# of buttons needed

[Flinkly]

hey y'all,

i was wondering what might be the required # of buttons one would have to put on a four player control panel.  i know eight is as many as you need for first and second player, but should third and fourth player have 4 or eight?

i've seen people do it both ways, but what games (if any) use more than four buttons for third and forth player?

thanks for the help.

[DougHillman]

If you'd done a search (or possibly even looked in the stick FAQ posts here) you'd have seen that this topic has been repeatedly addressed.

Despite that, the answer is: it depends on what you need out of your cabinet.  Technically for MAME, P1 & 2 don't need more than 6 buttons.  Many people put 7, using 2 buttons to send the same input so that they can have a 4 horizontal button layout for NEO Geo games over the top of a 3 button row which will give the 6 buttons needed for Street Fighter games.

xxxx
xxx

P3 & 4 don't need more than 4 buttons.


Unless you're gonna play 4-player SNES & other later emulators.  If so, P3 & 4 may need more buttons.

 

[Jakobud]

16 buttons for each player should be good enough.

[DrewKaree]

16 buttons for each player should be good enough.

You're forgetting the CTRL, ESC, ENTER, F13, ANY, SCRN CAP, and WAKE buttons....quite common that you forgot them, but that'll push your totals up a bit from 16.  Oh, and if you want flipper buttons, add 5 to THAT total.