6, 7 or 8 buttons

[Gim]

Hello everyone,

I am currently designing my control panel for my first MAME cabinet. I was wondering if I should put 6, 7 or 8 buttons for player 1 and player 2. Is there any MAME games using 7 or 8 buttons ? For player 3 and player 4, I think I will put only 4 buttons (should I put more then that) ?

I planned of using Advance MAME (on linux), can someone using advance can tell me the system buttons I'll need ?

I planned to play a lot of "street fighter" on my cabinet, is the T-Stick plus appropriate ?

Regards,

Guillaume Frechette  

[GGKoul]

Oh dear god no...

If you search around.. you find most people have 6 buttons for 1 & 2, and 4 for 3 & 4.

[dmish82]

I opted to go with 7 buttons for Players 1 & 2 and 3 buttons for Players 3 & 4. I can't think of any games that used more than 7 buttons (basically just fighters seemed to use this many). There were very few games that used 4 buttons for Players 3 & 4 but most used 2 and some used 3. If you plan on emulating console systems in the future, then it's possible you may want more buttons. Hope this helps.

[SirPoonga]

Since I play abit of neogeo I like the 7 button layouts.  I might change my control panel now.

For players 3 and 4 all you really need is 4 buttons if you are only going to do mame.  If you are going to do console emulation you might need more.

[pointdablame]

I don't even think there are games that actually use 7 buttons... except maybe mahjong or casino type games with a million buttons on them.

The 7 button layout is really just to emulate the NeoGeo button layout AND the 6 button fighter layout.  If you don't play NeoGeo games, you probably don't need it.

[Bgnome]

i doubt this is a new idea since whatever anyone thinks is new has been done several times before but just doesnt seem to pop up with the search feature..
but i designed this layout for my buttons as a somewhat non-traditional approach to the combination of a capcom layout with a neogeo layout.  and if it happens to be original, it was my idea!  the spacing is the standard 1.5" from center to center between adjacent buttons.

[GGKoul]

The 7 button layout is really just to emulate the NeoGeo button layout AND the 6 button fighter layout.  If you don't play NeoGeo games, you probably don't need it

And there;s only a few Neo Geo games that use the 7 buttons... Baseball Stars is one.

[SirPoonga]

The 7 button layout is really just to emulate the NeoGeo button layout AND the 6 button fighter layout.  If you don't play NeoGeo games, you probably don't need it

And there's only a few Neo Geo games that use the 7 buttons... Baseball Stars is one.

That's an intereting comment.  Since neogeo is only 4 button (with the exception of two tball games that ALSO run in standard neogeo joystick layout) all neogeo is 4 buttons.  even all online resolurces say Baseball Stars is 4 buttons.

[Bgnome]

maybe he meant the 7th button?  im pretty sure that at least the metal slugs dont really use more than 3..

whats the other t-ball game?  the only one i can think of is irritating maze..

oh and btw, people might have some numbering issues with my layout.  i will be using neoragex for my neogeo games, (i seem to get better fps than mame with my setup), so neogeo games will have the buttons mapped seperately in a totally diffferent emulator.

[JustMichael]

Don't forget "Mole Attack"!!!!  It uses 9 buttons for play...  

[Bgnome]

Don't forget "Mole Attack"!!!!  It uses 9 buttons for play...  

why not forget the buttons altogether?
http://www.monzy.org/urinecontrol/

[HaRuMaN]

Try this on for size.  I found this works great for both Street Fighter AND Neo-Geo games...  and its more comfortable than the standard SF layout.

[namzep]

As previously mentioned, you really only need more than 6 for non-arcade (console) emulation.  Actually, something like 85% or 90% of joystick games can be played with 4 button setups (I believe this is correct, someone correct me if I'm wrong).  However, since you specifically mentioned Street Fighter games 6 buttons will be more than fine.  Never understood setting up the panel with the 7th buttons, myself.

[AmericanDemon]

They only do the 7 button layout to provide exact controls for Neo Geo games as well as 2 x 3 street fighter layout.

[GGKoul]

The 7 button layout is really just to emulate the NeoGeo button layout AND the 6 button fighter layout.  If you don't play NeoGeo games, you probably don't need it

And there;s only a few Neo Geo games that use the 7 buttons... Baseball Stars is one.

What I meant to say was having a 1234 button layout is only used for a few neogeo games.

[dmish82]

Didnt' Mortal Kombat 3 use a 7th button to have your character run?

[Thenasty]

if you majong, you need around 16 buttons  

[Buddabing]

Didnt' Mortal Kombat 3 use a 7th button to have your character run?

According to controls.dat, no. High Punch, High Kick, Low Punch, Low Kick, Block, and Run.

My vote is for 6 buttons player 1 and 2 laid out 2x3, and 3 buttons player 3 and 4, laid out linearly.

[krick]

Didnt' Mortal Kombat 3 use a 7th button to have your character run?

