Mounting Joysticks?

[Biff Byford]

My box o' controls arrived tonight, and I've successfully mounted the spinner and trackball. However, I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out the joystick mounting. Questions:

(If it matters, I'm mounting four Happ competitions and one Happ ultimate in a 5/8" wood control panel.)

1) The Happ baseplates are 3" x 3 1/2", but the directions (which is really just an assembly diagram) don't specify whether the long edge should point toward the screen or not. Based on the picture in the Project Arcade book, I assume the long edge points toward the screen. Right?

2) The hole should be 1 1/8", right?

3) How deep should I recess the baseplates? ("Personal preference" doesn't help, because this is my first cabinet -- please give me some concrete advice, preferably based on how things are done on real games ...)

4) I'm building an Ultimate Arcade II four-player cabinet, so the control groupings for players 3 and 4 are angled. Should I point the sticks toward the screen (so when you push the stick up, it goes straight toward the back of the cabinet), or angle them to match the control groupings (so it would go toward the center of the screen)? I'm leaning toward angling the sticks, but here again, this is my first try so please help me out.

You guys answer stuff so fast, so I'm gonna go drill my 46 holes and check back in a bit ...

[Apollo]

Doesn't matter which side of the joy is up, it's the wiring that's the important bit.
I would suggest not angling your P3 & 4 joys, but it's been done either way.
A 1 1/8" hole will be fine.
 

[DougHillman]

Stick orientation:  It's been discussed here many times before.  General concensus is that all sticks going straight up is the better choice.  You want to move the stick the direction that the character on the screen is moving.  It's disconcerting if you're pushing the stick towards the middle of the CP when the character is moving up.  

I can't think of a single original 4 player game that had the sticks angled in.  They were all straight up.