how many buttons?

[DemonBrew]

I've been doing loads of reading on this site. I think I have what I need, just want to run it by everyone:

How many pushbuttons do I need to purchase? I know I want Happs horizontal mircoswitches. I'm building a 2 player cab - 2 Omnistick Prodigy joys, 7 buttons per player. I also need Player 1 and Player 2 start buttons. Also a Coin 1 and Coin 2 button (right?) since I am not going to install a coin door. I already have the I-Pac2 board, which has built in shift functionality. I also have Ultimarc trackball and Opti-pac board. I guess I'll need 3 mouse buttons for that. No spinners. No pinball games.

How many more buttons do I need? What other features should I consider (pause, tab, etc)? What's the total number of buttons I should order?

[stevodevo]

As far as "admin" buttons go, that depends on whether or not you want dedicated buttons on your CP or if you want to use IPAC's shifted functions.

Guess that depends on you!  I have 3 admin buttons (quit-esc/menu-tab/pause-P) and use some shifted functions.  I only have 1 coin button (2 might have been better) which isn't a problem since I've found most MAME games anyway use a single coin input for multiple players.  For the 2 player coin it's just shift-1P coin!

Good luck!

ps. it doesn't hurt to order extra buttons when you make your purchase anyhow! I'm adding a trackball now so the extra buttons came in handy...

[SideShow Rob]

The size of your control panel may also influence your decision...

If you have space, the extra admin buttons will not look out of place.

If space is limited, or you want your panel to look as uncluttered as possible - make use of the IPAC's shift features.

P1 Coin + P1 'stick Down = Pause
P1 Coin + P1 'stick Up = Tilde (changes gamma/brightness/volume adjustments)
P1 Coin + P1 'stick Right = TAB
P1 Coin + P1 'Stick Left = Enter

That covers most things on my cab/control panels...

That should leave you with 7 buttons per player, 2 starts, and 2 coins...18 buttons in total.

Add your trackball buttons to suit...I use just 2 mouse buttons with the trackball on the larger control panel (left and right)...so that would be 20.

[DemonBrew]

Awesome information. It's going to be a classic pac-man cade, at least the cabinet shape and size. It'll run all kinds of MAME roms tho - fighters, classics, etc. I'll prob only use 2 mouse buttons then for trackball.

[yalborap]

The size of your control panel may also influence your decision...

If you have space, the extra admin buttons will not look out of place.

If space is limited, or you want your panel to look as uncluttered as possible - make use of the IPAC's shift features.

P1 Coin + P1 'stick Down = Pause
P1 Coin + P1 'stick Up = Tilde (changes gamma/brightness/volume adjustments)
P1 Coin + P1 'stick Right = TAB
P1 Coin + P1 'Stick Left = Enter

That covers most things on my cab/control panels...

That should leave you with 7 buttons per player, 2 starts, and 2 coins...18 buttons in total.

Add your trackball buttons to suit...I use just 2 mouse buttons with the trackball on the larger control panel (left and right)...so that would be 20.

something along these lines seems most logical to me. you might want to use the start button instead of the coin button or something, though.

[SideShow Rob]

something along these lines seems most logical to me. you might want to use the start button instead of the coin button or something, though.

Thanks for spotting todays deliberate mistake!

I did mean P1 Start, not P1 Coin.

The codes can be found here:

http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac2.html

[pointdablame]

Awesome information. It's going to be a classic pac-man cade, at least the cabinet shape and size. It'll run all kinds of MAME roms tho - fighters, classics, etc. I'll prob only use 2 mouse buttons then for trackball.

If you are building an exact replica of a pac man machine... I'm not sure you're gonna fit all those controls on the control panel.

[paigeoliver]

You don't need dedicated mouse buttons, my current cab has them, but only because the previous owner of the game had already drilled out his config in the panel and it had them. I just generally hook up the start buttons to the mouse input. Mame is the only emulator that needs start buttons, and mame can map the mouse buttons as the start button just fine, while many other emulators can't map the mouse buttons, which is why I say to use them as the start buttons rather than just as a couple buttons on the player 1 buttons bank.

Also, if you cab is a completely menu driven cab and you have no need to navigate windows with the mouse then you can just simply not hook up the mouse buttons at all.

Also, if you are really going to all that trouble to build a pac-cab then shell out $25 for a Midway coin door.

[DemonBrew]

If you are building an exact replica of a pac man machine... I'm not sure you're gonna fit all those controls on the control panel.

Well.... the control panel size (as of this moment) should be exactly the same as the original pac-man control panel. You're saying it's not physically large enough to fit 2 joys, 1 2.25" trackball and about 18 buttons? I guess I'll have to do a mock up to make sure, but I was planning on that anyway.

[pointdablame]

If you are building an exact replica of a pac man machine... I'm not sure you're gonna fit all those controls on the control panel.

Well.... the control panel size (as of this moment) should be exactly the same as the original pac-man control panel. You're saying it's not physically large enough to fit 2 joys, 1 2.25" trackball and about 18 buttons? I guess I'll have to do a mock up to make sure, but I was planning on that anyway.

Well the PacMan CP is 23" wide I think.  I'm not sure if you can physically fit them, but I just think it would be a bit cramped.  Again, I never tried to actually FIT them in that space, but it might be possible.  I'm just not sure that CP is the best suited for a 2p/trackball set up.

It's just my .02 though.  Mock something up, then you'll know.

[DemonBrew]

Some really great suggestions and information. Thanks everyone.