Single Player Panel - What am I missing

[markrvp]

I finished my first cab 6 weeks ago.

[paigeoliver]

Well, you have EVERYTHING, but the layout is awful. Give me a minute or two with photoshop.

[paigeoliver]

When you are making a panel with gameplay and not looks in mind, it tends to work best if all the controls are just in a straight line. Like this.

I would also recommend the Ms. Pac/Reunion stick instead of the 4-way wico, it works really well when RIGHT NEXT to a taller 8-way like that, and it plays the Pac-games a lot better than the Wico does.

[markrvp]

Thanks Paige.  That looks very playable.  I'll see if I can get the panel drilled over the weekend.  All the panels are 27-3/8" wide by 14" tall.  That makes a CP box similar to the appearance of a MK cabinet.  The top pieces will slip into place and then pop right out.

My other panels will all have disconnects for mounting to an Ipac in the cabinet.  In another thread you mentioned hooking up interchangeable panels with Jamma Harnesses.  When you buy a "Jamma Harness" does it come with the mating connectors and both input and output wire sets or do you buy each side separately?

[paigeoliver]

You buy one Jamma harness (get the cheapest one you can find, as you won't be running voltage through it so it doesn't have to be high quality). You wire up your encoders to that.

Then you buy a Jamma fingerboard for each control panel. All the controls on that panel get wired up to the fingerboard, which plugs into the Jamma harness, which is hooked up to your encoders.

The jamma harness itself is the expensive part (like $15) the fingerboards are only about $1 each.

A full jamma harness will have 50-54 wires on it, should be more than enough for your needs.

[j123vt_99]

why do you have 2 8-ways? is it just for smash tv?

[Lilwolf]

1) consider hotswap or a modular control panels.  Whenever your having troubles fitting everything in... you might want to simplfy all of them into 3 or 4 contorl panels.  Hardest part is finding a way to unplug them all and plug in the next (usually only takes a few serial cables on ebay...)

2) I think I liked your first one better... but that will give you some room around the trackball (necessary)...  But you REALLY need to test it...

how do you do that?

buy a cheap board (partical board 4x8 is about 5 bucks) then mount everything as quickly as you can... and try it.    You don't even really need to plug the controls themself in but it can help.

what you want to look for is can you comfortably play with each control isn the way you will.

The trouble with your first one will be the spinner and the 4 way.  If you can use the spinner with your hands betwen the 2 8ways it might be fine... but the buttons might be uncomfortable... Also can you reach teh buttons you want?

same with the 4 way.  2 buttons is all I think I ever need on a 4way.

On paiges example.. you might have troubles with the spinner too close to the trackball.  The trackball you need some room so you can move pretty quick.  You don't want to wack it and swing into the spinner... You also don't want them close enought that you might touch one when using the other.  That would be bad.

But look at some modular examples and full panel swaps.  Once your done you can add things like 2 player fighter without problems.  Or if you get in the mood for 2 player smach TV... Or maybe get a deal on a defender joystick... Or maybe you want to play sinister... heck... you go out and purchase one of those lovely starwars yokes... maybe a 720 control panel pops up...

[markrvp]

The two 8-ways are for:

[unclet]

Dont forget about using two joysticks for Karate Champ as well.... I love that game.

PS:  Also, if you sue Paige's setup, then the spinner will be on the wrong side of the joystick for Tron ..... just a thought.....

[quarterback]

PS:

[markrvp]

Tron's the only game I use a spinner with my left hand.  Tempest and driving games I use my right.  I won't use this panel for Tron as I'm not mounting a triggerstick.  I will make a separate Tron panel.  Based on this, my first layout had the spinner all wrong.  Paige's placement is better for Tempest. 

I like the "idea" of modular control panels more than actually having to change them out.  My first preference would be to have a spinning panel like 1up, but I just don't think I could build one without good plans.  I would make the three panels exactly like Frosty has his.  I would then make a "satellite" rolling cabinet that would accept the bulkier controls like steering wheels and positional guns which you could roll out of the way during normal play.

I want to do too much 

[quarterback]

Tron's the only game I use a spinner with my left hand.

[NoOne=NBA=]

FYI, Assault and Karate Champ both NEED 4-way sticks to function properly.

And spinner side is a personal preference.
Tempest and Major Havoc were the only two games that had it on the right in the arcade, and I never liked it there.

All the other games I played had it on the left (Star Trek, Blasteroids, Tron, DOT, Omega Race, etc...)
Also, driving games would be really weird to me with the "wheel" in my right hand.

[paigeoliver]

Spinner on left will seem weird to a lot of people, since most of us grew up using those Atari paddles in their right hand.

[monkeybomb]

Consider the topfire prodigy.  It's the perfect stik for tron.  It's a 4 way, it's your second 8 way.  then you would only need 2 stiks total.

[markrvp]

I really like the look of the Top Fire prodigy.  How does it do for firing in games like Robotron & Smash TV which usually like the round joystick restrictor?

[monkeybomb]

It feels weired at first.  But more because you have one kind of joystick in one hand and a different one in the other.  I never played much robotron or smash TV before MAME so I don't have a problem with the restrictor but if you remember a very specific feel this might not be it.  The omnisticks aren't smooth like supers but there also not at all a pure square like the competitions either.  Hope that helps some.

[paigeoliver]

Also, in the layout I drew, it looks like the spinner is 1/4" away from the trackball, but in reality once you take the large footprint of both items into account they end up being a good distance apart.