My CP - Latest Edition.

[DreamWeb]

Hey Folks!

Here's a pic of my latest CP design.

My main questions are as follows.

I'm concerned about the placement of the Vortex V2 spinner.  Right now it's been placed on top of Player 2's buttons.  Do you think this is ideal?  I really don't want it getting in the way of my main controls... but, I still want it to be easily usable when I want to play the occasional game of Arkanoid

Also..  My trackball is only about 5.6" from the top of the CP.  I know this isn't ideal for Golden Tee (which I definitely want to play)... but, I just couldn't justify moving it back further (and thus extending the CP).  Do you think this will still allow me to play Golf (and other games) comfortably?

Finally... Can I use an Oscar Spinner (Usb Hack) and a 3" trackball (PS/2) at the same time in WINXP?  I suspect that they'll both be detected as mice..  Will this pose a conflict?

Thanks everyone!

[Witchboard]

Also..

[tommy]

They probably chose that centipede witchboard , because the track ball was there and already working ,as it had a trackball for centipede ,and a golf game they probably thought would make more money on a route , just 2cents for you

[Flinkly]

just a question since i've never played an arcade golf game, but how much space between the middle of the trackball and the bottom of the monitor is ideal?  i've only got mine 3-4 inches back, but is it really that bad?

[DreamWeb]

Crap.  I was hoping that it would be enough room.  Looks like I'll HAVE to extend it.  I read in another post (just recently) that the minimum you want is 8 inches...  a foot would be ideal.

[Witchboard]

They probably chose that centipede witchboard , because the track ball was there and already working

NO WAY!  Centipede used a trackball? 

The thing about a golf game is you roll the ball forward to swing and a lot of people like to "follow through" when rolling the trackball.

[DreamWeb]

ok, thanks guys.  I'll extend it.

Is there a problem using a PS/2 trackball and a USB Spinner in WinXP?

[tommy]

 

[SadGamerGeek]

This thread is really useful for me!

I'm about to build my first ever cab. I wanted pretty much the CP from the BYOAM book, but without the 4 way joystick, and it looks like that is pretty much what DreamWeb is doing (minus some side buttons).

As we tend to have a little less free space in our houses in the UK (I do anyway!) I wanted to shrink the cab design from the book re. the width and depth, with the goal of being just big enough to fit my 21" PC monitor. This means I also wanted to decrease the width of the CP from the 34" that the book plans use. I am heartened to see the above design looks like just the sort of width I was hoping to achieve.

I must admit, very few of the games I play use a trackball, but I felt I had to have one for completeness. I too was hoping to get away with a less-than-ideal amount of space behind the trackball. Also, I was contemplating having the mouse buttons to one side of the trackball, as I wasn't sure if the "trackball hand" would get in the way of the buttons when placed behind it. What are people's thoughts?


Cheers,

Richard

[DanteBK]

About the spinner - I put my spinner a couple inches to the left of yours so it lined up vertically with the free space between Player 2 joystick and Player 2 buttons. When I play Arkanoid or whatever I can rest my wrist there easily without bumping anything, and that's what I'd recommend.

I'm not sure about the clash between Spinner and Trackball that you're asking about. I'm using an Opti-PAC for my cab and it only allows one of those two inputs to talk to the computer at a time, for example: you use the trackball as a mouse to load Arkanoid, you have to wait 5-10 seconds without touching the trackball before you can use the spinner, then while you're using the spinner, the trackball will be disconnected. I hope that made sense.

One more thing: I see you have a button on front of your CP --- IF you plan on using that as a plunger in pinball games, may I recommend putting it closer to the right? In the heat of a game like Star Wars, where you have to press the plunger to shoot things WHILE still keeping the ball in play, it's nice to be able to hit it with your thumb without moving your hand from the flippers.