn't make sense for anyone to be pushing pause and buttons/joysticks at the same time and accidentally doing something they didn't want to.

This is exactly what I am doing...at the moment I am using the pause key for coins tho, since I don't have my coin door hooked up.

Stingray: I hate to disagree but the very *first* time I used my cab for a 2 player game a couple of weeks ago (with the IPAC set to default), we quit Final Fight on level 5(!!) due to hitting P1 + P2 start.  If that ever happens to you you will make sure it doesn't happen again!!

[Doc-]

I would go with Pause, Quit, Coin-1, Coin2, Start1, Start2.

The control buttons can easily be mapped on the IPAC to any shift keys you want.  As others point out - you do NOT want start1-start2 to be a control combination (as it is in the default settings I believe!).   Also - you want the other config buttons hidden a bit so kids and guests don't accidentally start remapping things.

BTW - since you are looking at so many control panels - have you considered a modular setup?  I have a post in the project announcements section with mine - "Doc's modular mame" - but if you do a search there are other good examples as well.