Button color scheme/standards?

[elfman12]

Just curious as to wether or not there is a standard for console button colors. I can't say that I've seen any patterns among cabinet builders - they seem to match the scheme of the cab more often than not.

Anyone have any direction for me on this?
Thanks!

[elfman12]

 ;DSeems to be a popular subject!   hehe

Ok, just checking to see if there's a standard - I'm just getting ready to order a bunch of buttons, so I'm checking everything ahead of time.

[Chris]

NeoGeo has a set color scheme, but that's all I can think of...

I would make each player button a different color myself; it's easier to describe the control scheme to someone when you can say "Fire is red, hyperspace is green, thrust is blue..."

About half the games have a single action button; you'll probably make this button the default Button 1 in MAME.  I chose this button to be red, to make it easier; I can tell my guests, "In most games, red is fire..."

Of course, I didn't choose my buttons; I used the buttons that came with the cabinet.  Tus, I do have two blue buttons per player, and sure enough whenever those buttons are used in a game, people get confused....

--Chris

[CthulhuLuke]

Well there's a lot of different configurations out there, on most new capcom machines it's an arrangment of red, green, and blue, and on the older machines it was an arrangment of red, white, and blue.  I say go with whatever colors suite your control panel, some of the cooler combinations I've seen are:
1-player        2-player
pp, bu, gr      yl, or, rd
pp, bu, gr      yl, or, rd

Yeah yeah, it's basically a rainbow, no gay pride jokes intended, but the gradient look gave the control panel an awesome feel.  
On my control panel I made one-player blue, and two-player red, and it turned out pretty good.  A major factor in the look though is the control panel, so if you have ilke white buttons on a black control panel, their gonna stand out, but if you have black buttons on a black background, it's gonna blend in so well they're gonna be impossible to see.  So before you buy all your parts, I suggest maybe A: drawing it out and coloring it to see what looks the best to you, or B: if you can't draw, just cut out construction paper on a cardboard box, seriously, I made all my prototypes out of cardboard, works like a charm and you can throw it away afterwards, no fuss.
    -CthulhuLuke

[Howard_Casto]

Most people build their cab primarily to play arcade games on, not consoles.  This is why you don't see any color coding for that respect.  But for the record, any game with a lot of buttons made after 1992 used the popular sf2ce red, white and blue color scheme.  

So in a 6 button layout buttons 1 and 3 are red, 2 and 4 are white, and 3 adn 6 are blue. I've seen this on everything from mk2 to wwf wrestlemania.  

Btw for obvious reasons this particular scheme is most popular in the us and the uk.  A more neogeo looking color scheme is used in japan and asian countries.

[mikenotbob]

Personally, I'd go with an ALL purple color scheme, or MOSTLY purple color scheme.  Hey... wouldn't you know, I'm trying to get rid of 10 purple buttons!  

In all seriousness, I'm thinking of changing the color of my current scheme (I dig it, but it's been 3 years already, and would like to freshen up).  I had a CP of alternating purple and black buttons:

1-player        2-player
pp, bl, pp      pp, bl, pp
bl, pp, bl       bl, pp, pp

Depending on what I do, I have 10 purples for sale, and maybe 10 blacks.  

Does anyone know where I can get the SF2-like light blue buttons, by any chance?  Happ seems to only carry the dark blues.....

-mike

[elfman12]

Most people build their cab primarily to play arcade games on, not consoles.  This is why you don't see any color coding for that respect.  But for the record, any game with a lot of buttons made after 1992 used the popular sf2ce red, white and blue color scheme.  

So in a 6 button layout buttons 1 and 3 are red, 2 and 4 are white, and 3 adn 6 are blue. I've seen this on everything from mk2 to wwf wrestlemania.

Ok, sound good. This is what I'll probably use. Or at least be sure and have 6 separate colors for each player. Doubled-up colors could be confusing.

[madk]

Be careful with the 6 seperate colors idea.  I've noticed it can made a cp look very "busy".  I personally went for all black because if helped enhance the look of my panel.  Colors really shouldn't matter...it's not like you are starring at them while playing.

-madk

[Darkstalker]

Be careful with the 6 seperate colors idea.  I've noticed it can made a cp look very "busy".  I personally went for all black because if helped enhance the look of my panel.  Colors really shouldn't matter...it's not like you are starring at them while playing.

-madk

Right...I want people staring at the CPO, not the buttons

[Brad Lee]

I think all white buttons with black stencils on them, or black lettering(similar to your standard P1/P2 start buttons) would look fantastic with a above-the-monitor mounted blacklight. Throw in a back/white marbled trackball and a spinner with the top painted b/w swirls and.. wow



For a normal setup I think alot depends on the number of buttons. For 1 or 2 per player, all the button 1s should be red, all the button 2s blue(or whatever). For the 4 or 6 button setups, the schemes in the posts above make a lot of sense

[Howard_Casto]

Be careful... that guys are right about it getting too busy. Even with an attractive cpo, it's hard to tie in 7 different colors.  On mine I ditched the white (because they get grimy after a while)  and made a red and blue.  Punch buttons are blue kick buttons are red.  And my extra neogeo button is black so that it blends into the cp, which is also black.  It turned out very well if I do say so myself.  



 

[Aqualung]

I chose to use dark blue buttons on my WIP cabinet, they will combine with the blue T-Stik and the bdlack finishing from the cabinet (black texturized Formica) , and for the rest I chose:

White for P1/P2 Start (but both marked as P1)
Yellow for coins
Red for control buttons (Esc, Enter, Tab and P)

[JoelS]

I bought half black and half yellow and exchanged the centers and the outer ring to complement the yellow SNK joysticks and the black competition joysticks.  It turned out pretty cool.   http://192.168.1.3/images/ac_ArcadeFinal.jpg
It looks much better in real life.

[Chris]

http://192.168.1.3/images/ac_ArcadeFinal.jpg

192.168.1.3 is a private address... no one on the Internet will be able to hit it...

[rampy]

http://192.168.1.3/images/ac_ArcadeFinal.jpg

192.168.1.3 is a private address... no one on the Internet will be able to hit it...

I was wondering how his picture would show up on the linux box "Moe" here at work... =P

rampy