According to controls.dat, no. High Punch, High Kick, Low Punch, Low Kick, Block, and Run.

Yes, MK3 only used 6 buttons.  Remember that they only had one block button in the middle.  However the run button was down and to the left where you could hit it with your thumb.

The reason that people often end up with the 7 button layout (capcom 6 + thumb) is because it's only way to get a layout that works with all the major fighter layouts....
NeoGeo:

Street Fighter 2 (Capcom):

Mortal Kombat 3:


Note that for the Mortal Kombat series, usually, both "center" buttons of the capcom layout are configured to work as the block button.

And if you want to play console games (SNES, PSX, etc...) you'll actually need 8 buttons.

[daywane]

I think... the extra buttons are for a combo attack with neo games.
some versions of mame will let you set them up so 1 botton will send a combination of buttons pressed. I hated those games. ( thay ticked me off to much to realy try them out)( i always got my butt kicked) but I know EZ mame 32 will do this trick.
warning.... EZ Mame 32 has some bugs  on XP. it also lets you set up fast fire on all games.

[danny_galaga]

Don't forget "Mole Attack"!!!!  It uses 9 buttons for play...  

why not forget the buttons altogether?
http://www.monzy.org/urinecontrol/

that is pure genius!! worthy of an 'ignobel award'

[GGKoul]

My vote is for 6 buttons player 1 and 2 laid out 2x3, and 3 buttons player 3 and 4, laid out linearly.

XXX
XXX

Yep

[Dartful Dodger]

Why not have dual keyboards?

This way player one could instant message player 2 while they play.

[Grasshopper]

i doubt this is a new idea since whatever anyone thinks is new has been done several times before but just doesnt seem to pop up with the search feature..
but i designed this layout for my buttons as a somewhat non-traditional approach to the combination of a capcom layout with a neogeo layout.  and if it happens to be original, it was my idea!  the spacing is the standard 1.5" from center to center between adjacent buttons.

It's not original, I've seen this layout used on cocktails before, probably because it doesn't need much space. However it's still a good idea! I'd probably use it if I were building a cocktail cab.

With regards to the number of buttons needed, another reason for using a 7th button (apart from Neo-Geo fighters) is that it's handy for reverse on Defender/Stargate.

However, I really can't think of a good reason for an 8th button. For a start Dreamcast games generally only use up to 6 buttons. Theoretically Playstation and X-Box games can make use of 8 buttons but how many games actually do? And how many of those games are suitable for using with arcade controls? Not many I suspect.

My next panel will be designed mainly for DC games and I intend to use a 2*3 layout in an arc because that is the layout that most Naomi cabs (based on DC hardware) seem to use.

I have a slightly off topic question that I'm sure has been asked many before but I've had no luck with the board's search function. Please can someone tell me how to wire up an Ipac to a 2*3 Capcom layout so that the Ipac does not have to be reprogrammed (i.e. the jumper is set to the MAME defaults)?

Thanks in advance

[krick]

I have a slightly off topic question that I'm sure has been asked many before but I've had no luck with the board's search function. Please can someone tell me how to wire up an Ipac to a 2*3 Capcom layout so that the Ipac does not have to be reprogrammed (i.e. the jumper is set to the MAME defaults)?

I have a 2 player capcom 6 button layout and my J-PAC works fine with the default programming.

However, what I DID have to do is change the default controller ini files in mame so the extra buttons were recognised.  Unfortunately, I did it about a year ago and I can't remember HOW I did it.

Of course, with the new versions of MAME, my controller ini files are now obsolete and I'll have to make them all over again.  

[Bgnome]

I have a slightly off topic question that I'm sure has been asked many before but I've had no luck with the board's search function. Please can someone tell me how to wire up an Ipac to a 2*3 Capcom layout so that the Ipac does not have to be reprogrammed (i.e. the jumper is set to the MAME defaults)?

Thanks in advance

I am pretty sure the button layout looks like this:
1SW1  1SW2  1SW3
1SW4  1SW5  1SW6

aka:
1  2  3
4  5  6

now this corresponds to the default controls for the SF games in mame.  i have not checked whether this is how the default layout is in MK or the vs games, (not a big fighter fan).

[cdbrown]

I have a slightly off topic question that I'm sure has been asked many before but I've had no luck with the board's search function. Please can someone tell me how to wire up an Ipac to a 2*3 Capcom layout so that the Ipac does not have to be reprogrammed (i.e. the jumper is set to the MAME defaults)?

Thanks in advance

I am pretty sure the button layout looks like this:
1SW1  1SW2  1SW3
1SW4  1SW5  1SW6

aka:
1  2  3
4  5  6

now this corresponds to the default controls for the SF games in mame.  i have not checked whether this is how the default layout is in MK or the vs games, (not a big fighter fan).

You can wire it up as said above and then use ctrlr file to set out the mappings for the other games.  Games where you only need 1-3 buttons can be configured to use only the bottom row.